ABC: Will Avoid Use of Planes Video

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Bob's Note: This action by ABC is another example of the Liberal controlled media complex in action. ABCNBCCBSCNNNPR and the other major media feel that only things they want to broadcast are news. Anything else is not broadcast and therefore is not news. They broadcast the Rodney King beating feverishly for months and even lied about that. They cut out all the previous footage showing Rodney, drunken and drugged, attacking the officers before the beating began. The Rodney King footage was shown to the point that it caused a race riot in Los Angeles. Shortly after that was his famous statement, "C, c, ccc...Can't we just all get along," in a TV interview on the gigantic amount of damage "the 'hood" had suffered. Broadcasting that for months 5,000 times a day was fine. Now we have a terrorist attack unequalled in our history and they want to bury it after a week. I guess it's not news anymore.

By David Bauder
AP Television Writer
Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001; 7:03 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK –– The arresting video images of airplanes slamming into the World Trade Center won't be shown again on ABC News without the network news chief's special permission.

ABC News President David Westin ordered the ban Tuesday amid concerns expressed by viewers that their repetition is proving disturbing.

"There is a sense that repeated use of these images is inappropriate," said ABC News spokeswoman Su-Lin Cheng Nichols. "People will remember these images forever whether we put them on or not. It's no longer a public service to continue to air them."

Competing networks say they're airing the images less than they did last week simply because the story is moving on.

ABC anchorman Peter Jennings said on the air Friday that many viewers had called or e-mailed to say they were troubled by the repeated use of the footage.

"We are mindful of that," Jennings said then, "and we have done our best ... to be really judicious with our use of images that seriously trouble a great many people."

Even last Thursday, CBS News President Andrew Heyward told The Associated Press that his network was being careful in using the images, generally restricting them to stories where they are relevant, such as a discussion about the structural reasons for the buildings' collapse.

"Our policy has been what it's always been when there is sensitive video," CBS News spokeswoman Sandra Genelius said Tuesday. "The editorial decisions are made on a case-by-case basis."

NBC News spokeswoman Barbara Levin said the footage is airing less. "We will only use it when it is appropriate and germane to the story," she said.

Some cable news networks were criticized in the days following the attacks when the images were used as part of on-air promotions of their coverage. That use has generally subsided.

A CNN spokeswoman also said the network is being judicious in use of the video, but has no blanket ban.

© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press