Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Uvalde Tragedy Spreads in Media Scoop Hubris

OLI Snippets

(from my short posts on social media)

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The Austin American-Statesman newspaper represents an unrepentant swagger I've so frequently derided among our American media.

Posting the video from Uvalde's school tragedy so soon, before victims' families could see its footage privately if they wished, was utterly unnecessary.  Yet it's typical of the smug, elitist diminution of propriety that mainstream media outlets increasingly foist across our technology-infused information landscape.

Their editors posted a pompous rationale for publishing that video, yet they ignore the grief so many Texans are experiencing by their actions.  It's not the fact that they posted the video, it's their timing.  But no, they had to "break the story" first.  They didn't care who got hurt in the process.  They scored a scoop, and in their minds, that's what counts.

There weren't even any crucial new facts revealed in the video - nothing the public at large needs to know to protect ourselves.  It's mostly salacious voyeurism at this point, so who among us needs to see it so soon?  The fact that their editors, as proven by their hollow rhetoric in defending their decision, don't see their own faults helps explain why the American public continues to rate journalism as one of the least-trustworthy professions in the country.

As for myself, I've seen clips from the video as they've been replayed on televised news accounts, but I have zero interest in looking at any more of it.  Uvalde's school massacre was a tragedy when it happened, and things have continued to devolve from there.  Such misery all the way around.

May God have mercy on the families of Uvalde's victims - the Austin American-Statesman sure didn't.