In a move that was not only morbid, but called into question by a slew of critics, a Colorado newspaper reporter Twittered a three-year old’s funeral Wednesday after the child died in a car accident earlier in the week.
In what some are saying is the result of the newspaper’s undying desire to be the first to report on local news, it Twittered the live events at the funeral instead of waiting to report on it after it was over. The decision to Twitter the funeral was called into question by most in the Colorado press and elsewhere who claimed it wasn’t the right place, nor the right time to use a real-time social tool to discuss the events of the service.
“I think that reporters are often in the uncomfortable position of reporting from settings where people are in great grief,” one critic told ABCNews.com. “These situations call for the greatest understanding and discretion on the part of the reporter. To be putting real-time notes out there as opposed to waiting until the ceremony is over; there’s an element of pillaging a private moment of grief that I’m uncomfortable with.”
The reporter, Berny Morson, still has his Twitter feed active and the live events of the funeral are still included in his timeline. His coverage of the funeral begins with a description of the casket and mourners filing in and ends when “family members shovel earth into [the] grave.”
Morson and his newspaper, Rocky Mountain News, have yet to comment on the firestorm surrounding his questionable use of Twitter.
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Slow news day much.
Seriously wtf. Getting fed up with all these non-news items recently.
Concentrate on what you’re good at and not this “filler”stuff.
But another post = more $$$ I guess.
Actually, Tammy, I disagree, and I often think that TC has stuff that deviates from it’s “mission.”
This new move towards social media and micro-blogging is changing how information is relayed, as seen by the slew of politicians and newspapers joining Twitter. It’s good to demonstrate that even while this new technology is great for increasing the information throughput, there are still limits that we should recognize with common sense. It’s very applicable to the new technologies that TC covers, while mixing in how these trends mix in with society.
LA Train Wreck. Locomotive Engine Conductor twitting text runs red light and kills 18.
“Have yet to comment”????
I’m in Denver, so I saw the “comment” below before I saw anything from the funeral, and I just looked online and saw that this story is linked up in the header of the site, so it’s not exactly hiding.
http://www.rockymountainnews.c.....questions/
Look, the commenters who say this isn’t worthy of TC coverage are just wrong, but TC coverage that makes it seem like local journalists aren’t thinking about what they are doing is even worse.
What’s the difference between this and writing down notes to write a fuller story later? It doesn’t appear that the funeral was officially twittered by the newspaper, but there are merely notes made by a reporter on his own very unpopular Twitter account (25 followers). These are little more than notes - public notes, sure, but still just notes.
If a media outlet was directly giving a play-by-play feed of a child’s funeral, we’d have a story. As it is, this is a load of hot air over how an individual reporter chose to take notes - it must be a slow news week..!
I think it’s just shocking because Twitter is such a new medium. Our kids will be astonished to learn that we used to have to wait hours, even days, to know what happened at funerals.
EH, I completely agree with your viewpoint. If the reporter had been disrespectful or had covered the funeral without the family’s consent, then I’d understand people getting upset.
I concur EH, our children will be astounded that we had to wait days to hear details of the funeral of strangers
Peter, there’s a difference between taking notes and twittering. Twitter is public, accessible to the public, and generally unedited. A reporter’s notes are intended to be private, and probably aren’t published as-is in any respectable newspaper.
The issue here, aside from what could be perceived as a lack of sensitivity to a funeral, is the moment by moment take on the funeral. A funeral, for those from a traditional standpoint, is generally seen as a somber moment to say goodbye to a loved one. Having a reporter (who probably didn’t know the family) report it in a play-by-play fashion makes the event feel cheap, especially in the case of a child. Furthermore, the reporter was twittering DURING the funeral - was it so important that he couldn’t wait until after the event?
If it was me, I would want people to Twitter my funeral. I generally avoid funerals like the plague (I don’t even want to go to my own funeral), but it would certainly cross my mind to Twitter a funeral that I was at.
