On Tue, Jan 30, 2001 at 06:53:38AM -0500, ClassicVW@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I certainly don't think there's a need to
> hear every last word of Ms. McAuliffe's, but I don't want the fact that those
> words or actions may or do exist to be kept from the public.
They haven't been kept from the public. It's been publicly known for years
that the crew survived the breakup of the orbiter and were killed by impact
with the ocean. The disagreement is over reporting what the crew did and
said during those last seconds of life. I don't see that those words and
actions, whatever they may have been, shed any light whatsoever on the fact
- also publicly known for years - that the launch should have never
happened, and that the people with the technical knowledge that recommended
that the maunch not happen were overruled by managers for political reasons.
Your comments about NASA, while offensive in tone to me (as a former NASA
contractor at the Johnson Space Center), are part of the public debate - but
the question has already been settled, for better or worse.
> I know this thread may be wearing on some, this is the last I'll post unless
> it's a response to someone, but there IS some OM-relevance here, for don't we
> all, as photographers, benefit from an open, free press? We could logically
> surmise that it would be a couple of small jumps from- "No photos of accident
> scenes" to, like in some countries- "No photos of government buildings" then
> what? "Apply here for your official photographer's permit?"
The fastest way to lose this freedom, however, is to succumb to the
temptation to pander to the demonstrated public desire for sensationalism.
The way to grease that slippery slope is get more and more excessive in the
images shown, which in turn will fuel a public backlash.
The answer is responsibility...which the media seem to have forgotten even
exists as a concept. We, as photographers, have a duty to not only our
viewers, but our subjects as well. What is gained by showing the face of an
injured accident victim, or a crying mother looking at her baby on an
ambulance stretcher? This is the photographic equivalent of asking that same
mother "How do you feel right now?" DAMMIT, HOW IS SHE SUPPOSED TO FEEL??!!
As you might guess, I feel pretty strongly over this issue. I'm not going to
apologize for it, either; I spent too many years of my life working to help
people in those situations, as a volunteer, to accept that the media has a
larger duty to hurt them worse in the name of "freedom of the press".
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