Normally suicide photos are not published but there have been many ways to get around it. And it sucks .
If the person is being heroically rescued , then it is technically not a suicide .The person committing the suicidal act is “saved” , but is now on the front page of the newspaper and on television news . The rescuers are heros and the person is still in a questionable mental state . May be worse .
We hope the person has been given a second chance . We justify .Could the second chance be more meaningful if it was not on the news . Publishing an attempt in my mind is very questionable news judgement .
I do not believe in many rules , but this is one I cling to .
The term “suspicious” death is also very suspicious. We in media we look for reasons to print . We look for someone to say it is ok. The police will not say they know why someone did this until they know for sure. Suspicious is a way of saying ,they do not know. We take this to mean there may be foul play. Therefore this is news .
Also another reason not to publish . Suspicious death has been used in cases of crib death in infants , or an elderly persons falling , hurting their head then being found dead on the couch at home by a loved one . The media is in a rush to use the content but the family has to live with the question of suspicious death . Could be foul play . Police , and media are surrounding the house , their neigbors are hapless witnesses and are interviewed . Did they ever fight, someone might ask . For the rest of their lives there is this doubt , no matter if the next day other information is learned . Suspicious death is not a reason to publish alone.
Suicide is the ultimate sadness . Death or saved , this is no reason to publish .
The news process has two steps , a photo has to be taken , and someone else decides to publish . The photographer executes the first part and sees the reality. We live with what we see. In course of a lifetime of news photography we live by the sword and try to see a positive .
Media has soulless practices , we are present for may unhappy things and we react in an automatic , sometimes autistic way . More so with fast web reporting. People have souls , the business does not.
Yes a body without a soul is offensive , a shape of a soulless body is just as sad.
WE have to hope we can all live with the pictures we take , David says, “after all I have witnessed.” Damn straight .
But if we decided to allow a soul , the caption to the photo would simply read David Bloom's words .
“If a photo can make me feel that, after all I have witnessed while doing this job, then I have to hope that it can maybe, somehow, do some good. Maybe it can make someone reach out to someone in need, or maybe it can just make someone feel like they aren't the only one who feels this way, or maybe just wake people up to how fragile we all are and how mental health should be taken more seriously. Or, maybe it can't do any of that. But I hope." Said photographer David Bloom . This would be one hell of a caption , it might even save this sad business .
Topic: Really is it that offensive? (Read 1365 times)