I can hardly believe my eyes.
As if the images and stories coming out of Haiti aren’t horrific enough, now some journalists working there are getting dinged for trying to help the victims.
CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been both treating the injured and reporting on the medical conditions in Haiti following the earthquake. Anderson Cooper, also with CNN, recently abandoned his report on looting in Haiti to aide a young boy who had been hit in the head by a flying rock and move him to safer ground.
Journalism purists hold that reporters who get involved in the action become part of the story and lose their objectivity.
Perhaps that would matter more if these journalists were reporting from a war zone, where getting involved means taking sides in a civil dispute. In Haiti, it’s the people versus the elements. Anyone standing idly by — reporter, doctor, teacher, minister — who does not come to the aide of someone in need in this increasingly desperate fight for survival, to me, is without conscience.
Gupta and Cooper are setting the example by putting people first and headlines second. They should be applauded, not found suspect.
The reporters creating headlines based on these men’s behavior? Perhaps they should examine their motives.
Read up on Kevin Carter, photo journalist who won Pulitzer for a photo of a starving African child. While his photo brought the world’s attention to the situation, he was criticized for shooting the photo rather than helping. This and his self destructive lifestyle brought his suicide.
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm
Well said, Carla!!
Great post. I’ve often thought, after seeing particularly wrenching photos of suffering people, if the photographer put his/her camera down afterward and did anything to help. Or, did they just walk away after taking the shot? Yes, these horrible events have to be chronicled to get the world’s attention, but I don’t think that absolves anyone of helping another human being in need.