Posted on 12/05/2012 9:36:33 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Some journalistic values are not necessarily the same as human values -- a fact that explains much about the uproar over Tuesday's front-page photo in the New York Post. "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die," screamed the headline under the word: "DOOMED."
The man's name was Ki Suk Han, a 58-year-old North Korean immigrant from Queens. The photo capturing the last seconds of his life has provoked soul-searching and outrage over journalistic ethics -- or lack of them.
Practically nobody is defending the Post for publishing it -- or its photographer for taking it. Aside from journalistic misconduct, there were disquieting reports that none of the 18 bystanders bothered to help Han. Yet various witnesses said he was on the tracks for a minute or more, scrambling to pull himself onto the platform.
Overwhelmingly, outrage over the photo is being directed at photographer R. Umar Abbasi, a freelancer for the iconic tabloid that regularly trades in sensational stories.
As the subway bore down on Han, Abbasi snapped photos of him clinging to the platform - instead of helping him up from the tracks. Or at least, that's how it seemed.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
So, what ya gonna do if a person who has been drinking and a mental patient fight in front of a oncoming train?
Go help the victim, while having the potential of being pulled into the train.
It is easy to be brave from a distance.
Maybe so. I'm pretty far away, but this strikes me as notable: "there were disquieting reports that none of the 18 bystanders bothered to help Han. Yet various witnesses said he was on the tracks for a minute or more, scrambling to pull himself onto the platform." At least the photographer got a well framed and clear shot to sell while he was running to aid the poor man.
Yep, like running to the other side of the tracks. Supposedly he was drunk as well.
New York’s alright
New York’s alright
New York’s alright
If you like saxophones
New York’s alright
If you wanna get pushed In front of the subway
New York’s alright If you like tuberculosis
New York’s alright If you like art and jazz
New York’s alright If you’re a homosexual
New York’s alright
New York’s alright
New York’s alright
If you like saxophones
New York’s alright If you like drunks in your doorway
New York’s alright If you wanna freeze to death
New York’s alright If you wanna get mugged or murdered
New York’s alright If you like saxophones
New York’s alright
New York’s alright
New York’s alright
If you like saxophones
FEAR - NEW YORK’S ALRIGHT IF YOU LIKE SAXOPHONES LYRICS
If the victim was my Dad, I’d be livid. There’s no need for this.
Some years ago a girl I was engaged to had a chimney fire at her parents house. Late at night, the family escaped but the house was badly damaged. Reporterettes from two different TV stations were there shoving microphone and camera into the Mom and Dad’s faces asking them for comment - “How do you feel right now?”. Yeah.. the house her father spent 30 years to pay off and watch his kids grow up in... The questions stopped when my former fiance started swinging.
So now I hear that one of the networks has a show in the works that features recordings of 911 calls. Tasteless and stupid. Hope the producers and advertisers lose a lot of money on it.
How do you get that? Remarkable depth of field for a long lens. And very sharp for a photo taken while running in a low-light environment.
I'm not a photo expert and you may very well be right. I'm just interested in why you think you are.
Down on South Street Philadelphia,
Out from Avenue C,
I seen it in the eyes
it was ready to freeze
from the valley hotel!
I don’t care about you!
F*ck you!
I don’t care about you!
F*ck you!
I see Hollywood boulevard,
welfare hotel,
I spent the night in jail,
near the Wicox hotel!
I don’t care about you!
F*ck you!
I don’t care about you!
I’ve seen an old man have a heart attack in Manhattan.
Well he just died while we just stood there lookin’ at him.
Ain’t he cute?
I don’t care about you!
Ohhhhhhhhh!
I don’t care about you!
I see man rollin’ drunks,
bodies the streets.
Some man was sleepin’ in puke
and a man with no legs crawling down 5th street trying to get something to eat!
I don’t care about you!
Oh noooooo!!
I don’t care about you!
F*ck you!
I don’t care about you!
Hey! Hey!
