The bloody death of a Carnival Cruise Line employee, witnessed by passengers no less, is a gruesome and sad story to say the least, but perhaps the mainstream media's and witnesses' approach to its coverage is also devastating.
Two passengers, Matt Davis and his wife Susan, were aboard a three-night Carnival Ecstasy cruise when they came across an elevator door cascading with blood as it struggled to open and close. Exact details have yet to emerge from an ongoing investigation, but 66-year-old Carnival electrician, Jose Sandoval Opazo, died as a result.
It's first important to note that accidents happen anywhere, even while on vacation unfortunately, but CNN seems to often forget that, readily crucifying the cruise industry with sensationalized coverage and quickly adding fuel to its yellow journalistic fire with this new report.
Read on, and the news agency adds to a list including Carnival Corporation's 2012 Costa Concordia capsizing and 2013 Carnival Triumph disabling. But is this kind of perpetuated negativity warranted? Yes, it's generally important to put things into context, but given CNN's ceaseless anti-cruise track record, I say no.
Quite frankly, Cruise Radio's commentary is most spot on. Rather than painting the videographer, who was able to milk "15 minutes of fame" from the incident despite his apparent shock and urgings by other crew to leave the scene, as the victim, Richard Simms reminds us that the real casualty was the employee who perished onboard.
The piece quotes Carnival's senior cruise director John Heald as saying, "Jose was an inspiration to his colleagues and was tremendously respected and admired… He will be greatly missed." And may he rest in peace.
I'm sure any of us would be sickened by the scene that the cruise guests saw, but is a reaction to record its immediate aftermath the right response? I don't think so. Surely there is lots of television programming these days featuring fictionalized gore like "The Walking Dead," but knowing the captured image here is real, makes it exceedingly more terrifying. And it's one I really didn't want nor need to see.
Maybe it's best if we all just put down our cell phones at times like these and respect the dignity of the real victim, and maybe CNN should consider not publishing it. That is all.
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