A Twisted Ploy for Ratings?
Viacom-owned US TV network CBS is broadcasting footage, filmed by two French brothers, of the horrific scenes of the terrorist attacks on September 11, as witnessed by New York firefighters. The two French brothers had been allowed to follow and film a firefighter in his first six months on the job at a fire station near the World Trade Centre.
The program has fierce opposition from some victims' groups and fire fighters who think the timing of the broadcast, airing on Sunday, the day before the six-month anniversary of the tragedy, is insensitive.
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CBS has defends its decision, saying it is newsworthy and historically important. The network has also gone to great lengths to show it is not profiting from the broadcast, with only public service announcements and no paid-for ads being shown during the breaks.
The brothers who filmed the documentary are said to be donating any proceeds from documentary to the Uniformed Firefighters' Association scholarship fund.
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One has to wonder, with CBS's ratings slump, if this is really nothing more than a ratings stunt.
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I think it's too soon for this documentary to air. CBS is definitely doing it for the ratings. They have to fund Dave Letterman's new $31.1 million a year salary somehow.
I refuse to watch it. Watching it live, as it happened, was enough for me.
Then again.. You were in the state (city even?) when it happened. I think a documentary like that should be shown - In europe!
the whole thing hasn't quite sunk in here. We're still pinching ourselves. We don't meet that missing bit of skyline every day. I've re-watched all footage a hunbdred times and I'm still thing "no way.."..
Ok, so maybe I'm dreaming, but I'd like to see that documentary. I can see it being a bit more difficult to show "at home" - over here, it would be great.
right.. uh, that would be "a hundred" times and "I'm still thinking..". Remind me not to booze and post again.
It's ratings. It's all about ratings.
I agree it was a ratings ploy for sure. I cannot remember when the last time I actually watched CBS. Lettermans an old has been and needs to go to the retirement home with Stern. I did end up watching 9/11. It was tastefully done although a bit unecessary. The only real horrible thing was you could hear the people smashing into the ground outside every so often when they were filming in the lobby. Other than that nothing graphic was shown.
Now that it has actually been shown - did anyone see it? I heard it was quite good (though, many pointed out that the sound of people falling to the ground was gruesome), and showed men waking up in the morning regular guys - they just happened to be firefighters - and during the course of the day, they were heroes, just for getting on with their jobs in the midst of this horrible.
MeFi has some good comments on the show after the fact. Copy and paste this link to go straight to their thread:
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/15433l