I don’t care about you!
For the last few years the media creatures have been “chomping at the bit” to show actual deaths. The gorier the death the more eager they are to show it. Consider the depiction of the subway death as an ice breaker.
Nobody has the obligation to risk their own life to help another. Reaching over the tracks to pull the victim would most likely result in a double tragedy. The panicked victim would pull the good Samaritan off balance down onto the tracks in the path of the approaching train.
It would take at least two men to pull out the victim; one reaching for the victim and another stabilizing the rescuer. What potential hero would trust a complete stranger in this scenario where there was absolutely no margin of error? And even with two men, it could still result in both being pulled down to their death.
Then there is also the fact that a mad subway pusher is still at large and the fear, the very real fear, that this crazy man will push the rescuers over the edge.
And lastly: the approaching train. There was not enough time to assess one's own safety from the madman and to devise a rescue plan.
I am astounded by the comments on the New York Post website from armchair heroes condemning the photographer for not helping, implying they would if in the same situation. Most people flee to save themselves and that is not cowardice. The video on ABC news of the two men arguing in the moments before the man is pushed plainly shows a crowded platform, including at least 4 or 5 men. But, the photo of the train bearing down on the man with his arm reaching to get off the tracks shows an empty platform. Empty! Where did all those people go? They fled.
Being pushed off the platform by a deranged madman is every straphanger's greatest fear. While the photo is heartbreaking and profoundly disturbing, the photographer has helped to bring the issue of our failed mental heath policy to the forefront. Hopefully this photo will result in changes to how we deal with dangerous individuals so subway riders don't have to put up with the constant fear of arousing the rage of a madman.
The photographer is not to blame, the victim (who was drunk and foolishly engaged the madman) was not at fault, and the subway riders were not at fault for failing to risk their own lives attempting a perilous rescue.
The fault lies squarely on Mayor Bloomberg and other city and state leaders who turn a blind eye to the problem of madmen at large in the city, on the criminal justice system that turns them loose even after multiple arrests and on the MTA for poor security and allowing areas where the platforms are too narrow.
Mayor Bloomberg's statement, "the goods news is that this is rare" makes my blood boil. There is no good news about this tragedy and to dismiss it because it's rare is not a solution. Every New Yorker and every tourist is fearful of the subway right about now andNew York is at risk of returning to the bad old days of the early 1980's when fear of crime ruled.
If Bloomberg fails to take action against allowing the mentally ill to roam the streets and the subways there will be a chilling effect on the city's economy at a time when it is still recovering from the devastation of Sandy.
It's easy to blame the photographer or the Post for running it or the bystanders instead of tackling the real problem.
I've learned never to turn your back near a train, or while sitting on stadium seating with a goon behind you[watch the volume levels].
Wow. Lee Ving is still performing, and supposedly, “right wing”.
News “photography” disgusts me. They shove cameras in peoples’ faces. They hunt for a show of emotion. When the parent of a victim starts crying, they zoom in to get the tears. They love sobbing people.
News photographers are disgusting.
A telephoto lens does not change perspective, and the perspective is such that each succeeding car in the train appears to be about the same size. This means the train is a long way off. If it were close, each succeeding car would appear appreciably shorter than the one in front of it. Judging from the segments in the platform, the train is about 50 feet away from the victim, assuming each segment is about 20 feet. If the train is only going 30 mph it is covering 43.8 feet per second, meaning it is a little over a second away from hitting the guy. My bet is the train was traveling a lot faster than that.
Here is an article that explains how a telephoto photo can distort perception: Telephoto Perspective Compression
Umar Abassi? Yes, another “diverse” American...cough...
What is the ethics question here? It is a snapshot. It is newsworthy. It doesn’t intrude on anyone’s privacy more than any other photo. What is unethical is when a prospective murderer calls someone to a place where he says a person will be murdered and the someone goes with camera in hand and films the murder without making any effort to alert the police or the victim. That, by the way, has been done.
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