Georgian Luger Killed: Is it ethical to broadcast the crash?

I heard the news at work but was astonished when my father, clearly shaken, told me on my way home that he had just witnessed the fatal crash on TV. I'm not surprised the clip found its way to the internet, but out of respect for this young man's family, why is it being shown on television at all? What is the point? Do people need to see it for themselves to believe that yes, the human body is indeed more fragile than we make it out to be? Had this been an American athlete, there would be lawsuits out the window and his family would be absolutely terrorized. And don't give me the Earnhardt argument either. He was in a vehicle far, far away from the camera.

What about San Lang the Chinese gymnast who became paralyzed during a warmup vault at the 1998 Goodwill Games? Warmups are just prior to the event and camera crews do film them. There was no broadcast of Lang's vault, nor were there broken down images of her head crashing into the mat (unlike NBC) I'm sure they're out there, but out of respect for her, they weren't relreased. Why is this any different?

Is anybody else out there as bothered by this as I am?

 

I'm not.
Maybe I should be, but I'm not.
We saw Dale Earnhardt's crash over and over.
I'm not really affected by seeing that sort of stuff.
Just my take on it.

 

If Dick Ebersol approves who are we to question it.

 

Show it with a disclaimer beforehand so those who don't wish to see it can close their eyes or leave the room.

 

I'm not talking about graphic (they did have a disclaimer). I'm talking about respect for this young person's family

 

I agree with you Jenna, though I havent actually seen it, I don't want to, I find no enlightenment in the true visual experience.
It is more than enough to hear that such a senseless accident occured, causing a young person his life on the eve of such a great event.
I feel for the family, and I'm sure they and those closest to them do not need the rest of the nation reliving the event over and over again through the media.

 

I have no problem with them showing it, but I was really surprised NBC didn't warn viewers ahead of time on its evening news.

I had my kids in the room, and fortunately in this DVR era, I could pause it and shoo them out, but they should be warning viewers before showing something like that.

Past that, I don't have an issue with it.

 

They gave a warning before the viewing I caught. Not fun to watch, for sure.

 

Yeah my Dad was watching NBC as well. CNN didn't show it when I was watching it. I was really surprised there wasn't a disclaimer. There was a disclaimer online though in the multimedia report where it has the article with the video player imbedded in it

 

I personally wouldn't run it, but I can't blame for news outlets running it. This is always a touchy subject, but I'll only be surprised when no media news outlet never runs something like this if they have it available.