A Small Victory

a moratorium on idiots in front of the camera

I tried to imagine American journalists working with regulations like this:

The Press Ministry ordered the second-tier Moskovia television station off the air Friday for its coverage of the hostage crisis and issued warnings to a number of other media outlets.

Deputy Press Minister Mikhail Seslavinsky said Moskovia had "directly violated" legislation on the media and the fight against terrorism and had incited ethnic hatred, Interfax reported.

Seslavinsky said the shutdown had to do with a program that showed exit routes that the hostage-takers could use to leave the theater where hundreds of people have been held captive since Wednesday night. He also criticized racist statements made by journalists and people interviewed, as well as a report about new members joining the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity group.

*******

On Friday, the ministry scolded the government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper for what it called an "inappropriate" photograph showing the body of a young woman killed by the hostage-takers, Interfax reported.

There's a part of me that thinks - especially after the whole sniper thing - that this is a great idea. Of course, the free speech lover in me would never really want this to happen. Just to certain newscasters. For instance, newscasters who write letters to serial killers in prison asking for their expertise. Or interviewers who thrust a microphone or camera into the face of someone who just lost a loved one in a tragic accident and asks "how do you feel?"

The more I think about it, the more I could go on. Good thing I have some comic book shopping to attend to today. But feel free to carry on my pissant point of view.