Steve Schwaid, Director of News and Digital Content for CBS Atlanta has published an unabashed apology for the station’s poor taste in airing a video yesterday as part of its coverage of the arrest of Lishan Wang for shooting a Yale University doctor. That story did not appear on PogoWasRight.org, as it was not a privacy issue, but CBS’s coverage of the story raised privacy issues and issues for professional journalists about their judgment.
Schwaid gives the background and explanation in his note and then says:
Wang’s wife then invited us into her home, but it’s what happened next that that I found the most offensive and horrifying. While we were in the home talking with her and shooting video, Wang’s wife fell to the floor hysterically crying. If you saw our newscast last night or our website earlier today, you saw this horrible video.
There was no reason for us to air or put that video on the Web. No one needed to see those moments in her life. I received several emails and calls complaining about what we did.
To those of you who wrote or called, thank you. We understand your anger and frustration with what we did. You’re right. This is not the way we set out to conduct ourselves every day. We appreciate your reaction and want you to know we knew the minute this story went on the air that we had made a terrible mistake in judgment.
Read more on CBS.
Kudos to CBS for their forthright apology.
Hat-tip, Concurring Opinions.