Last Tuesday, it was a Huntsville Times newspaper delivery guy with fire department experience who won praise because he woke up a family and called 911 to report a fire in the home.
And on December 21st, a newspaper photographer for the Press-Register in Mobile spotted a motel on fire and alerted the desk clerk and knocked on doors to wake up guests.
The incidents reminded me of what happened in Anniston in 1983, when a man set himself on fire as a TV crew filmed him. He later filed a lawsuit against the TV station for not stopping him, a suit that was thrown out of court.
The ethics of the case are still discussed in journalism classes today. We had a short discussion about it in the Electronic News Gathering course I've been teaching at Trenholm State a few weeks ago. A new class begins next week.
Flip sides of an Alabama media coin, almost thirty years apart.
[ALSO: There's been a settlement in a suit filed over reader comments on a newspaper's web site. The suit was filed a judge, who complained when the paper identified her as the writer of harsh after-story comments about a case she was hearing.]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
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