As far as this guy goes, unless he was doing it as an official reporter of the paper, I don’t see what difference his job should make. Twitter is a micro-blog to say what you are doing. If I am watching people shovel dirt into the ground, I should be able to say so. I also see no difference between talking about something as it happens compared to writing a blog post or whatever as soon as you leave. As long as I am not bound by a legal agreement to not talk about something until a certain time, I will talk about whatever it is whenever and on whatever medium I choose. If other people don’t like it, its not the first time I have pissed somebody off and certainly won’t be the last. People tend to make a big deal about stupid things like this.
That’s right. It’s important to remember that other people’s feelings, their privacy and family tragedies should all be fair game for twitter parasites. What’s more important than respecting a family’s privacy is this reporters need to be the first to tell everyone. Let’s not lose site of this poor reporter’s feelings and his needs. And in fact, not only would I twitter at your funeral, if I happened to witness your death, I would twitter that as well, since as you point out, it’s just what I happen to be seeing at the time.
Got to run…just saw my 70 year old neighbor fall into a fire ant bed in his backyard. Hilarious. He’s totally covered in ants and freaking out. I need to twitter this asap.
when is it not okay to twitter? {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/cKzySpoing_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”when is it not okay to twitter? ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/trbJIXqhDd”}}}
Conversely, when is it ok NOT to twitter? These are reporters. That is their job. I suppose we could have them not report on things that people request they don’t.
For example, I’m sure there are numerous senators would love it if they could ask the press not to report on certain things…
Obviously this was a newsworthy and open-to-the-public event (or they wouldn’t have been there).
At first read, I was so pissed off about this that I came to comment and vent on it. However, after thinking about it in more detail, I have simply come to the conclusion that funerals should not be covered in the media … period.
As for the use of twitter as a reporting tool … I think that Berny and Rocky Mountain News will probably receive quite a bit of heat on this one but I see newspapers creating their own twitter feeds very soon (if it has not already been done).
I was in the same boat. At first, the outrage of it made me angry, but really, what media group really needs to be a funeral. Sure, I can see it for heads of state or religious leaders (like the Pope from a few years ago), but for a 3 year old I think it’s a matter of respect. You’re there, yes as a reporter, but you also show respect.
Yeah, the real question is whether media should cover funerals period. If you’ve already invited a complete stranger, a reporter, to the funeral, to take part in this usually private ceremony, then it seems a bit strange to be upset about reporting on it, in this case via Twitter.
I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t have reporters at funerals, just pointing out the irony of this whole deal.
I’m assuming it was not a private Twitter?? If not, completely disgusting.
Is this just confirmation that Twitter is totally inane?
I’m absolutely appalled. A CHILD’s funeral and this was done by a reporter. He should be fired. I’d sue just to lose, and teach him a lesson. Cost nothing to sue but costs a fortune to defend a lawsuit.
Which makes you a sociopath.
For being appalled at such a travesty? Sorry you think it’s ok. I don’t. Not for my children or anyone else’s.
However, feel free to twit away when you lose a loved one.
What is it exactly that appalls you?
The low point on Twitter is when people were twittering that Tim Russert had collapsed and died before NBC had a chance to reach his family. The thought of that poor Russert kid potentially having to hear about his dad dying by some Twittering morons, THAT is sickening.
I don’t blame the technology though. Just some of the doucebags it attracts.
I totally agree. The technology is there to use responsibly. As a reporter there is a level of responsibility that this reporter overlooked.
Yeah. 9-11 is kind of the same. I was apalled that they broadcast the video live. Imagine all of the families who didn’t know if their loved one was there and had to see it on TV!
China could be a great example for us to copy. To avoid these sorts of “sickening” things, they require that all reporting be vetted by the government first. Consequently, I imagine you don’t find people in China being “sickened” by their newsmedia.
I have several twitter templates ready to fly whenever I’m even around an old person. It’s important for me to show my borg collective that I’m the first drone to know anything. That’s so much more important to me than a child’s feelings when they find out their dad just died over twitter.
I praise all my drones here who defend this poor reporter who was just trying to be the first to gossip tragic news. I look forward to assimilating all of you into my collective. You’ve already rid yourselves of compassion, self-respect and respect for the privacy of others. My work is done, all I need to do now is strap a laser pointer to your heads, assign you numbers and plug you in.
