A horrible two-vehicle accident on I-77 near Ripley Saturday left five people dead and two others injured. An SUV with six people inside went out of control on rain-slick roads, crossed the median and was struck by a pick-up truck coming the other way.
A fire ensued. Five people in the SUV, including two teenagers, died. A sixth person was thrown from the vehicle and survived. The driver of the pick-up was injured. The victims were headed to Wheeling to watch the Class AAA high school football championship game between South Charleston and Capital.
My thoughts and prayers are with family and friends of the victims. This is an unimaginable tragedy that has struck a family who had set out for an afternoon of high school football.
A person on the scene shortly after the accident snapped a picture on his phone and sent it to Metronews. We posted the picture on our website. The picture, taken from perhaps 100 feet away, showed a raging inferno. Here is a link to the picture. Warning! Graphic content.
Some viewers of our website were outraged. One wrote, “I am done as a listener to Metronews. Putting up and leaving a pic of a car fire with five people dying inside is inexcusable. What a bunch of sick puppies.” Another wrote, “WV Metronews sensitivity hits a new low. Pull the damn photo. Get a clue. Shameless sensationalism.”
But another commenter defended the posting and said Metronews should not be singled out for criticism. “The pictures of the accident were in the newspapers and all the WV nightly news channels at 6 and 11 p.m.”
We did take down the photo Sunday afternoon, but it had already been up for about 24 hours.
Every day, news organizations face decisions about graphic content, and the calls are not always easy. The Radio and Television News Directors’ Association advises that when considering graphic content, ask this question: “Does the display of such material clarify and help the audience understand the story better?”
It’s a good question, and one bound to elicit different responses from different people. Two former long-time newspaper editors I talked with supported using the picture. A third said she would have been hesitant to run it.
And, candidly, there are competitive pressures. News reporters scramble to get the story out and, in doing so, draw readers, viewers and listeners.
I supported using the picture, made the original post and wrote the story. I considered it an accurate photo that showed what happened in a major story. In hindsight, there were other options. A better approach may have been to provide a link with a warning—just as I did above—so people could decide whether they wanted to view it or not.
As always, there is a balance between the use of images that help to tell a story and the sensibilities of readers. Disagreements about how to strike that balance are inevitable.