Thursday, December 5, 2013

Media Cautious With Release Of Newtown 911 Audio

Wednesday's release of audio recordings of the 911 calls from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings forced news organizations to make difficult — and probably unpopular -- decisions about what to broadcast and what to hold back.

According to CNN, news executives said they were considering both the wishes of the community where the school was located, Newtown, Connecticut, and the journalistic impulse to report on one of the biggest news stories of the past year.

The recordings were made available to news organizations at around 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Shortly afterward, CNN said in a statement that it was exercising caution with regard to the tapes.

"We are preparing a report that will provide context to the recordings and report any new information learned," the network said. "That story will air later today after we have had time to carefully review the material."

One of CNN's competitors, Fox News Channel, televised some audio clips about an hour after the tapes were released. The Fox anchor Shepard Smith informed viewers that the network would "not be airing the most gut-wrenching moments."

A spokesman for ABC said that network, which produces "World News" and "Good Morning America," would not broadcast any audio from the 911 tapes at all, but would report on the information contained within. Another network, CBS, said it would broadcast some audio clips on its newscasts, but not the entire tapes. NBC reached the same conclusion as ABC: the network's newscasts "will NOT air the audio on television or online," according to an e-mail message distributed to NBC News staff members.



Read More Now

No comments:

Post a Comment