[492] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] It's Time to End "911 Porn"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Mon Jun 29 17:09:26 2009
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:51:54 -0700
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It's Time to End "911 Porn"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000589.html
Greetings. I've just finished -- courtesy of CNN -- hearing the wife
of recently deceased 50-year-old TV pitchman Bill Mays sobbing in
anguish as she spoke to a 911 operator. (Speculation on cause of
death in this case has now moved from airliner-landing head injury to
heart disease, though the fact that he reportedly had two hip
replacements by such an age may raise other health-related questions.)
A few days ago, I heard a similar upset 911 call splattered across the
media as Michael Jackson's death was reported.
In fact, news organizations seem to increasingly be treating their
access to 911 recordings as what I would call "911 Porn" -- playing
these materials to their audiences in most cases solely for their
"prurient" ratings value.
The news media's response to this criticism no doubt will be that
these recordings are public record data, and hell, if they so desired
these municipalities could post all of their 911 calls routinely to
public Web sites.
But why should this be the case?
In specific situations where 911 conversations have probative value in
courts, for other legal proceedings, or in related investigations, the
recordings (and/or associated transcripts) should obviously be made
available to the relevant parties.
But it strikes me that their essentially immediate release (the
recordings for sure, and perhaps the transcripts as well) to mass
media for broad dissemination, basically to sate morbid curiosity, is
truly obscene in the worst possible way, in a manner that two people
making love could never be.
With all due respect to my friends in the news media, it's time to
stop releasing 911 materials on demand for publication or broadcast,
absent clear and demonstrated necessity for the public good in any
specific case.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
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