If you have your tweets already written, I don’t know why you actually wait for the event to happen. If it looks like they are going to go, you should probably just get it out there. After all, that is how the “real” news media do it (for example, Bloomberg reporting on Steve Jobs’ death last week, or the major media coverage of that congresswoman who dies a few weeks ago…)
You are indeed a genius. I’ll start immediately: “Techcrunch announced today that it will be shutting down immediately. Readership had fallen off sharply in the last 18 months due to obsessed over-coverage of Twitter and Friendfeed. The few remaining readers consisted of die-hard fanboys and twitterheads, and those of us who began to regard to Techcrunch as something even more entertaining than the Onion, since the crunchboys are actually serious.”
If this reporter was invited or welcome by the family as a reporter, then, what he did was report this the way that he did. If that reporter secretly crashed the funeral then he should be working for a tell-all tabloid not for a reputable news paper.
I’d kill myself if this was the best I could do
Hahahaahahahahahaha, you all are a complete joke.
Really, you make me laugh. Get over yourselves.
Long live death tweets!
And you sir, are a troll.
Notice those that actually have something ugly to say do so without a LINK because they THINK they are posting anonymously?
Why don’t you actually talk about the topic and not about others who are talking about it.
twitter is crap and who ever uses it is seriously has to much time on their hands.
ditto for blog comments.
Agreed … twitter us a joke …
What I find even more interesting is that the twitter comments were public and not sent as DM’s. In which case no one could see them then or even now except for the intended victim (for publication) There would be no story then, would there, except for the one that was printed. Deliberate? Think about it.
Guess the claims of embracing new technology should include “Learn how to use it first, Sparky.”
I’d be interested to know a response from them regarding THIS observation.
I appreciate you taking the time to express your concerns.
Look, I don’t have time to answer in great detail, but I think you’re making a mistake in not differentiating between the execution (yes, some of the updates could have been better) and the idea itself. We don’t attend funerals without permission of the family. We wrote a story for the paper about the funeral. The death of that child was a huge local story. It touched many people. Why not connect with them in real time, as long as we’re not disruptive at the funeral, which we weren’t and wouldn’t be? And by the way, I’m the father of three children. And I’ve covered more tragedy than I could ever have imagined, including the Columbine shootings.
Best,
John Temple
From :
http://blogs.westword.com/late.....or_joh.php
John,
Why not? Respect and taste… Something here just rubs me wrong. I could care less about a fricking “local story”. Seriously. Do you have children?
Perhaps uninvited this may be considered rude and uncouth. BUT…
Upon hearing of my demise, everyone is hereby invited to twitter away, the more the merrier. I am planning a big bash for my send-off and would consider it an honor to be the subject of everyone’s twitters.
I feel the same way. Just don’t let me catch anyone doing it if, god forbid, it involves one of my children.
Then you’d have a twitter story.
Guess we’ll have to make it BYOB since we obviously won’t be able to play the proper host.
John Temple posted about this yesterday here:
http://www.rockymountainnews.c.....questions/
Er, and I think his post was made **before** this TechCrunch post, which means this sentence:
“Morson and his newspaper, Rocky Mountain News, have yet to comment on the firestorm surrounding his questionable use of Twitter.”
Just reflects poor research.
It was rather insensitive. I guess the reporter was quite jaded.
family members shovel earth into grave
rabbi calls end to ceremony
rabbi chanting final prayer in hebrew
earth being placed on coffin.
rabbi recites the main hebrew prayer of death
rabbi zucker praying
coffin lowered into ground
people gathering at graveside
procession begins
cars queueing up to follow hearse
pallbearers carry out coffin followed by mourners.
people again are sobbing. rabbi again asks god to give marten everlasting life.
video shows marten blowing out candles on birthday cake, marten with dog. last images are of headlines.
video of marten is projected on screen.
rabbi says marten is close to god now.
rabbi says marten loved to be tickled. calls the death a nightmare. no words can sooth us, he says.
family member says marten is with grandmother who died last year. ‘ marten we loved you,’ he says. People sobbing.
family member remembers marten.
rabbi says we will always remember marten and he will live in our memory.
rabbi recites 23rd psalm.
NEWS. That’s what reporters are supposed to report, whether in real time via any medium, or in print at a later time.
