Why the Adam Toledo video is causing some news organizations to draw a line

[DonViejo]

By Elahe Izadi
April 16, 2021 at 6:09 p.m. EDT

Footage of a police officer shooting and killing 13-year-old Adam Toledo “is not something you want children to see,” Chicago’s mayor said on Thursday. It is also something that several journalists decided to not show their audiences — even though the video’s release Thursday was major news and contradicted prosecutors’ earlier claim that Adam had been holding a gun when he was shot.

Instead, these news outlets — mostly based in Chicago — provided thorough descriptions of the footage, carefully chosen still images and links to the graphic video in case their readers did want to watch.

“The video and audio are traumatic not only for the family but almost anyone watching a seventh grader die in an alley,” WBEZ managing editor Tracy Brown said via email. “Those aren’t moments we want to normalize in our news coverage — or pageviews we’d be proud of.” She said the Chicago-based NPR member station decided right after the video’s release that they would not publish it or play the audio. Listeners were instead told they could go to a police oversight agency’s website to watch the footage for themselves, if they chose to.

HuffPost reporter Sanjana Karanth linked to the video and other materials in her article but did not publish the footage itself. “It’s horrifying, and if you don’t need to watch it I highly encourage you don’t,” she wrote on Twitter. “

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/04/16/toledo-video-newsrooms/

[MerryHolidays]

1. Sometimes, I wonder

Is it better to actually see this so that all can see how horrible these shootings are? Perhaps that would outrage people.

I know there have been discussions about this for the death penalty and even war. When you show people what actually happens, it turns their stomachs and makes them hate these things.

I will never forget the start of the Iraq War in March 2003. I was comparing US news reports (from NBC, for example) and the BBC. NBC was showing all sorts of smart weapons and cool jet fighters, giving a videogame feel to the war. The BBC, however, had a graphic on screen that, in part, showed a man with half his face blown off. It wasn't the feature, but it was clearly there on the screen, and it was horrifying.

I am not glorifying this, but I truly wonder if exposing the horrors of violence by showing the results is ultimately better. I do think most people would be horrified too. I saw a bit of the Adam Toledo video, and it is truly horrifying.

And maybe all these deaths captured on video won't be in vain if they cause people to change their minds about violence, guns, and war.

[radicalleft]

2. I agree...

We owe it to the victims to bear witness to the horrible ways that they died in the hopes of changing peoples minds and attitudes. Hollywood and other media outlets have sanitized gun violence for far too long.

[Arthur_Frain]

10. Ever been watching tv in a lounge area with a group of people...

and have a nice elk or buck come on screen? Many of the hunters in the room will raise an imaginary rifle and start making blasting sounds with their mouth.

Forgive me, but I expect that’s what most magats would do when these videos get played. Maybe not in mixed company that they weren’t sure of these days, but no amount of what we consider “horror” is going to have any effect on them.

They consider it “recreational target practice”. Morally bankrupt subspecies that they are.

[MerryHolidays]

11. I don't really care about the MAGA'ts....they are a lost cause

As I mentioned, I am talking more about the apathetic people who aren't into guns that simply don't care one way or the other. I suspect that there is more than a few of them around, and it helps bring them to "our side." These are definitely NOT MAGA'ts.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. A Photo That Changed the Course of the Vietnam War

Sometimes people need to see the truth in black and white (double entendre intended)

?quality=90&auto=webp


edit for spelling

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. I know a cop shooting a 13-year-old is wrong without having to watch it.

[MerryHolidays]

5. Yup, but a lot of people don't

That's the point. You and I get it....many others don't, especially the mass of people who DON'T own guns and don't care about the issue.

Seeing these horrible deaths might make them finally think.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Just like what happened with the then-12 year old Tamir Rice (who would have turned 19 in June)

I saw a story where his family wants DOJ to re-open the case because that was a horrid injustice and Barr just tossed it aside.

[RockRaven]

7. The fact that the public DOESN'T see these images is part of the reason there's no change...

Same thing with what mass shooting victims look like and the carnage of our forever wars. Unless you confront the public with what is actually happening, the status quo will persist.

And maybe kids SHOULD see cops killing kids so they know to be fucking afraid of cops killing them too -- because they (too) often do.

[Vinca]

8. I disagree. I thought they should have broadcast pictures of the dead little children at

Sandy Hook. Unless people see the consequences of allowing unlimited guns to unlimited people in a society, nothing will ever change. It is disturbing. There's no way to make dead men/women/children/mothers/fathers/sons/daughters/grandmas/grandpas/best friends look less disturbing when they've got a giant hole in their chest or half a head blown away.

[David__77]

9. Emmett Till's mother chose an open casket funeral.

While I understand people have varying sensibilities, had images of this been on the cover of every newspaper in 1955, I don’t think it would have been a bad thing.