I am no cheerleader for the NFL, ESPN, or Joe Buck, but I give Buck, Aikman and ESPN generally positive marks for how they handled an unprecedented medical emergency during last night’s MNF telecast.
As the severity of the incident became clear they were respectful and restrained, and avoided speculation. When there wasn’t anything to say, they noted that, and didn’t say anything. I thought it was smart to switch to the studio and let those people fill time, rather than than have the broadcasters on site do that. sideline reporter Lisa Salter really distinguished herself, reporting what she could observe, filtering out what must have been a flood of rumors and speculation, all while allowing her humanity and emotion to appropriately come through. One problem with the restraint they showed is it created a vacuum into which anti-vax poison got injected over social media. Qualified physicians could tell what had likely happened, but I think ESPN was right not to put one of those on, and instead restrict themselves to what was actually known. Hoping for the best for Damar Hamlin, and all the young people who had to experience that. Until you actually witness medical professions engage in life saving intervention, it is difficult to prepare yourself for what it is like, and the sense that you might be watching someone you care about die. I am often critical of cliched provision of mental health counselors to the scene of emergencies, but this is a case where some of those folks are going to need someone to talk to. “The eerie and heartbreaking scene that unfolded on the field in the aftermath of Damar Hamlin’s collapse during Monday night’s Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game presented a virtually unprecedented scenario for ESPN’s football broadcast. As the network toggled between the game broadcast crew in Cincinnati and a subdued studio set in New York, a news outlet that had prepared to cover one of the season’s biggest games suddenly found itself covering a medical calamity. Viewers at home watched the developing story unfold slowly as commentators Joe Buck and Troy Aikman and sideline reporter Lisa Salters received information and relayed it in real time. Over the next three hours, the broadcast was measured, informative and emotional. Analysts, hosts and reporters tried to make sense of a lengthy delay and an initial report that play would resume; grappled with the obvious severity of the injury; and then finally made impassioned appeals for the game to be suspended for the night, a choice the NFL eventually made.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/01/02/espn-damar-hamlin-bengals-bills/ -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYJ0VNdgyyU5Rjuxmk2YUTuwO%3DK6gYke6An%3D60Qr3dG08w%40mail.gmail.com.
