Friday, August 3, 2007

Tragedies

News coverage becomes less controversial when our nation experiences a tragedy. As viewers, readers or listeners, we become hungry for details and focus less on a reporter's perceived bias, but instead, what we can learn about the breaking news incident.

In the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the Phoenix helicopter crashes, did your mind rush to think of everyone you know in Minnesota and Arizona? In our newsroom, we all asked each other if we knew the photographers who died when the two news choppers collided. Broadcasting is a small fraternity, where friends move often from market to market.

When news becomes personal, the what, when, where, why and how fade away, and it's all about the who. I encourage my colleagues in the press to remember that when they cover the tragedies of others. And for those of you who like sensational/entertainment/tabloid-style news better than more factual coverage, stop and think about how you'd like to be on the camera end of those reports.

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