Cher Phillips
Views on online media and journalismArchive for ethics
Photographer tackles suspect: what would you do?
I know this is revisiting the ethics issue, but I saw this video on CNN.com this morning about a Maine photojournalist Russ Dillingham, who jumped into an assignment and tackled a man running from the police.
John Roberts mentions a Maine state statute that says citizens are required to oblige if police order them to assist in catching or keeping a suspect from escaping. Interestingly enough, the photographer said he wasn’t aware of that law but was cognizant of his ethical responsibility to not become involved in something he’s reporting on.
I also thought it was interesting that the suspect later contacted the photographer wanting to know why Dillingham helped the police catch him. The suspect told the photographer he would have fought him off if he’d known he wasn’t a cop and wouldn’t have faced charges of assaulting an officer.
Check out the video. What would you do in his shoes?
Online images: the other option for graphic images
I’d be interested if this thought occurred to anyone else when they were doing the reading this week.
I was reading about the selection process and graphic photos, specifically the suicide of R. Budd Dwyer that the editors around the country choose not to run. My initial thought was this: “Oh well, I’ll just Google them on the Internet.”
Maybe it’s me, but I always tend to want to run the more graphic picture. I don’t think it’s because I am grotesque. I just like the idea of getting it all out there for people. I like knowing more, understanding as much as I can about a story. So, I tend think other people want that, too.
Does anyone remember when the Mohammad cartoons that were inciting riots around the world? I followed this closely and was grateful for the sources who put that information out there online so I could find it, see it and know more about the source of all the angry reactions in the world.
I kind of feel this way about a number of images.
I guess I have to wonder if maybe this isn’t part of the role of bloggers and others online, to tell what the newspapers won’t tell to keep from upsetting their readership? Kind of like Sanam’s friend, Arash, who gets images out there that would otherwise be lost to the world.
Thoughts?
