As I was coming in to work this morning I was listening to Howard Stern (as I often do), and I heard something which really distressed me: they played the 911 call of a 5 year-old girl who found her parents shot to death in her home. The call was real, and the little girl really did have both of her parents shot to death by someone who later shot himself. Apparently the little girl is now in the custody of family members. Clearly there is a lot to be distressed by with this whole situation, but what really upset me was that a tape like that got released to the media at all. I can't blame radio stations or websites for playing it or posting it, because they just feed the desires the public has; but why does a tape like that need to get released out there? Because that tape is out there and is being played on places like the Howard Stern show, that virtually guarantees that for that girl she will throughout her life be most known finding her parents dead and doing the right thing in calling 911. Why do they release a tape like that to the public? Do the 911 people hope for good publicity because the operator helped out as best she could, or are they hoping it will be a reminder to people to call 911 if there's an emergency? Is it just a sick fascination with wanting to hear a little girl at what will probably be the worst moment of her life have to describe it in detail? I can see releasing a tape like this to the media if there was some procedural problem during the call (like if the operator acted inappropriately or something), but if a 911 call goes as it should, why do they release it? Certainly a five year-old girl can't give her consent for it to be released, so they must not have even needed it. The whole thing just bothered me.
Comments (2)
why can't you blame the show? after all, they made the choice to play it. pretty sick when you consider that howard stern just made how many hundreds of thousands of dollars playing it? and you have to admit that he's probably got quite a bit of creative control over the content of his show at this point ('creative' referring to which strippers he undresses and which person with a speech impediment he decides to humiliate). if a controversy begins, which is possibly what the howard stern show is hoping will happen, the show will reap even more money and media attention from the little girl's tragedy. but really, isn't that what entertainment is about these days? for some reason a whole lot of people seem to tune in to see other people agonized, traumatized, humiliated, etc.
Posted by elvispanda | March 31, 2005 11:29 AM
Posted on March 31, 2005 11:29
Well obviously the show is to blame for putting it on the air as well, but to focus the attention there is, in my opinion, not focusing on who one should really be upset at. I've seen mention of this thing elsewhere, so even if Howard didn't play it, it still is out there, being covered by who knows what. I'm sure the 911 operator will eventually end up on Oprah, etc... Sure you can blame the media or one particular show for putting shit like this out there, but they wouldn't do it if it didn't sell. So then you can blame the public for wanting this stuff, or human nature for being interested in something like this; but if you do that I just think you're losing focus and you're looking for an unrealistic scapegoat. If whoever releases something like this to the public never had put the tape out there, that woulda been the end of it.
For me to come down on the Howard Stern show or any show or any website or anything for helping to spread something like this is, in my opinion, endorsing censorship. It's saying "we need someone to monitor what these people are putting on the air," and I am not in favor of that. I could have changed the channel (and did, as a matter of fact) if I didn't like what I heard. No, my beef is with whomever or whatever government agency decided to release a tape like this (and probably dozens of others like it). A little girl finding out her parents are dead should be a private thing, and so even though Howard Stern did his part to contribute to this, and advertisers did their part by paying him, and I did my part by listening (we are all culpable for something like this), I think the true villian in this instance is whoever decided that the media should have access to this tape.
Bottom line, if Howard didn't play it, someone else would have. If his advertisers didn't pay him, someone else would have. If I didn't listen, someone else would have. But if the people who released this tape hadn't, NOBODY else would have.
Posted by Yams | March 31, 2005 11:42 AM
Posted on March 31, 2005 11:42