At least until Friday, there was a hint of disappointment in cable news coverage of the first criminal trial of a former president.
With the dry, slow proceedings in a Lower Manhattan courtroom closed to their cameras, the networks could only offer their usual interviews with experts and analysts standing in front of the sights and sounds of their outdoor camera positions.
That changed on Friday, when a Florida man, Max Azzarello, set himself on fire near the courthouse — immediately highlighting the promise and dangers of live cable news, especially for CNN, which owns the genre invented.
Legal analyst and network host Laura Coates was conducting a live interview with a jury selection expert when Mr. Azzarello began throwing a stack of conspiracy pamphlets into the air, then doused himself with an accelerant and set himself on fire to set.
Ms. Coates interrupted a conversation about sequestration rules to dramatically convey what was happening nearby.
“An active shooter, an active shooter is in the park in front of the field,” she shouted excitedly and falsely before quickly realizing what she was seeing: “We have a man, he set himself on fire, a man made a crest .” he himself was just outside the courthouse. Our cameras are rotating right now.”
With that, the CNN screen filled with the glaring image of Mr. Azzarello on a park bench, completely enveloped, and Ms. Coates continued with a rapid, radio-style replay of the action: “We are watching multiple fires break out around his body,” she said. “It’s chaos. People are wondering right now if people are in danger,” then added, “We can smell the air, I can smell the burning of some flesh, I can smell the burning of some agent being used.”
While other local networks covered the incident, CNN’s coverage was the most dramatic and graphic. (Fox News promptly cut footage of the fire when it became clear what was happening, and senior correspondent Eric Shawn told viewers, “We apologize for showing that.”)
There was no doubt that it was a big moment for Ms. Coates, a former voting rights lawyer at the Justice Department who now serves as CNN’s chief legal analyst and host of an 11 p.m. show.
“CNN’s Laura Coates wins high praise for her ‘stunning’ coverage of the Trump trial fire,” The Daily Beast reported, while various journalists and influencers on the social media platforms and deserved an even higher profile on CNN.
But there was also criticism of Ms. Coates’ initial false report about an “active shooter” and of CNN’s split-second decision to show the graphic footage of the self-immolation live.
“Mistakes are made in chaotic, shocking circumstances,” podcaster, commentator and former cable host Keith Olbermann wrote in a critical post on X, noting disapprovingly that CNN had actually provided “live coverage of a suicide attempt.”
The incident was reminiscent of other moments when cable news had to make split-second decisions about what to show during breaking news stories with graphic and disturbing images – perhaps most notably in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, which occurred just blocks away. on the woman. Coates stood.
Shortly after their report, CNN standards officials even issued new guidelines warning producers not to re-air the live footage.
The network declined to comment. A senior executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were concerns that re-airing the video could encourage copycats, but pointed out that the channel had to make such decisions every day, including when covering the war in Gaza.
In this case, however, the action was unexpected and unusually close – so close that a CNN satellite truck operator, along with police, were among the first on the scene to offer to use his fire extinguisher.
On her show Friday night, Ms. Coates said she initially thought Mr. Azzarello was an “active shooter” because of “the times we live in.” At the moment she was “shocked,” she said, noting that she came to CNN as a legal expert and not as a typical journalist with field experience. “My mouth told of my eyes,” she said, “but my eyes—I wish I could not see; My nose doesn’t want to smell it, my heart breaks for this man and his family.”
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2024-04-20 22:20:31
www.nytimes.com
