Jon Stewart to Cable News: Don’t Put Gory Death Videos on a Constant Loop
From video of a police officer shooting and killing Walter Scott in South Carolina to dash-cam images of a robbery suspect being rammed by a police car, Americans have been subjected to some gory television newscasts recently.
The stunning amount of violent officer-related shooting footage has been shown on a repeating loop on cable channels, but those images don't tell the whole story, and comedian Jon Stewart is pointing out that it's degrading to have human death used as background video. Like Muzak, these images have become an ever-present, watered-down version of reality that Stewart dubs "newzak."
On Wednesday's Daily Show, Stewart called out the coverage of such events, first recognizing that this type of footage puts the media between a rock and a hard place.
“How do they show us something that is genuinely newsworthy but that nobody wants to look at?” Stewart asked.
But the approach is where the problem lies: Often, the “devastating” videos are looped into “screen saver mode," Stewart said.
That's how many of us first caught glimpses of recent deadly incidents—through partial tellings that are looped for news coverage on 24-hour cable networks, including footage of the Arizona officer who ran over a suspect and a Tulsa reserve deputy who mistakenly shot a fleeing suspect. By showing only the most eventful happenings and leaving out the preceding events, the media is, as Stewart said, desensitizing the public to the true context of the video: that it’s real.
“Turning the last moments of someone's life into newzak that just plays in the backgrounds of discussions slowly robs those images of their power,” Stewart explained, “and more importantly, the people in the videos of their humanity. We've gotta nip this trend in the bud, because unlike Blockbuster, these types of videos ain't going away.”
Related stories on TakePart:
• A Police-Issued Body Camera May Not Have Saved Walter Scott
• Across the Country, Protesters Vent Rage Over Police Shootings
• Cleveland Police Officer Fatally Shoots 12-Year-Old Boy Carrying a Toy Firearm
Original article from TakePart
