I had been all annoyed that the West Coast had a 3 hour delay in being able to see the Olympics. That the areas outside of the time zone where it's being held could see it on TV before us.
And then...this.
After bursting into tears last night, after seeing the man just...just lying there, not moving *at all*, I decided that I was glad it was delayed and that I had glimpsed the first post of this thread, and that I could make sure to pause the DVR and send DS into his room.
I had seen the picture earlier of him being given artificial respiration, but it did not impact me *at all* like the video, and then of seeing him just lying there.
We *talked* about what happened with DS, but we did NOT show it to him.
...we trust that a program that is on TV @ 6:30 pm and marketed as a family show will not show such images.
Just really quickly...for you in TX it was on at 6:30, but for the east and west coasts it was 7:30 (not sure about the other time zone's broadcast time!). So that's getting a bit further into the evening, and a bit further away from family TV time.
That said, it was a big special event, and we let our 5 year old stay up to see it, and I'm sure that many many other parents did the same.
I saw my friend get killed by a drunk driver, it was all over the news, images of her, pictures of the accident for days. It didn't bother me though, because it was a fact of life. Sure it was emotional, but it also reminds us we are human, we are not invincible. If it opens one persons eyes to the risk or in good news, reward, then it has done all it can.
I've seen some horrific videos on TV and online, I'll never get the images out of my head, but nor do I want to. Its not because I like to see these thing, but it makes life all more real. I don't want to pretend I live in a bubble of all but good things.
You and I have very different views on this. Most definitely.
I think its important to point out that they are NOT showing this man's death. They are showing the accident which led to his death. He died in the trauma center he was taken to following the accident. For some that may not matter but many people seem to hung up on the idea that they are showing an actual death- they are not.
Only the emergency responders and the doctors would really know this, and I'm not sure that they would say anything but that. It also might be a situation where an MD has to be the one to pronounce death, so it's only official once he got to the hospital.
I saw how still he was. If he hadn't yet died, he certainly wasn't conscious, and the two ways I can think of that were the causes of death would likely cause pretty fast deaths.
The facts as reported are that lifesaving efforts continued after he arrived at the trauma center and those facts were being repeatedly misrepresented in the discussion in this thread.
Yes, well, emergency personnel were doing chest compressions on my mom as they took her from her home and got her to the hospital, but the FACT was, she had pretty much lost all of her blood by the time they got there (the EMTs got to her house, that is). She wasn't coming back, but they weren't going to stop "trying", or looking like they were trying, until they handed her over to the MDs.
Just doing things to a person doesn't mean they are still alive.
Oh, yes they certainly did, they showed many images of people jumping out of the buildings from 40 or 50 stories, and more then once.
FWIW, I saw NONE of those images. I heard that some news shows did, but it seems the WA networks opted out of that.
They showed it not once, but a couple times. No warning at all.
And just give my perspective of this...
The anchor gave ONE warning, while he was still standing there overlooking the Chevron station on the water there. And then he talked for a bit, then some other things were shown. And THEN the tape was shown. And then there was more talking. Other clips were shown of the other accidents. More talking. Then they showed it at least 2 other times.
The ONE warning, probably 20-30 minutes before they finished showing those clips, was NOT enough. They should have warned about it directly before showing it, EACH and EVERY time.
NBC mentioned, in their sad explanation of why they were delaying it for the pacific time zone, the "time shift" caused by DVRing. They KNOW that people aren't necessarily tuning in right at the start. That they might be sending it forward and not hearing everything. They KNOW this. Therefore, they need to change what they do because of this.
As I type, we're watching tonight's broadcast (on their delay, and on DVR), and they just announced that they'll not show the images again during the games, just like someone mentioned earlier. And that's good, but hopefully they will realize, for the future, that they need to make these warnings not just in a "well we did our legal right thing", but as a TRUE way so that we can protect ourselves from those images.
That said... while the accident made me cringe...it was the stillness afterwards that got to me...none of the warnings stopped me from watching. But I was glad for the thread, and glad I saw the one tiny "warning", so I could get my son out of the room.
My mom protected me and my brother from images of the Vietnam War, and I'm glad she did...I do the same for my son with current wars, and from images like those we've seen of the luger.
) accident. My heart breaks for his family and friends who are subjected to this over and over. And yes they could change the channel, but they shouldn't have to. There are moments in our lives that shouldn't become public entertainment (not in the amusement sense), and this is one of them.
