Feb 20, 2014

This box of produce was sitting in the middle of the street in Little Italy in Boston.  We never figured out why.




Mom makes emotional 911 call after baby is kidnapped!

That is the actual headline for an actual news story.  Accompanying the headline and story, was the audio of the call.

When did making 911 calls available to the public get started?  I know it has been around a while, but why is it news?  I don't want to hear people at the most awful moments of their lives. 

That sentiment extends to past human tragedies like the Holocaust and the NYC terrorist attacks, too.  I avoid movies or books that trade on the great atrocities. 

Walks down the aisle of the museum of man's inhumanity to man is not for me.

 

 

3 comments:

M said...

I felt that way a lot about the Titanic movie. It was like, let's make a romantic, entertaining movie to the tune of this tremendous real life tragedy. During the director's acceptance speech, for a crazy moment there, I half expected him to thank all the people who died in real life for providing him with such a great story. Thankfully, he merely asked the audience to join him in a minute of silence in their memory. And then totally chickened out on bringing the mood down and the show to a halt like that, and inelegantly called it off about 6 seconds in. Oh dear.

The Bug said...

I feel the same way, but on the other hand I love to hear stories of people who overcome adversity...

Steve Reed said...

What a silly headline.

I think 911 calls should be available to the public, but this is where editors used to come in -- they would decide what information was meaningful to give to readers/viewers/listeners and what was unnecessary and/or merely lurid. Nowadays pretty much everything makes it onto the news. You can make the argument that it's better that way -- after all, who is an editor to tell ME what to watch/listen to? But personally I think they served an important function. (Having once been one myself, I'm a bit biased. :) )