You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
A 30 second video.
I shot the imagery on the interstate.
“Watch out,” I say to my photog as I see cars locking their brakes and skidding to a stop on Briley Parkway.
I can see fire engines, ambulances, and police cars up ahead.
I pull out my trusty iphone and lower the window.
My boss calls it “Snack-able” video.
It is little snippets of video perfectly designed for the internet where the real money for hits and views is being waged.
I hold the camera out the window. I point it forward. I can’t focus, I can’t zoom, I can only point and shoot at the scene as I drive by.
Iphone technology is amazing. The picture high def beautiful. I really don’t need to do more than point and shoot.
When it comes to ENG? (Electronic News Gathering) “You’ve come a long way baby!”
The scene is calm, seemingly under control. I see a patient on a stretcher being assisted by emergency personnel.
There doesn’t appear to be a rush. It seems like another accident. Other cars are pulled to the side, motorists out talking to the police.
Within 5 minutes I have loaded the raw video to my facebook page.
News men of the new millennium must be equipped and ready to gather and post video immediately.
I have done so, as required by the news regime that counts views as much as beans.
I don’t give it another thought.
“People love accident footage,” I tell my photographer notating that several hundred people have all ready viewed the 30 second clip.
Within an hour, an anonymous person writes: What if you just freaked out a family member that hasn’t been notified yet? Seems a little over-zealous and irresponsible to me.
I read his message and wonder how much time people have to hide in the darkness and write whatever flits into their brains.
But I also understand this new medium is designed for instant feedback on both ends.
Criticism and critique is part of the new world order.
I understand his statement, but I also know that my job is to gather news. I want to tell him that this is what I do.
“I don’t know what you do for a living sir, but my job is to penetrate the inner sanctum of an event and report it in some form or fashion.”
I don’t say this.
“News is instantaneous and immediate,” I feel like saying. “You are asking me to sanitize this simplistic, 30 second drive by video, this snackable moment. You want me to unilaterally decide whether it should be put on line simply because someone somewhere might be “freaked out”
I feel like saying that too. But I don’t.
“Who the hell are you to tell me anything anonymous man in the facebook shadow? You are you to tell me to censor anything? Reality is reality. News is News. Shit happens.”
I want to say that too. Again, I erase my true thoughts knowing that people get fired today for what they publish on facebook and twitter.
I write something and then erase it. I write something else, and erase that.
I end up saying: I understand your concern sir. In today’s society, cameras are everywhere. Every vehicle is equipped with multiple cell phones capable of uploading video instantaneously to facebook, twitter, and news stations. Live shots on the side of the road for traffic reports happen every day. This may have also warned thousands of motorists to avoid this section of Briley parkway. I understand your thoughts and appreciate you expressing them.
I feel this is a professional response that lets him know I hear him, but also lets him know that I have a job to do.
But people hiding in the internet ether are always ready to be cynical and feisty.
He quickly replies: It doesn’t matter…you zoomed in on the patient being attended to. That’s poor taste no matter how easy it was to capture. It’s the little things that are making people not trust the media.
I decide to thank him for expressing his thoughts and move on to other tasks. I have learned in my 30 years, that engaging people on issues like this will really accomplish nothing. His thoughts are his thoughts. He doesn’t care what I think. I am a target, someone to throw rocks at. He doesn’t agree with what I did, so I am wrong.
For the record the video I shot was on a iphone 4s. There is no zoom feature. I rolled by the accident like a 1000 other cars rolling by that accident. I documented the scene in a wide shot. I bet many other motorists did as well.
I shot the video. No patient faces were shown.
I’ll be honest with you. That was just lucky that no faces were shown. And to be honest with you again, I don’t care if they were. Life happens. It’s my job to document what happens. If he doesn’t like what I do, I guess that’s why it’s a free country. He can choose to watch another channel. Oh, and by the way, there’s a few more facebook pages available for him to haunt than just mine.
So am I a little perturbed? I guess you could say that. I take what I do seriously. I don’t have the thickest skin, but I am tough enough to leave his comments on my site. I will just bury his comments with more things that I am paid to find and report and comment on.
And that’s when my son’s best friend sends me a little text.
“It’s Jared. I shot this on I-40. Sorry I cursed.”
I hit the play button. It shows him driving along the interstate. Then I see a truck crashed into a bridge abutment and a car fully engulfed in fire.
“Shit,” he hollers on tape as he fumbles to steady his iphone.
He has a great shot. It is pure and raw.
Just as I said no more than half an hour earlier to the cynic, a motorist armed with a cell phone documents something insane.
It is the new millennium of news gathering.
How you feel about that footage Mr. Facebook Man?
Someone died in this accident. The interstate is shut down for 7 hours. Is it sad? of course. Is it news? You bet. Do we not cover it? Do we not post it on line? Do we wait for someone to send someone a Hallmark card?
Kiss my ass.
News is a bitch. That’s the way it is.
As of this writing; 23,000 people have viewed his footage.
23,000 people in a little more than 5 hours.
That’s the power of today’s citizen journalist.
I was quick to post this video. I wanted the anonymous facebook sniper to see it. Real people uploading real things in real time.
He doesn’t like it. I don’t like the flu. That’s a shame. It happens.
Should we post video so quickly, without censorship?
If it happens in the public domain, where anyone can view it?
You may not like it, but that’s the way it is.
As Paul Simon once wrote: One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.
I’m not sure what that means, but I think it means everyone sees things differently.
So to the man who doesn’t appreciate the footage I shot, I honestly do respect your right not to respect me. But I also laugh at you, because I think you are naive to think that what I did will make people trust me less.
If anything, I think it makes people appreciate me more.
I am unfiltered. I am uncensored. I try to be pure news all the time.
As I have always said; NEWS is a four letter word.
News is angry. News is a predator in the night. News is a fiery crash and a notification of next of kin. News is what you think you know. Chances are you don’t know a damn thing about News.
Go back to Facebook sir. Haunt someone else.
You are microscopic stink on the back of a tick.
Your concerns are now 3 facebook posts deep.
By next week, I’ll have covered up your negative rhetoric like so many damp leaves at the bottom of a leaf pile.
News uncensored. Trust built or lost via Facebook and a smart phone.
It’s a funny world. It’s a strange world.
Either way, News doesn’t care. It’s deciding who to maul while you sleep.
Life’s Crazy™