Sunday, September 7, 2008

LOOKING FOR AN ANGEL?

In the Sunday 7pm news, TV6's Leeron Brummel attempted to give us a heartrending story of a young mother of five who is down on her luck and needs some assistance (the segment was titled 'Looking for an Angel').
She has been given one week to vacate the place she has called home for the last four years. Although she gets support from the father (singular?) of her children and against whom she has a restraining order.

But Leeron, it was really strange that you went the route of listing all the bad behaviour of the children, including telling us that you and your cameraman had to caution them several times while you were at the house, the neighbours complain about them throwing stones into their yards and running into oncoming traffic, and the eldest daughter walking the streets at all hours of the day and night.
If your job was to make us feel sorry for that family and empty our pockets in sympathy, you failed miserably. Who vetted that story for you???
The only thing you made us think was "This woman cyah train she children?".

And to top it off, you gave us shots of every one of the woman's children, yet we did not see Sherry Ali's face at all. We saw the back of her head as she faced you for the interview, and we got a clear shot of you.
When did Sherry decide she did not want her face to be shown? Before or after you agreed to do the interview?
So she thought it was ok (and it seems you agreed with her) to exploit the children and play on people's sympathies to get some assistance, but no one must be able to recognize her?
What about the three children whom you told us are attending school? How do you think their friends/classmates will now react to them, after hearing all the not-too-pleasant details of their lives on your station?
Did you or your producer consider any other options in telling this story?
Steups!