Kind of a followup to that Evil Katie Couric thread . . .
Last night on the NBC Evening News, Bob Faw, national correspondent for NBC, was interviewing schoolchildren whose parents are shipping out to the war zone. He asked one little boy (about eight years old), “You don’t even know where your Daddy’s going, do you?” and then followed up with, “What’s your biggest fear about your Daddy?” at which the little boy dissolved into tears and put his head on his desk, and they kept filming!
Now, you all know I am not exactly the maternal type, and pretty hard-boiled as far as news coverage goes, but this, as Jane Austen would have said, “caps the globe.”
NBC news people have to be the BIGGEST dickheads ever. “Don’t come back until you get some tears, sadness and fear equla ratings!”
Katie Couric learned all of her bullshit from one Jane Pauley, who learned her horseshit journalism from one Barbra Walters. The three bitches of pain. Don’t get me started on “The View”.
On the other hand, doesn’t this bring to light the realities of what the families go through?
I live in a military town, two Air Force bases, the Air Force Academy and Ft. Carson which is an army post along with NORAD. Our local news carries the the comings and goings of local military men and women quite often. More often than not, there is crying and sadness as our troops are sent here, there and wherever.
I don’t think of the news as being wrong in this arena but possibly bringing the reality of what happens when our troops are sent away from their families. I can’t fault NBC because I didn’t see it but I can’t fault them because this is regular news around here. It effects more than their emotions too. Our military husbands and wives are severely affected by the military folk being sent away, financially. Most military families don’t have the support of their family because they live far from their family.
Anyhow, I don’t see what the big deal is. It does effect the families of those soldiers who are sent across the globe to fight a war they may or may not believe in. Why not show what it does? What is so wrong with that idea? Is showing the horrible effects of what a “war” can do to a family a bad thing? I don’t think so. I have seen many a military wives/husbands along with their children cry when their loved one is sent away. This is reality folks. The thought that their loved one may never come home again.
It’s a bad thing but when it comes to the reality of it all, I would rather know that my fellow human being has some misgivings than for the news to play it up as a good thing.
One thing I love about Australian television our hosts havn’t learnt to be subtle. Watch any sort of current affairs program and you often hear the interviewer ask “Don’t you want to cry?” or “Do you feel like crying now?”.
Nice and too the point - enough with the talk, make with the tears already!
techchick68, I think there’s a difference between capturing a child crying for his dad on film and asking him questions designed to make him break down until he finally does.
Yeah, we all know war isn’t pretty. There’s probably, as you said, a lot of crying on military bases. If that’s true, there shouldn’t be a problem finding someone actually crying and then filming that person.
This boy crying won’t change public opinion. It won’t change our stance on foreign policy. All that’s was accomplished was the installation of fear into an 8 year old kid by making him think about the possibility he’ll never see his dad again.
I don’t need to see weeping victims of crime or sobbing children of warbound parents to understand the issues. It’s sensationalism at it’s worth. Reminds me of “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley.
Leave the freaking kid alone- we all know how sad it is to see a parent shipped off- it must be horrible for him. Why put him through more? For ratings? For a “story?” Where’s the story?