STATter911 exclusive: TV reporter smiles & poses during tragic story
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Can you believe this folks? How shocking does it get? Are you as outraged as I am by this image? Do you see it? Do you see what I’m talking about? WTF?
Above is a still image I exclusively captured from video of a live shot in the newsroom of WJBK-TV/FOX 2 in Detroit. In it, reporter Maurielle Lue can clearly be seen flashing a smile and posing when talking about this very tragic story:
Dive teams temporarily suspended the search for a 21-year-old man Monday evening. The man went missing after jumping into a lake at Stony Creek Metropark. The search will continue Tuesday.
I know it only occurred for a fraction of a second (at :17 in this video). But we’ve learned recently from this very TV station that’s all the time needed to create a news story.
We’ve also learned from WJBK-TV a few things you apparently no longer need in journalism. I’m talking about things like facts, context, credible witnesses and confirmation. Most important, you don’t need to be accountable or apologize when it turns out your story is wrong.
Previously: Reporter tells paramedic/critic to STFU
Reporter hurt by comments critical of bogus story
STATter911 say smiling EMS crew story is BS
If you think my EXCLUSIVE report about Ms. Lue’s smile is stretching it a bit, you must be a dinosaur of a news consumer. You probably believe in Walter Cronkite or possibly still have a newspaper delivered to your doorstep each day.
To prove my point, just look at the picture below taken from a May 21 report that aired on this very TV station. The image, along with some opinions about the picture, were the only things reporter Andrea Isom needed for her story.
That story told us the EMS crew in the picture was posing for a woman with a camera instead of tending to a patient. The news coverage focused not only on the claim the man standing outside the vehicle was smiling but that you could also see another member of the EMS crew inside the vehicle with a smile on his face. They must hire these reporters at FOX 2 Detroit based on some sort of superhuman eyesight us mere mortals don’t have. Either that, or this washed-up TV reporter’s aging eyes are much worse than I thought.
I have to admit after that story aired I rushed to judgment. In fact, I was the one playing news dinosaur by posting a story on STATter911.com with the headline – “I say this news story about a smiling EMS crew is BS“.
I’ve since seen the error of my ways. My only excuse is that having left the business four-years-ago tomorrow, I was apparently not up to date on the latest best practices in the world of TV news.
Now that I’ve gotten with the program, I am proud to say that when it comes to inappropriate and news-worthy smile stories, mine about reporter Lue certainly trumps the one about the EMS crew. Don’t you agree?
After all, Maurielle Lue’s clear and lovely smile happened during a very tragic story that was likely seen by tens of thousands of people. Hopefully Ms. Lue will soon issue a public apology for the outrageous behavior that I’ve uncovered, thus catapulting me to my rightful place in the world of 21st century digital news.
OH NEVER MIND – DAVE APOLOGIZES YET AGAIN
The problem with my plan is that waiting for a public apology from someone at WJBK-TV isn’t likely to work. This TV station isn’t known for saying “I’m sorry” or even correcting the record when they make a mistake.
Forgetting for the moment my BS exclusive above (and it is forgettable), truth-be-told, WJBK-TV has yet to publicly apologize for maligning the reputation of the EMS crew of the Wayne-Westland Fire Association. They’ve yet to do a story stating clearly that the real truth and nothing but the truth is that the crew was neither smiling or posing. They’ve also yet to acknowledge any of the legitimate criticism over the handling of this story that came in via Facebook, Twitter, website comments and email.
In addition, Ms. Lue has yet to apologize for tweeting “STFU” to one of those critics, Scott Kier, a well respected paramedic/blogger.
Unlike the management at WJBK-TV, the management at STATter911.com thinks apologizing when you are wrong is good for the soul and good for business. So here goes.
I apologize to Maurielle Lue for taking out of context this fraction of a second from your otherwise fine news report. I’m sorry for any impact it may have on your reputation. I also apologize to the management of WJBK-TV for creating a story that could have a negative impact on the image of your employees and your organization.
Let me state clearly, while that image seems to show Ms. Lue smiling during the delivery of a tragic news story, there’s no indication or confirmation that’s actually what occurred. In the end, it really is just my opinion about what I saw for just the briefest of moments. I was wrong to post this story on STATter911.com.
One more apology. And this one may be the most important one. I apologize to WJBK-TV news director Kevin Roseborough for this very public attempt to teach some lessons about ethics, fairness, accuracy and accountability. I admit that in some ways it’s amateurish and heavy-handed and that I should have moved on from this topic long ago.
Unfortunately Mr. Roseborough, you created this situation. You’ve allowed this to linger long after it should have gone away. You failed to take even the most basic steps a journalist should take after your news team made a very public mistake.
