Shame on CNN

In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, there is no need to exploit the immense human suffering on the impoverished Caribbean island.

Unfortunately, a CNN crew ignored that fact.

Scenes of Haitians seeking food, water, medical attention and information about the fate of loved ones are heart-wrenching enough.

But just as bad are the manufactured scenes.

On Friday night, Anderson Cooper’s CNN program showed footage of reporter Chris Lawrence in the midst of a crush of Haitians trying to get biscuits distributed from the back of a truck by relief workers.

“You can see the incredible chaos here!” Lawrence yells over the noise of people yearning for their first taste of food in days.

“Everybody pushing and shoving, desperate for anything to eat,” Lawrence shouts while being jostled from side to side and back and forth.

Lawrence had no business positioning himself, and a camera/sound person we did not see, in the midst of the tumult.

Whoever at CNN decided to inject Lawrence into the scene should be fired.

Two hours earlier, I saw the same footage on BBC News, but shot from a wider angle.

And the BBC reporter—who, like Lawrence, gets to sleep in a warm bed in a hotel room in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, at the end of every grim day—did not insinuate himself into the chaos.

After Lawrence’s piece, he appeared in a live shot with Cooper as darkness had descended upon the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

“Here’s what those people were so desperate for,” he tells Cooper, holding up what he described as a biscuit in a white wrapper.

Did Lawrence really have to take a biscuit just to play show-and-tell on CNN?

Of course not.

Why not simply show footage of a Haitian holding a biscuit?

But CNN found it more important to exploit the story rather than report it.

Tragically, there will be many more casualties in Haiti.

Basic human decency from news-gathering organizations need not be one of them.

If you text “Yele” to 501501 on your cell phone, a $5 donation will be made to the Haitian relief effort. Your cell phone will be charged $5.

Text “Haiti” to 90999 on your cell phone and a $10 donation will go to the Red Cross for Haitian relief efforts. Your cell phone will be charged $10.