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[ NNSquad ] Censorship vs. Responsibility - As the Web Exploits a Violent Suicide
Censorship vs. Responsibility
- As the Web Exploits a Violent Suicide
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000991.html
Of late I've written much about two concepts, censorship and
freedom -- specifically freedom of speech -- and especially
in relation to the Mideast and a particular anti-Islamic video
( http://j.mp/OVCOjS ).
Events today force me to add two more concepts to this list --
responsibility and hypocrisy. And while today's associated news is
utterly unrelated to the Mideast, it is very much relevant to what
we've been recently discussing.
This afternoon, FOX News was indulging in what has become a standard
eyeball-grabbing fare, a live helicopter chase of a prolonged,
high-speed police pursuit.
Though it's well understood that the unspoken motive in these displays
is the hope for some sort of dramatic ending, when the driver actually
stopped and emerged from his vehicle, FOX (we learned in their
after-the-fact on-air apology) inserted a five-second feed delay into
their broadcast, presumably so that anything especially gruesome could
be prevented from airing.
They failed miserably.
Apparently sensing what was about to occur, the panicked FOX anchor
yelled repeatedly for his control room to break away, but fascinated
as they were with what was transpiring, control was asleep at the
switch, and well over a million viewers were treated to watching a man
blow his brains out in full color on their big screen TVs.
FOX afterwards apologized profusely -- and I believe sincerely --
admitting that they had blown it big time.
Apology accepted.
But this actually is only the beginning of the story.
In the hours following this drama, sites around the Web lit up with
predictable condemnations of FOX News for showing the death, and more
generally for airing the chase in the first place.
Criticizing FOX News is like (no pun intended) shooting fish in a
barrel -- and it's usually very well deserved by FOX. And
condemnation of TV's fascination with high speed chases is practically
a meme unto itself.
But a remarkable thing happened on some of the major Web sites
engaging in this orgy of FOX bashing. Even while on one hand they
loudly noted FOX News' faults in exquisite detail, many of these sites
also posted and promoted the explicit video footage that they
condemned FOX for airing in the first place.
The hypocrisy inherent in this situation seems not to have been
entirely lost on these sites' editors. In some cases they've now
released long-winded explanations and excuses of why "after much
internal soul-searching," they've decided to publish the video --
after all "it's news," they claim, "it's educational."
Yet it's clear enough what's actually going on. Anyone who happened
to capture that FOX footage could upload it to YouTube or various
other venues, but when major Web sites engage in such behavior we know
it's all about the eyeballs and the clicks.
Their claims of diligent deliberations ring as hollow as the
faux-discussions in the satirical 1976 film "Network," where TV
executives argue the ethics of killing off an erratic news anchor,
live on air.
It's as if one spent years arguing against bullfighting, and then
published and monetized the last few recorded moments of a hideous,
bloody encounter in the bullring.
Unfortunately, the collateral damage of such behavior by major Web
sites may go far beyond hypocrisy.
By behaving in what is essentially a duplicitous manner, by not
showing even a modicum of self-control, they provide ready ammunition
to those forces arguing for government-imposed crackdowns on Internet
content and the horrendously ill-conceived calls for censorship that
are part and parcel of these forces' sensibilities.
And while we know that Internet censorship cannot ever be entirely
successful, it can certainly cause a lot of people a great deal of
grief, even landing some in shackles and cells.
You'd be hard pressed, I believe, to find many persons more dedicated
to Internet freedom of speech than I am, but freedom of speech does
not mean freedom from responsibility -- it does not mean carte blanche
dispensation to exploit tragedy and wallow in false editorial
self-righteousness while simultaneously counting the ad clicks.
Perhaps there's another old, oft-forgotten concept that needs to be
appended onto the list, along with responsibility, besides hypocrisy.
That concept is shame. For if some of these sites looked at
themselves honestly, at how they've behaved in this case and what the
possible negative impacts of their behavior could be, they should be
thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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