Media Frenzy

In today’s day and age when communications and internet access is so readily available you have to wonder.  When are  things are going to stabilize, and come under control in the communications arena.

On January 9, 2011 a shooting in AZ that would injure  Rep.Gabrielle Giffords. Has now to go in history as the biggest screw up for news agencies in this country. When everyone is wondering about privacy, and political correctness, and the feelings of others. This has to be the forefront of everything that we stand against, or at least we did as a Nation once.

First, to see that every news agency trying to be the first to break the news, reported information that was incorrect, and without any foundation. There was no truth, no certainty in their words. IT simply was an attempt to be the first to say something. What ever happen to the times of news folks like Walter Cronkite, who had to know that what he was reporting was the facts.

Second, there was no concern for family member who might not have been present, or even know about the where abouts,  of their loved ones. Imagine for a second  the horror of finding out that your parents, or any other loved one has died, only because you heard it on the news, or saw it on the internet.  In a day when we have so many people walking around the country, and this world in a severe state of depression. Should we not look to finding the solutions, instead of creating or even adding to these problems.

As a retired NYC Medic I sat and wondered as the news played on, that day. A shot to the head, yet no could say where it hit, to declare her dead. Then there is the rule that no one dies in an ambulance. Those life-sustaining vehicles, if she was transported, she was never declared dead. So who made the call? That everyone else followed.

In this day and time, I think it is fair time to get control of the abuse of the “freedom of the press” and ensure that the “accuracy of news”  goes back to be what it was. A report of the facts as they were, not because they help out one person or the next.

Let’s get control of this madness.