What Way Should We Imply A Thousand Words?
There is a news story that came out on CNN in early September that I had thought about a lot about but forgot about until the issue of false light came up as a subject in class. In this case, a 22 year old newlywed from Missoula, Montana murdered her husband by pushing him off a cliff only 8 days into their marriage. The coverage of crime was fine for the most part but the use of pictures of the couple from Facebook disturbed me. Here is a link to the news broadcast on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/11/us/montana-husband-death/
There's nothing really wrong with the coverage. My only concern was that most of the pictures they used were of the couple smiling and happy together when at a glance their relationship doesn't quite match that representation (see how one of them is dead now).
Now the first amendment and defamation common law allow fair/comment and criticism; especially by the press, but what kind of communication is happening when the couple is presented this way? In my opinion this is sensationalizing a murder for the sake of being unique. Each time I view this coverage I can't help but think "What went wrong between these people?" and "What happened?". They become fictional characters like that of a soap opera that I must know the details of their drama.
I have to give props to the reporters who put this together because the broadcast keeps me interested and involved but is this interest for the right reasons? I'm not sure. If I covered the crime I would have focused more on shots of the scene of the crime rather than Facebook pictures because it would be a less dramatic representation.
But now I have a question for you guys. Does showing the pictures of the couple smiling and happy throughout the news segment embellish the coverage of the story since their marriage ended rather quickly in murder? If so, what solutions would you suggest to work around sensationalizing news stories like this? If not, why?
