Terrible reporting in New Orleans
I was watching Fox news last night and saw some of the worst reporting I have seen in years. The offending reporter was Shepard Smith, a guy that I normally tolerate, and I think he is lucky to be alive at this point.
Shepard was standing on a Interstate ramp shoving a mic into people’s faces as they came out of the water. He stood idly by as people unloaded the sick, and the tried. He just watched as the exhausted survivors unload the sick, the aged and the hurting from small boats and rafts, or they themselves walked out.
I understand the role of reporter is to tell us about what they - the reporter - are seeing or waht they saw, but the reporter can and should be compassionate enough to help the people they are reporting about. They should also respect the hurting enough to give them a bit of time to recover from their trial (walking some distance in waist to shoulder depth water with only the clothes on their back and all that they own left behind in a home that they may never see again) before asking them to tell their story. Five or ten minutes is not going to hurt the story, and the camera can record the events without the reporter trying to get audio. How much more powerful would the story be if we saw the reporter actually setting down the mic and chipping in.
I am still extremely surprised that someone did not hit or threaten Mr. Smith, and from the eyes of some I think they were close to hitting him at times. The frustration was obvious from what I saw.
Long and short I expect more from people then selfish, ratings driven reporting when they are surrounded by their fellow citizens. Apparently fair and balanced does not include compassion and caring.
BOOO FOX NEWS !!!
BOOO SHEPARD SMITH !!!
[...] One day they are goofy for doing interviews / reporting from chest deep water and the next day they are paddling around in 3” of water in a canoe talking about flooding. They are not helping their case. This is the same thing we were talking about when we noted how Shephard Smith covered the New Orleans flood (post here) – shoving a mic in peoples face as they came out of the water. [...]
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