A child was killed in car accident, and buried by grieving family and friends.
WAS THIS NEWS?
Why should we sit up and take notice of media when anything and everything is fair game for reporting? Think about: NEWSFLASH — somebody else died today in another car accident; we’ll have live coverage of the autopsy and the announcement of the death to the family, followed with blow-by-blow coverage of the funeral preparations and the funeral itself.
This is the nature of our lives, but it’s not news for that reason.
Would this have been received differently had the reporter covered the funeral with live video? I don’t think so; it still wouldn’t be news, only ghoulishness indulged.
Apparently Americans no longer ask themselves if what the media provides them is NEWS; it only has to be attention-getting infotainment.
The other problem with the coverage of this funeral by Rocky Mountain News is that the reporter became the story. That should not happen to a respectable, ethical journalist in the course of covering a story. Why is no one concerned about this? Do we not care at all what ethics should be employed by professional journalists? How do we get the truth from other real news if the reporter gets in the way of that truth?
You’re absolutely right. Of course the reporter was devoid of any ethics to speak of, but at the same time, it was also not news. News, upon inspecting the headlines of any major news site like cnn, fox, or msnbc, appears to be whatever the most tragic, tear-jerking story is at the moment–regardless of it’s impact on the broader public. Because people will read it. And while they do, they’re presented with even more sad related articles that they will read, all the while providing ad-impressions to the networks’ advertisers. The readers come away sad and depressed but will return later to see if something even more tragic has happened. And it is broad public impact that we should be really concerned about. For example, my borg cube has been orbiting the earth for a week, slowly assimilating commentators at FoxNews and a few Techcrunch writers, like that Gillmore guy, and yet know one will report on this. Why aren’t people twittering, “borg invasion imminent. Brit Hume has been assimilated.”?
“In a move that was not only morbid, but called into question by a slew of critics, a Colorado newspaper reporter Twittered a three-year old’s funeral Wednesday after the child died in a car accident earlier in the week.”
Um, it might have been worth noting why exactly a reporter was at this funeral. Kind of like commenting on a hurricane and not mentioning the weather.
What’s the difference between tweeting a funeral and shoving a camera in the face of the grieving?
Very disturbing use case of twitter that makes me a bit ill. Did the family ask for this exposure? I seriously am saddened and disturbed by this.
It like having a reporter take pictures at the gravesite. Nothing could more cold and heartless. My prayers, positive thoughts and well wishes go out to this family in their time of loss.
Rodney Rumford
What next child birth on twitter ?
Tweeting childbirth on twitter has happened several times already. It is celebrating the monumental occasion of life coming into the world.
People have a choice to twit or not (normally it is proud poppa’s perspective where he is bursting rightfully with joy). Women have done this as well.
Not like what this doorknob did in “reporting” a tragedy. Yo Berny, drop me a line as i would love to hear your insightful perspective over a beer.
It just seems tactless. Would you sit in the back of a funeral home, talking on your cell phone, giving the play-by-play?
This is merely a case of social moras being challenged and because it’s death - people get all excited.
I don’t mind people twittering about their lives, this was part of the reporter’s life - he was there, he didn’t know the girl, he gave the play by play of what was happening.
Now if he had stood up in the front and gone “OMG I’m totally twittering this” - or interfered with the funeral, then I’d call him out.
But death, funerals, dying shouldn’t be censored. If my friend can twitter from the birthing room about her child being born, we should be able to twitter at the beside of a dying person - or at their funeral.
I think it is far more respectful to Twitter the event rather than have it go unnoticed. If anything, this has brought awareness to the tragedy. A young child is killed by someone that shouldn’t have been around in this country in the first place. That’s the real story here. The funeral is to honor and respect the decedant. Shouldn’t the press use any and all means necessary to make sure that no one suffers this way again.
Shame on all of you that focus solely on the method of reporting and not on the tragedy being reported.
Actually, I don’t believe it was disrespectful to twitter the funeral, however, I do believe it was a mistake to do so without standard punctuation.
The lack of capitalization and the extreme shortness of the tweets comes across as rude, while a fully formed sentence structure would impart formality, and therefore respect, to the tweets.
very good
very very thanks