Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) is demanding the media stop airing footage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.
Speaking with CNN via phone on Tuesday morning, Scott sensationalized the horrific video footage of the bridge collapse as “something out of an action movie.”
“It’s something you never think you would see. And being here, right now, looking at it is even more surreal,” he said.
Then he made an odd demand of the media.
“I’m going to be the first to ask that CNN and everyone else stop showing the video,” Scott said. “No one needs to see a possibility of their family member being severely injured or otherwise over and over and over again because it’s just traumatizing our community.”
“Fair enough, mayor,” CNN anchor Sara Sidner responded.
The request is downright bizarre.
The media’s job is to cover the news, including when a massive cargo ship collides with a major piece of infrastructure to cause its sudden collapse. The video is key to the story because it demonstrates the magnitude of what happened.
Without the video, Americans miss critical context of the shocking incident, like the fact that the ship appeared to lose power twice before colliding with the bridge.
We don’t demand the media stop showing pictures or videos of tragic incidents because such multimedia exists to document history. Every year, videos of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are replayed on social media and on TV. That was one of the most traumatizing days in American life, yet no one is demanding the videos should stop being aired, because Americans universally understand their significance.
Rescue efforts, meanwhile, remain ongoing to find at least six people, officials said Tuesday afternoon.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) said earlier in the day that bridge officials are “heroes” because they acted quickly to stop traffic on the bridge once they heard the cargo ship’s “mayday” call and realized the ship was going to collide with the bridge.
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