Sunday, August 27, 2006

Is It Remembrance or 9-11 Porn?

CNN has announced that on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9-11, they will replay their entire coverage of that day. Viewers and online folks can access it via the seldom-used CNN feature called Pipeline for free that day.

The story says:

"
NEW YORK - CNN will mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by replaying on the Internet the cable network's coverage of that day's events.

Viewers can watch how events unfolded starting at 8:30 a.m., minutes before the first reports of an airplane hitting the World Trade Center. The feed will run in real time, as the network showed it five years ago, until midnight.

For the day, CNN will make its online video service, CNN Pipeline, available for free. Normally, viewers pay $2.95 a month or $24.95 a year for four separate video feeds.

Online viewers will be able to watch live reports of memorial services through one of the feeds. So that viewers won't accidentally stumble upon graphic footage from 2001, the replay feed will be covered with a notice instructing users to click only if they want to watch.

"Our users may choose to view the stream of coverage from Sept. 11, 2001, or live coverage of memorial services at Ground Zero, or they may click through the numerous interactive elements on the site," said David Payne, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com. "They have the power to determine the best way for them to remember the anniversary."

So is this just shameless marketing of CNN's Pipeline services? Will they sell new ads to new customers?

Is this Remembrance or Tragedy as Porn?

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:39 PM

    It is a sad explotation of death and gives tribute to terrorist.

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  2. Anonymous2:12 AM

    Tragedy as porn is probably here to stay, as we now have a gajillion different ways to view things. If we'd had YouTube in 1963.....I'll let you finish that sentence.
    We thought the "eyes everywhere" would come from the government. What was it Pogo said?......

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  3. That is disgusting..
    And why am I not surprised?
    CNN & Fox are evils all unto themselves.

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  4. Why will you watch, John F.?

    On that day, CNN did not know who was behind the attack. Not one single sentence uttered by the talking heads on that day had any insight to the event other than "This is awful!"

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  5. Anonymous10:53 AM

    It seems disgusting to me. Instead of healing and bringing closure, it's going to rile people up again. Which is possibly why it's being done. Bush's support has been declining of late.
    I watched most of that day's coverage then. I won't be watching it this time.
    It's exploitation, plain and simple.

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  6. Anonymous10:56 AM

    It was porn the first time covered. This is porn reruns. Geez... They ought to just show some real porn.

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  7. It was porn then?

    Funny, I thought it was news.

    Now, all I can say is that to re-run the old footage from 8 am til midnight is disgusting.

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  8. Anonymous2:13 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  9. Anonymous2:16 PM

    joe,
    Yes, it was news. To the extent they showed the horror, and people watched, because it added some excitement to their viewer's lives made it porn. It was porn for the same reason they'll show, and people will watch, it again.

    CNN is showing what people want to see. They're not showing it to get themselves off. People like to watch horror. The more real and horrible the more they like it.

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  10. In my opinion, CNN's use of the repeat broadcast of that day to promo their Pipeline service is disgusting.

    I cannot explain anyone's reasoning to view it all real-time again. That said, many businesses use those images to sell something - just as some politicians and pundits use the images of that day to sell you on voting for them.

    Me? I'm just asking the question - is it remembrance or porn?

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  11. I think that's a false dichotomy. "Porn" implies that it's for prurient purposes, that the folks at CNN are getting their jollies off of this tragedy. I'm pretty sure that's not the case. What they are going for is ratings and profits and promotion, which is clearly not "remembrance". So it's neither of these. It's just business.

    P.S. Joe, I'm not saying this is the right thing to do. I'm just saying I think your question is fallacious.

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  12. me? pose an either/or which leads to an answer meant to damn?
    well .... yeah, i'll do that. :)

    though i do regret that decision which focuses attention on my wording rather than on the suck-ass manipulation of CNN.

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  13. It's more like a snuff film than porn if you ask me.

    Call it what you want, it's just in bad taste. Look, I'm all for making sure we don't forget what happened. Not so much as a pep ralley for the war or anything. But just so we appreciate life as we live it. But I think there is a more fitting and appropriate way to memorialize the events. Honestly, had Hitler been privey to a film crew, CNN would probably devote an entire day to rebroadcasting the death camp footage.

    Those lousy tv people - they'll do anything for a $.

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  14. Be a little nice to some TV people -- at least just the ones working in the biz that I know, wink wink.

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  15. Sorry. I'm learning how to identify logical fallacies in order to more effectively show politicians and pundits to be poopyheads. I saw your either/or question and got all excited because that was a fallacy I'd just learned. But you're right, what CNN is doing is despicable, and I hope that people will complain loudly until they (CNN) decide not to do it.

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