CBS13: Watch your back, Sacramento

CBS13 last night reported a story about a local mom who left her baby in the car seat, covered by a blanket, while she went shopping. Parents in the audience, and also anyone with a pulse and a lick of common sense, are duly horrified. Fortunately the baby is safe and the mom is out on bail. Somehow the baby was allowed to return home with mom–apparently this is a possibility if authorities determine it’s okay.

But to CBS13, the real story is at the perp’s house.

Let’s all pause and agree that leaving a child in a locked unattended car is a horrible thing to do, and that anyone who does so is deserving of society’s scorn.

However, can we also agree that there is no reason for a news agency to show up at this person’s house to interview them, and to put that child on camera? The screenshot of the CBS13 video shows the sleeping baby’s face. I feel bad even linking to it.

Isn’t the whole point of this story that this poor child is a victim of neglect and abuse? Didn’t news agencies used to treat underage victims of abuse with a certain level of respect and out of that respect not publish their names and faces?

And in what way is the perpetrator of such a crime somebody who needs to be on camera for the 11:00 broadcast? The woman (whose actions, again, are indefensible) is shocked to see Ron Jones confronting her in the driveway. He claims that her crime is a matter of public record. Much of what we do in this country is public record. But what purpose does it serve to make us all potential public figures? Doesn’t the “fourth estate” exist to serve citizens by pointing the cameras at the other 3 estates? Is TV news so incredibly bankrupt of decorum, so absurdly and pathologically inept that it will treat any individual as a public figure in its search to beat the competition to the story?

When we began receiving tons of comments about Paul and Jen’s demise and reviewing the new broadcast, I mostly treated it like an odd diversion. I didn’t really bother to actually check out the newscast. But it’s time to agree that CBS13 is by far the most ridiculous local news outlet in Sacramento. Watch as in his laughable reenactment of the crime, Ron Jones demonstrates tossing the car seat in the backseat and shutting the door. So in addition to leaving the child in the car, she also didn’t install the car seat properly? Is that a matter of public record as well, CBS13?

(Why did it have to be Ron Jones, too. He’s one of the guys I respect because he seems to have been around forever but still doesn’t get the cush gigs. For shame, Jonesey.)

Author: CoolDMZ

"X-ray vision to see in between / Where's my kimono and my time machine?" View all posts by CoolDMZ