Four newsmen dead as five choppers film police chase
By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Jul 31st, 2007 • Category: Broadcasting, JournalismThe differences between TV news operations in the UK and US are shown by the tragic deaths of four newsmen when their helicopters crashed while covering a police chase in Phoenix, Arizona.
There were five TV news helicopters in the air at the time when two of them collided while recording the pursuit of a man accused of stealing two trucks and ramming a police car.
Alan D. Mutter, a veteran journalist and news executive, described the deaths as underscoring the stupidity and wastefulness of broadcasters who squander precious resources.
He writes in Reflections of a Newsosaur:
This journalistically indefensible insanity must be stopped. If broadcasters won’t do it voluntarily, then the Federal Aviation Administration, acting on behalf of us innocents on the ground, ought to step in and do it for them.
He says the cost of a modest helicopter with a crew of two is no leass than $1 million a year — enough to hire 10 to 15 journalists to develop real stories.
(via LostRemote)
Andrew Grant-Adamson is Andrew Grant-Adamson is a journalist who now teaches a new generation of writers, subs and editors at the University of Westminster.
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$1 million a year for a helicopter — MORE than enough to hire 10 to 15 journalists to develop real stories. What a shame! What a terrible waste!
These same TV networks repeatedly drive good young journalists out of the field by oppressing them with $25K annual salaries, which is hardly worthy of a university degree.