Comments on: Helicopters, news gathering and lives lost

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:10:59 +0000

Agree that the post was well stated. The helicopters should never have been there — period. I’m surprised these types of accidents don’t happen more often — a byproduct of providing TV news via police scanner traffic.

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:10:42 +0000

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:46:50 +0000

excellent post. well stated.

P.S. It’s utterly ridiculous that anybody even suggest charging the carjacker with anything related to the helicopter crash. If I see a celebrity on the streets and decide to follow him around, and then I get struck by a car while following him, does the celebrity get blamed for the accident that he wasn’t involved with, just for being interesting?

By: Brad Linder

Brad Linder — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:57:47 +0000

Journalists have died uncovering unpopular truths in countries like Russia. Journalists have died while covering wars. But there’s absolutely no reason these four people should have had to die to bring viewers footage of a car chase.

Risking your life to uncover the truth is one thing. Dying so that you could photograph yet another image of a guy being chased by police?

I hope this event causes station managers and news directors to think long and hard about how they use their resources to bring people “news.”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:38:51 +0000

And just for clarity, this was a SLOW-SPEED CHASE. With FIVE HELICOPTERS. I find it really hard to understand this Phoenix anchor’s perspective that the guy in the car is to blame.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:33:47 +0000

Local news outlets’ mania for covering car chases is what’s responsible for this, not the guy in the car.

By: John Proffitt

John Proffitt — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:18:49 +0000

Bingo.