Thursday, September 18, 2008
Yesterday evening I happened to walk past the now well-known bicycle accident that took place in front of Marvin Hall. The scene was disheartening — EMTs bandaging a shaken young man who was nervously looking down at his own pools of blood on the pavement. At the time, I would have never guessed that The University Daily Kansan would draw so much attention to this somber incident the following day.
But it did — and I'm thoroughly disappointed by the disrespect the Kansan has shown to both the accident victim and KU journalism (“Biker smashes through back window of car,” Sept. 18). Since when does a quality university newspaper like the Kansan have the audacity to print an embarrassing front-page feature about the victim of a traffic accident, complete with a misleading, degrading headline and an array of gory photos?
First and foremost, Andrew Cirocco did not "hit a parked car," as the headline so boldly stated. The fact is, he ran into the back of a car that had just pulled up alongside a curb seconds before the impact. With that clarification, a reasonable person could imagine Andrew not seeing the car until it was too late. Unfortunately, many of those who caught a glimpse of the headline probably did not bother to read the entire article and discover this, which inevitably led to me hearing a number of students making a mockery of Andrew's gruesome accident today.
I realize that not every day in Lawrence brings fascinating news, but that doesn't give the Kansan the right to take an isolated traffic accident and turn it into a grandiose cover story with a close-up photo of the victim's dazed stare and blood-oozing chin. I thought those types of stories were more the forte of The National Enquirer — though after today's paper I'm not so sure of that.
What happened yesterday should have been reported in a thoughtful, discreet manner, both for the sake of those affected by the accident and for the virtue of good journalism. Sadly, the article was a lowbrow attention-getter that made a young man's frightening misfortune the entertainment for an entire student body.
If you were Andrew, would you be troubled by the article?
—Travis Kimple is a sophomore from Beloit.
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Comments
Letter: Has the Kansan turned into The National Enquirer?
I definitely agree, it was an accident, it wasn't really worthy of this kind of coverage. If there had been more serious injuries, then perhaps it would have been.
Letter: Has the Kansan turned into The National Enquirer?
I had almost exactly the same thought when I saw the UDK: Even if the article was factually correct, a full-page close-up of a terrified guy (a KU student and 'Kansan' reader) with his face smashed up is kind of low. It's cool that they sprang into action to get the story and a good shot as it happened, but I wonder if there was a discussion about how to present it.
Letter: Has the Kansan turned into The National Enquirer?
I'm glad that someone wrote such an appropriate response to that terrible article. Somebody needed to. The staff of The Kansan really disappointed me with their incredible disregard for morality. That poor guy, he would have to explain his scars to everyone WITHOUT the campus-wide attention. The cover story of the Sex on the Hill article too... wait, don't get me started.
Letter: Has the Kansan turned into The National Enquirer?
AMEN!
Letter: Has the Kansan turned into The National Enquirer?
I would be mortified if I were him.
Letter: Has the Kansan turned into The National Enquirer?
He got hurt because he wasn't paying attention. An accident with injury on Jayhawk Blvd. is front page news for the UDK no two ways you look at it. If it had been two cars with the same injury, the paper would cover it the same way. An even larger paper, say the LJ-World, would too.
No one is exploiting him. He got hurt, through his own fault, in a public area. It made for good news. It deserves to be on the front page. This is news precisely because of all the talk about Lawrence not being a biker friendly town. Stop complaining.
Also, he was traveling fast enough to break out the window with his head. I’d say that warrants the word smash. And the car had been stopped long enough for a passenger to enter the vehicle. It didn’t just slam on its breaks. I’m not happy the kid got hurt, but don’t complain about the news coverage. Use it to your advantage. This is a good reason to lobby for bike paths on campus.
Letter: Has the Kansan turned into The National Enquirer?
40 stitches or however many the kid ended up having seems like a pretty serious injury to me. As I have said before, if bicyclists want the respect of being considered the same as cars, then they need to expect the same restrictions, such as rear-ending people another car being his fault regardless of the "stop duration." A car accident with injuries like this is front page news, and a bike story is the same.
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