Open Letter to the Today Show
The Today Show
NBC
To Whom it May Concern,
I am a regular watcher of the today show and was very disappointed
this morning while watching your news story on a DVD of a high school
fight. I found it to be a disturbing sight and the fact that you
showed the footage of the fight appeals to the same animal tendencies possessed by the high schoolers who bought copies of the DVD.
The fact that you would show repeated footage of a high school fight
and not show a single clip of the Palestinians marching to honor
Arafat's death is a sad sign of the quality of the "news" on the Today
show. This is nothing against Anne, she does a great job. It's more of
a complaint about the job you're doing as the media. There are plenty
of shows out there that will stoop to the level of showing footage of
a high school fight (Povich, Springer, Dr. Phil, etc.). Why does your
show feel it necessary?
I find it almost ironic that your story on the fight DVD was meant to
comment on how appalling it would be to sell a DVD of a fight when
your program itself proceeded to show parts of the fight for free. Was this a
preview to encourage high schoolers to buy it? Isn't it worse
to show this to people on broadcast television when otherwise they
would have had to make a conscious decision to see it?
I have been continuously disappointed in some of the low brow footage
I have seen on your show. Much like the over-shown footage of an ice
skater hitting her face on the ice a month or so ago, this incident
was especially disturbing.
I am not a conservative person who becomes ill at sights like these,
but showing them makes a mockery of what I think to be a legitimate
news organization.
Just because we have base instincts doesn't mean you need to appeal
to them on every show.
Thanks,
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