For class on 2/2/2012.
One of the thornier problems of covering breaking news on live television is the possibility that viewers will see somebody get killed. This has happened several times throughout history.
November 24, 1963: NBC broadcasts Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald (video)
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Oswald’s murder is that ABC figured somebody would take a shot at Oswald, so they tried to broadcast it live. Read this chapter, “A Television Network Gathers The News,” in this online book. The link should go to the beginning of the chapter.
April 30, 1998: Six L.A. TV stations broadcast Daniel Jones killing himself (graphic video)
Car chases are a dime a dozen in Los Angeles, and the TV stations break into programming every time. This one ended when the suspect shot and killed himself. On live television. Watch the clip and then read this.
November 27, 1999: Three L.A. and two San Diego stations broadcast police killing a car chase suspect (mildly graphic video)
Less than a year later, several of those same stations showed police shooting the suspect in another car chase. Watch the clip and then read this.
July 15, 1974: Christine Chubbuck shoots herself
There was at least one other instance of a TV station broadcasting a suicide on live television. But the woman who killed herself, Christine Chubbuck, was the host of the show which was on TV at the time. She planned to kill herself during her live show, but nobody else knew she was going to do it. It’s not fair to blame anybody but Chubbuck for the broadcast of her death because of the way she planned it. Still, it’s an instructional episode. Read this PDF for the whole story.
Videotaped Death on Television
Separately, there is the issue of showing videotape of people dying.
June 20, 1979: Bill Stewart, a reporter for ABC News, was shot and killed by Nicaraguan soldiers. His photojournalist filmed the shooting, which was later shown on network newscasts in the US. Click here for the story* and here for the video.
Jan. 22, 1987: Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer shot and killed himself at a news conference. It was not shown live, but in that night’s newscasts some TV stations showed the video. All of it. Be warned: it’s very graphic.
The use of the video was pretty controversial. Read this and this.
*99.9% of the time, WikiPedia is not an acceptable source. I’m using it here because I have verified the facts in their article and it’s the most concise summary I could find. Do not cite WikiPedia as a source in any assignments for this class. Ever.