INDEPTH: MEDIA
News, amateurs & videotapes
CBC News Online | May 14, 2004
The most famous instance of an amateur becoming a photo-journalist happened on Nov. 22, 1963, when Abraham Zapruder used his 8mm movie camera to capture 26 seconds of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The next most-famous instance – probably more significant in its impact on journalism – happened on the evening of March 3, 1991, when George Holliday was fiddling with his new camcorder in his home in a suburb of Los Angeles. When he heard tires screeching outside, he walked to his balcony and saw the end of a police chase on the street below.
He rushed back in to retrieve his camcorder, came out to the balcony and watched the police give chase to the driver on foot, watched them wrestle the man to the ground, then subdue him with a 50,000-volt stun gun. By this time Holliday's camcorder was rolling, in time to capture the police kicking and beating Rodney King. When the melee ends, King has 11 fractures to his skull, a crushed cheekbone, broken ankle, internal injuries and brain damage.
Holliday sold his tape to the local television station for $500. CNN picked up the 81-second clip, then ABC, CBS and NBC got in on the action. By the end of the year a study determined that the television clip had been viewed by four out of five Americans – phenomenal penetration of the television market.
If Holliday hadn't happened to have his new camcorder handy that evening, the world probably would never have known of Rodney King. The Rodney King beating brought in a new era of television news coverage: the amateur videographer. It was nothing less than the democratization and demystification of electronic journalism, a new age of media when anyone can be a journalist.
There have been other, lesser examples – a woman in Ottawa slammed repeatedly on the hood of a car by police, caught on amateur videotape. There was a similar incident in Quebec when a variety store security camera captured an annoyed policeman accosting another shopper who got in his way.
Osama bin Laden
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And now we have Osama bin Laden whom the United States says has been caught on video saying too much about the attack on the World Trade Center.
Someone found a 40-minute video of bin Laden apparently "gloating" about the Sept. 11 attacks. It has been described as an "amateurish" video, taken early in November. Officials in the United States refer to it as the "smoking gun" that establishes bin Laden as the mastermind behind the attacks that levelled the twin towers of the World Trade Center and smashed into the Pentagon.
The language used at the bin Laden dinner party is Arabic. Great care was taken with translations, which were shown as sub-titles. The language – oral language and body language – prompted U.S. President George W. Bush to say the video shows bin Laden "has no conscience and no soul, that he represents the worst of civilization."
Bin Laden appears to be laughing as he talks of knowing that a second plane would hit the World Trade Center. He appears to be amused that some of the hijackers did not know they were on a suicide mission, though someone says, "Allah, bless his soul."
There has been no word on who videotaped the session, only that it was found in a house in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, and that it was taken at a dinner party. Hard to believe someone as secretive as bin Laden would allow himself to be videotaped talking about such sensitive matters, especially two months after the Sept. 11 attacks – unless he didn't know he was being videotaped, in which case the amateur videographer was very brave, or very foolish.
Another thing, what if the videotape showed that bin Laden clearly didn't know anything about the terrorist attacks, or somehow demonstrated that he was not the mastermind behind the attacks? Would the tape still be shown on U.S. networks? Or would it be dismissed as obvious propaganda?
Yet another thing, would this videotaped bin Laden session hold up as evidence in any court of law, even a military tribunal?
The Holliday tape of the Rodney King was a fraction of the length, yet 10 times clearer. The 81 seconds of videotape recorded 56 blows by the police to various parts of King's anatomy.
Still, it wasn't enough to convict any of the policemen. They were all acquitted on April 29, 1992. which triggered a massive riot in Los Angeles in which 44 people were killed and nearly 2,000 injured.
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