How does media sensationalism contribute to violence in society?
In his May 1993 World Monitor article, "Confessions of a Newsman," Daniel Schorr recalled a brief exchange after a news conference with the nonviolent civil-rights activist Martin Luther King:
As I waited for my camera crew to pack up, I noticed that Dr. King remained seated behind a table in an almost empty room, looking depressed. Approaching him, I asked why he seemed so morose.
"Because of you", he said, "and because of your colleagues in television. You try to provoke me to threaten violence, and if I don't, then you will put on television those who do. And by putting them on television, you will elect them our leaders. And, if there is violence, will you think of your part in bringing it about?"
I never saw Dr. King again. Less than two months later he was assassinated....
....I came to this news conference with a CBS camera crew prepared to do what TV reporters do--get the most threatening sound bite I could in order to ensure a place on the evening news lineup. I succeeded in eliciting from him phrases on the possibility of "disruptive protest" directed at the Johnson administration and Congress.
Home
The Film
Film Critiques
Censorship,
Sensationalism, & SemanticsWho We Are
Guestbook