H-S criticized
The Herald-Standard exhibited poor editorial judgment on Thursday by publishing the framegrab from a video by a murderer aiming his gun at WDBJ-TV reporter Alison Parker just moments before she and her cameraman, Adam Ward, were shot and killed during a live TV broadcast.
My opinion is based on my experiences working for 18 years as a newspaper reporter, including covering far too many shootings and homicides while on the crime beat for a large daily newspaper, and now doing volunteer work and financially supporting Every Town For Gun Safety, a nonprofit group that advocates responsible gun control.
While the Herald-Standard didn’t splash the video framegrab or others similar to it on its front page as did the New York Post and the Daily News, your decision to publish the photo was nonetheless callous and helps foster the ambition of others seeking gratification and publicity by doing similar killings. The same editorial standards that prevent, at least so far in mainstream media, the publication of photos and videos of beheadings by ISIS extremists should have applied in this instance.
Richard Ringer
Uniontown