Re: Gory TV coverage

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@erols.com>]

Dan writes:  >I find it interesting that people get so upset about live,
real violence on
>TV, but prime time TV is full of simulated, fake violence every night.

I watched a very bloody, violent edition of "Homocide: Life on the Street"
last night where a prisoner in the station house grabs a loaded service
weapon from a drawer and within about1 minute, (slo-mo, of course) takes out
three uniformed cops and 2 detectives before becoming more porous than a
sponge, himself.  As great a show "Homocide" is, there will be no time spent
showing grieving spouses, fatherless children, best friends, first
Christmases, birthdays of those dead cop (characters).   I contend that it
is that typical TV approach to death, sans true human consequences, that is
the problem with violent TV, not the act, itself.

As for live TV coverage of suicides, car chases, robberies on film, etc.,
the best we can say is that the follow-up, the human factor, _is_ delivered
in subsequent stories.  And the reax itself is the story.

Bill O'Neill

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