The Steve Irwin Tape?

[MarbleShark]

Here is an article that was written by the Associated Press regarding Steve Irwin. I am wondering what you all think of the existance of the video tape and if you feel it should be released.

Originally Posted by associated press

Should 'Croc Hunter' Death Tape be Seen?
Sep 5, 9:31 AM EST

The Associated Press

"If I'm going to die," the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin said in a 2002 interview, "at least I want it filmed."

He spoke with his usual humor, and clearly had no idea what would happen four years later. But the fact is, a tape does exist of Irwin's fatal encounter with a stingray while filming a TV show. And so the question arises: In the age of instant Web videos, might it get out? And in the broader sense, is making footage of a death public ever justified?

For its part, Discovery Communications, the network where Irwin became a star, said there was absolutely no truth to rumors that the footage, now in possession of police in Queensland, Australia, might be released.

But that doesn't mean there aren't concerns that someone could attempt to get their hands on it and publicize it for lurid means — or just to show they had it. That, said media analyst Martin Kaplan, would be tantamount to a snuff film.

"The only remote justification for publicizing this would be accident prevention," said Kaplan, of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. "But that argument is a stretch." Experts say deaths from a stingray encounter are exceedingly rare.

Irwin died Monday at age 44 after being stabbed in the chest by the stingray's poisonous spine while filming on the Great Barrier Reef.

He was hugely popular in the United States, becoming a star as he "Crocodile Hunter" on Discovery's Animal Planet channel. In an interview with Associated Press Radio in 2002, he discussed his passion for grappling with crocodiles: "That's what my hand and my brains are designed to do," he said with his trademark enthusiasm. "That's what I have to give to the world."
In the same interview, he noted: "If I'm going to die, at least I want it filmed ... If we blew a million dollars worth of cameras, at least we could have gone to MGM and gone, 'Hey, look at this tape.'"

Irwin's manager and close friend, John Stainton, had the painful experience of watching the videotape where Irwin pulls the stingray barb from his chest.
He called it "shocking."

"It's a very hard thing to watch, because you are actually witnessing somebody die, and it's terrible," he told reporters.

The fact that a tape exists recalls the death of Timothy Treadwell, a bear enthusiast who lived among them for a dozen years in Alaska before being fatally mauled in 2003. A video camera with the lens cap on captured the audio of that attack. It is in possession of a friend and has never emerged in public — though in his acclaimed documentary "Grizzly Man," director Werner Herzog was seen listening to it with headphones on.

Samuel G. Freedman, who teaches a media ethics class at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, says the issue is "whether there is any compelling public interest" in the release of something so shocking as footage of a death. Here, he says, there clearly isn't.

"The lay person is not going into the water trying to have encounters with stingrays," Freedman said. "It would be purely titillation and necrophilia if anyone were to show this."

There are dramatically different cases, Freedman believes, where there is a compelling public interest in having the option — as in the voluntary click of a mouse — to see the reality of a grisly death. To learn the harsh lessons of war, for example, or to witness the brutality of the beheadings by Islamic militants in Iraq — videos that were posted on Web sites used by the militants. (Others have argued that the existence of the militant videos is apalling.)

But those are very particular cases. In general, the explanations fall flat, says Kaplan of the Annenberg School, as when the Italian magazine that recently published a photo of Princess Diana getting oxygen moments after her fatal car crash called it "tender" and "touching."

In an era where almost everything ends up making it to the Web, is it inevitable that such a tape as that of Irwin's death would emerge?
"Only in the sense that there's a race for the bottom in our culture," Kaplan says. "This will take substantial vigilance on the part of the family."

[blue_eyes53813]

I think it should be up to the family.. I dont think they need to show the actual incident and his death, but maybe the before and what he was trying to show of the ocean... I dont even know how long the show is before he got stung/stabbed ..It should be up to the family..

[KMP]

nothing to gain by anyone watching that video. folks only want to see drama - it's sickening sometimes.

[Chiefmcfuz]

All in all it is up to Terri and the family if it is going to be released to the public. I however, will not watch it. Like I said in the other thread Steve Irwin, although I never met him, was like a member of all our families and a friend to all of us. That is how his personality was and how he wanted it. He invited us all into his family and became part of ours in doing so. So I won't watch it, I want to remember him in other ways and not remember him for the vision of him being killed right in front of me. I think it would actually be tasteless to show the tape. And in ref to the above article I think it was said in jest, I remember the interview and from what I remember he was kidding around not serious.

[Boomer]

I agree, it is like the Dale Earnhart issue. It is really the press, sick media that wants it and even trys to demend such in court, on the grounds of public interest, need and right to know. HogWash !! They are just looking to make money based on someones death.

[Woodstock]

Originally Posted by KMP

nothing to gain by anyone watching that video. folks only want to see drama - it's sickening sometimes.

Agreed...

[fishcrazy]

Why on earth would someone desire to see that? I've witnessed a murder and a suicide by people I don't even know and that was traumatizing. Why would I want to see the death of someone that I feel I know?

[reefjitsu]

I voted unsure. I spent alot of time thinking about this last night. My conclusion was that Steve would want it to be shown. Death is a part of life and Steve wanted to show us the natural world, which includes death and dying. Steve filmed many other very private aspects of his life, and I cannot imagine he would "shy away" from showing his end. I would not want to see it though.

"The lay person is not going into the water trying to have encounters with stingrays," Freedman said. "It would be purely titillation and necrophilia if anyone were to show this."

This statement could not be more wrong. Swimming with stingrays is big business in some places and thousands of people pay to swim with them every year. In addition to this, I have never been snorkeling or scuba diving and not seen one. They are dang near everywhere. Hopefully, people will now give those rays a little more room, myself included (similar dangers exist for those wishing to swim with dolphins or sharks).

[Frankie]

No.

[boozeman]

Originally Posted by reefjitsu

...... Swimming with stingrays is big business in some places and thousands of people pay to swim with them every year.

Stingray city in Grand Cayman...I went there a few years ago, it is a place about 5 miles off shore resting on a large sand bar. The water is about chest high and dozens of rays come up to you to be petted and fed. At the time the only rules that were given to turists were a. shuffle your feet as you walk. b.Don't stick out your thumb while holding the piece of squid(used to feed the rays). I don't know if things have changed..found their website..
www.stingraycitytrips.com

[BoomerD]

Marble, why are you so obsessed with this? You brought it up in the original thread about his death, then started 2 separate threads on it...
IMO, this should be decided by his wife and family ONLY. Not the fans. Not Discovery Channel, ONLY his immedate family.
While I'd watch the footage that led up to the incident, I really wouldn't want to actually watch him get impaled. It already feels like I've lost an old and dear friend, since I've invited him into our house for so many years.

[Gina]

I vote that we should not see it.
I've seen alot of death myself when I worked in a Hospital back in the middle seventies and I still remember my first one. I couldn't even move.
I don't really understand why Steve himself would have wanted that shown.
I want to remeber him as he was and if I saw it I'm sure that would be stuck in my mind forever.

[billyr98]

No... No reason to see this...

[XBwlr]

Originally Posted by KMP

nothing to gain by anyone watching that video. folks only want to see drama - it's sickening sometimes.

Agree here too.

[Rougiem]

Originally Posted by Boomer

I agree, it is like the Dale Earnhart issue. It is really the press, sick media that wants it and even trys to demend such in court, on the grounds of public interest, need and right to know. HogWash !! They are just looking to make money based on someones death.

Ditto Boomer....This is what the media "thinks"..yes "thinks" we want to see...Plain and simple irresponsible journalism on their account...