In a piece about the earthquake in Haiti, National Public Radio interviewed Poynter’s Kelly McBride about the ethical issues that journalists face when they become part of the story:
“And, Kelly, what is your perspective on this, and I call you in part because you are, if I could use this term, sort of a traffic cop in a way. I mean you are a teacher, but there are also those who call — or maybe a referee in some ways. People will call you when they think a foul has occurred to just get your opinion of it. What is your view of the kinds of images that were seeing, and whether they’re appropriate to the story or not?
” ‘Well, there’s always been attention in the American media between how we show our own bodies, whether that be the bodies of crime victims or accident victims, here domestically or soldiers in a war, and how we show the bodies of other people, particularly people in the Third World. There’s a geographic distance and a cultural, psychological distance that separates most Americans from the Third World and from the most impoverished nations.’ “
