Offensive News Footage

Over the past 6 months I’ve been treated to video footage of a beating, a shooting at a Home Depot Parking lot, and the running over of a mother and her three children by an automobile, all courtesy of my local news. Local news. None of these things happened locally. Not a single one. None of them involved anyone who was from the Atlanta area. The only reason these events were aired on the local news was the fact that the events were captured on tape and made available to the station.

This angers me.

I’m angry because someone has made an editorial decision that these gruesome documents are deemed newsworthy. I’m angry because these are tragic events that involve real people, and their tragedy is being trivialized and treated almost as entertainment. I’m angry that real violence and accidental mayhem are now routinely broadcasted into millions of homes. I’m not only angry at the fact that these stories which have absolutely no local relevance whatsoever are being piped into peoples’ homes, but I’m also angry at what isn’t being presented to all of us in lieu of these gruesome videos. I’m angry that the government has ordered the MSM to avoid showing the images of our soldiers coming home in caskets, and this order is being obeyed by our so-called free press. The same MSM has no issues with broadcasting video footage of a mother and her children being run over by a car and judge such footage as perfectly acceptable for my family and me to watch over breakfast.

This also disappoints me.

I’m disappointed because people apparently inured to these images. I’m disappointed because people expect these images and accept them. I’m disappointed because there obviously isn’t an outcry from the public over the airing of such footage.

This stands in stark contrast to airing of Janet Jackson’s nipple-clamp adorned teat.

Remember that? Janet Jackson's teat caused such an intense uproar you’d a thought that they aired a tape of a bunch of punk kids mercilessly beating a homeless man with baseball bats for fun. There were editorials. There were apologies. There were conversations in the office about it. I was in London when it happened. Their news coverage of this event was hilarious. The people there were baffled and amused at the level of hysteria that had been aroused by 3 or 4 seconds of Janet Jackson’s unattractive 40 year-old nipple-clamped teat. In England, they think naked men running around a football field kicking a soccer ball with their flaccid penises bouncing around is acceptable comedic entertainment. On free television no less. When they visit America, they can’t understand why words like “shit” or “asshole” are routinely "bleeped" from televised movies, why an attractive lady’s bare breasts are considered offensive and censored, but Arnold shooting up 200 people in one movie is not?

Personally, I’m with The English on that one.