Death Call Played For Preteens

August 17, 2006

C1N adds a picture of the dying woman so children can visualize who is being
burned alive. Is there no one at Channel One News that has preteen children?
Is there anyone there who understands that some children may not be able
to handle this terror?

This week New York City’s law department released 1,613 phone
calls made to 911 on September 11, 2001. Only ten calls were from civilians
trapped in the towers. On nine of the ten calls only the operator’s voice
could be heard. On only one, the call made by Melissa Doi, could both sides
of the phone call be heard. It was chilling. To hear a person dying is more
than most people can take.

Unbelievably, Channel One News made the decision to air clips
of that one frantic phone call. Channel One executives thought children down
to the age of ten could handle this graphic call.

On the night of the tapes release, NBC’s Nightly News viewers
were warned about the troubling content of the Doi call before it was played.
Preteens
who
are
forced
to view
Channel One News never got such a warning.

 

Seeing these images and the transcript of the dying woman’s
last words is unsettling enough. Students also HEARD the actual voice of
the operator and Melissa Doi. Was there anyone at Channel One that argued
that the voice of Ms. Doi should not be used? Violence and death draw our
attention and a TV show like Channel One must draw eyeballs or the advertisers
will be unhappy.

 

"We can’t breathe."

"It’s very, very, very hot."

Why did Channel One News want middle school children to
experience this horror?

Obligation’s president Jim Metrock said, "If anyone thought
that Channel One’s first woman CEO would bring some sensitivity to the show,
they were dead wrong. Playing clips from this dying woman’s last phone call
is just wrong. This
could have been covered by simply having a reporter say something about the
release
of the
tapes.
It
is insensitive. It is uncalled.for. Channel
One’s CEO Judy Harris ought to apologize on air.

"This report could have traumatize young people. Middle school
students are seeing the same news reports as the high school students. Channel
One is too lazy and too broke to prepare a news show that is more age-appropriate
for pre-teens. If this is an example of how the 2006-07 Channel One will
rub children’s noses into the most brutal realities of our modern world,
then
this is going
to be another rough year for the millions of schoolchildren still under contract
to Channel One."

How Channel One News started off last year:

First Day Is All Horror Day

Channel One Gets Brutal