Great television, bad journalism: Media failures in Haiti coverage by Robert Jensen
Amplify’d from www.utexas.edu
CNN’s star anchor Anderson Cooper narrates a chaotic street scene in Port-au-Prince. A boy is struck in the head by a rock thrown by a looter from a roof. Cooper helps him to the side of the road, and then realizes the boy is disoriented and unable to get away. Laying down his digital camera (but still being filmed by another CNN camera), Cooper picks up the boy and lifts him over a barricade to safety, we hope.
This is great television, but it’s not great journalism. In fact, it’s irresponsible journalism.
