A young man died yesterday after hours of excruciating pain. He and his friends accidentally wandered into a mine field in the north of Israel. A mine explosion got his leg blown up, bleeding for hours on the ground. Finally, the rescue helicopter that had come to — well, rescue him — didn’t tie his stretcher properly and he fell from a great height and died instantly.
His family and friends hasn’t had time to absorb the news. Some of them were probably not even yet notified of his fate. And the man hasn’t been buried yet! But both Channel 10 News and Channel 1 chose to broadcast the video footage in which the man is seen suffering, and then dying — all of it was captured by the camera, making a true snuff film. In addition to the extremely insensitive decision to broadcast the footage, viewers were not warned in advance that they are about to watch a real man dying… A real man who died just an hour or two ago.
Is it because the dead man was an Israeli-Arab that it’s OK to turn his death into a cheap entertainment spectacle?
I am deeply ashamed of both Channel 10 and Channel 1 for their actions and decisions last night, and I expect them to make a sincere apology and to take measures that would prevent such a thing from happening again.
P.S.
Apparently Channel 2 News has added the video footage to its Mako web site. I think this too is extremely inappropriate.
March 13, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I agree one hundred percent. I saw it on Channel 10 and even the anchors needed a minute to digest what they just showed. It was in poor taste and invasive of the victim’s family.