I remember when I was a young teen reading a sci-fi book. Although I forgot its name, I’ll never forget
its macabre story - recounting the tale where entertainment consisted of people
watching others being killed in cold blood.
Well last week, that sci-fi story came back to haunt me, us and the
whole of the human race.
Disgusting!
The New York Post published a front-page
photograph of a man trapped on a subway platform seconds before he was killed
by an oncoming train. The victim, Ki-Suck Han, was pushed onto the tracks by
another man on the platform. The New York Post’s choice of a front-page photo
led to an intense reaction in the public and the news media.
Here’s the picture:
Fiction became reality. And it’s disgusting. It makes me ashamed to be a human.
Now,
there’s no question that this type of tragedy happened very fast. Too fast for us to even comprehend.
That’s what
R. Umar Abbasi, a freelance photographer for The New York Post, said of the
fatal subway incident on Monday that he caught with his camera. One man threw
another into harm’s way, causing him to be run over and killed by an oncoming
train. This last part happened in the blink of a shutter. I get it!
But the decision to put the image on the The Post’s cover and
frame it with a lurid headline that said “this man is about to die”? That part
didn’t happen quickly at all. The treatment of the photo was driven by a moral
and commercial calculus that was sickening to behold. It was about getting the scoop. It was about beating the other newspapers in
an era when the news cycle that could once be measured in hours is now measured
in minutes and sometimes even seconds.
The reprehensible decision made by The Post has brought
wide criticism and was derided as ghoulish and insensitive. But the pictures’
mere existence started another conversation summarized by TV weatherman Al
Roker, who, on NBC’s “Today Show,” said: “Somebody’s taking that picture. Why
aren’t they helping this guy up?”
And that’s the question nobody seems to want to
answer, let alone address.
Abbasi, defended his actions in an interview. “I’m being unfairly
beaten up in the press,” he said, before leading a reporter to the 49th Street
subway platform to re-enact what had happened.
Mr. Abbasi said he was wearing a
20-odd pound backpack of camera gear for an assignment, and was standing near
the 47th Street entrance to the platform when he saw the man fall on the
tracks. “Nobody helped,” he said. “People started running away.”
“I saw the lights in the
distance,” signaling a subway’s approach, he said, so he started firing off
flashes on the camera — 49 times in all, he said — as a means of warning the
driver. “I was not aiming to take a photograph of the man on the track,” he
said, adding that his arm was fully outstretched, the camera far from his face.
Now, I don’t know Mr. Abassi – but let’s assume he’s a good
guy. A photographer – in the right place
at the right time – it’s a Kodak-moment about to happen. He takes the pictures – as gruesome as they
may be. The guy on the tracks gets wiped
out – we know that. It’s what happens
when train strikes person – everytime.
Then a few hours later, the Post publishes it on its front
page???? How insensitive! How thoughtless! How first century!
I’ve been in media for the best part of 25 years now – it’s a long
time – and I’ve seen a lot change, some for the good, others for the
not-so-good. But this, this act of moral
reprehension sends us to a new low.
I agree with Poynter’s Julie Moos:
“The
moment just before death is a delicate fraction of a second and the NY Post
print edition and cover screen image lacks compassion for the victim, his
family, his friends and the Post’s audience. In a few words it is disgusting,
disconcerting, insensate and intrusive.”
If you feel as strongly as I, please forward this email to the
Post’s publisher at letters@nypost.com
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