Radley Balko on NY Times photo: " I can’t really conceive of a scenario where it wasn’t staged."
Radley Balko wrote on his blog, The Agitator:
I’m trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was taken. I can’t really conceive of a scenario where it wasn’t staged. Which means the caption is misleading. Also, who does this? I’ve never been in a car where the driver asked the passenger to hold the wheel so he could use both hands to send a text message. Does this actually happen?
It's a good question. What *did* the photographer talk about with the kids in the car?
UPDATE: PDN Pulse asked the photographer, Dan Gill, about the photo. He says he took it last year when the NYT assigned him to hang around with a group of teenagers. He didn't stage the photo, he says.
"In the course of doing the story in which I was hanging out with or shadowing three high school students I made the picture."I met them at their high school after classes and spent the evening with them. I told them I would be with them but to forget I was there. It did not take them long for them to forget I was there. We rode from school to one of their houses and down an inter belt highway. The driver was constantly texting 'his girls' throughout our travels. At one point on the eight-lane inter belt either the driver suggested his friend hold the wheel or his friend suggested it...and they did it.
"Were we safe? Probably not.... As journalists, we are not here to judge or to direct, but only to observe and tell the story."
the latest
latest episodes
never a teenager?
doesn't everyone do this? Not text and drive, but hold the wheel for someone else while they do something like open a can of soda. But sure, the photo was clearly staged, why was the reporter in the car in the first place. He/she clearly said, so how do you text and drive? And the kids showed him. I wouldn't doubt kids do it all the time. Hopefully if they are doing it they have someone hold the wheel, rather than just texting with the wheel free.
While riding to work in a casual carpool, I've had a driver ask me to use her phone to send a text message for her. I'm fine with that.
Same thoughts here when I saw it this morning - it's like a "reality tv" show where the actors pretend they don't notice the camera following them around.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of teenagers.
What in the world did we do while driving in the days before cell phones anyway?
I've never done it to send a text message, but I've been on both sides of a situation where the passenger has held the wheel like that.
Most common was getting an overshirt or jacket off while driving. But other reasons have been spilled drinks, wiping off a fogged windshield, something needing retrieval from the driver's footwell, etc. The most memorable was having something hit the windshield and completely cover the driver's side. The passenger steered until the wipers were able to clear off the mess.
It isn't hugely safe, but it is miles safer than trying to deal with whatever situation/emergency and steering at the same time.
Of course it's staged. Every photo you see (excepting photojournalism) is staged. Every portrait, every shot of a device, every location, every plate of food. All prepped and lit for the best shot.
Photos such as these are used to visually make the point of the article. They are not supposed to be reality. The point of the photo is clearly that texting while driving is unsafe. Trying to take the photo so literally is unreasonable.
As far as referring to the article as 'scare story', I disagree. As someone who has stood on street corners holding signs, watching drivers as the stop and wait, I have personally seen how busy people are with phones while driving. This is a serious problem that is widely unaddressed.
Actually, I believe that teens would do something like this. I'm more interested in the circumstances under which this photo was taken. Did the photographer say -- "Hi kids! I want to ride around with you while you drive and take some photos?" I kind of doubt it.
PDN covered this last night. here is a link.
No, it wasn't staged.
http://www.PDNPulse.com/2009/07/the-story-behind-the-new-york-times-textingwhiledriving-photo.html
Perhaps they should have staged an actual situation that happened to me the other day while on my bike - I was nearly hit by a driver because he was chatting on one phone in his left hand while texting on another phone in his right hand. He then scowled at me after he slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting me, as if I was the one who had done something wrong.
In fact, in pretty much every instance that I've almost been run over by a motorist, a cell phone was in the motorist's hand. Half the time, they didn't even seem to realize that they'd nearly killed someone.
Try riding with a driver who uses his knees to steer while texting. My coworker regularly drives like this and he's in his 30s.
It's not just teenagers, either.
I know two people personally who both have been known to text and drive. Both are over 25 years old. :p
Then there is this dude- caught speeding while watching porn...which begs the question, how many hands did he have on the wheel?
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/07/20/10196971-cp.html
I can imagine a scenario where two teens could be dumb enough to try something like this, but a NYT photographer just happening to be in the back seat at the time seems a bit too fortuitous.
I have had drivers (mostly co-workers, while on work related travel) get me to 'hold the wheel' while they complete some task with their hands such as write a text message or deal with something else that suddenly became more important than minding the road.
I try, whenever possible to avoid being in the same situation with these people.
A colleague of mine from university used to brag about how she drove with her knee while texting using both hands.
I wish there were a way to void these peoples licences...
Ya - probably staged. BUT! This scenario happens. I used to run around with a girl who would have me hold the wheel while she applied makeup....
I've seen it, and I'm no teen (I'm not yet 40). It was within the past month.
If you think about it, though, it is not much different than my father's generation. He would often tell my mother to grab the wheel so he could take off a jacket or overshirt on a long road trip. I even once remember him doing it so he could look for something in his wallet.
Folks, folks, folks, read the comments before jumping on the bandwagon. As someone else pointed out above, PDN already spoke to the photographer. Yes, it really did happen unstaged.
http://www.PDNPulse.com/2009/07/the-story-behind-the-new-york-times-textingwhiledriving-photo.html
I've done this recently for a friend of mine, who was messing with his iPhone for some reason or another (I don't recall whether it was texting or not).
I've also done this quite frequently in the past for various reasons (people changing clothes, messing with a map, boredom, etc.).
So, the photo was probably staged, sure. But, I have at least seen this done a bunch, and in fact done it myself.
obviously he has never hot boxed an automobile whilst driving
Huh? This surprises you? I do this all the time, and my high score is over 9000.
When I was a teenager I used to hold the wheel for my buddy while he ate a Big Mac.
Texting while driving is sooooo 2007. In 2009 it's all about surfing the web and writing emails at the wheel. And everyone knows that any self respecting wheel(wo)man drives with his or her left knee whilst multitasking. Such as when rolling a joint or bearking up weed to pack a bowl. Harder to do on the street as opposed to the highway because of the need to shift gears, but it can be done.
If you've never had another person hold the wheel while you grabbed something out of the back, or steered with your knees while opening a bottle or something that you grabbed out of the back, then you're a damned dirty liar. Or a New Yorker who's never gotten a license.
That said, this is still mind-boggling stupid. Have the other person attend to the phone. Duh.
If I was the photographer, I sure as hell would have said something--not because I thought it was "up to the photographer to be the parent," but because I wouldn't have wanted to get killed.
And, I'm sorry, the scenario still doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't the teen driving the car have just asked the passenger to send the text, rather than having him hold the steering wheel? I suspect they were goofing on the photographer, trying to freak him out.
Anyone who has ever smoked weed in a moving car has encountered this exact scenario (sans cellphone).
"If you've never had another person hold the wheel while you grabbed something out of the back, or steered with your knees while opening a bottle or something that you grabbed out of the back, then you're a damned dirty liar."
Or someone who can drive while keeping their eyes on the road. Want something out the back? Wait till you get there, or ask your f**king passenger to get it for you, you idiot!
And that's so EARLY 2009: the new "in" thing is driving while trying to find Those Darn Ebooks (TM) that Amazon repossessed from your Kindle. That, or driving whilst bashing one's Kindle against the steering wheel.
I'm kind of surprised they even bothered to have someone else hold the wheel. Comparatively responsible! (I've seen someone driving along while eating a chicken wing -- with both hands.)
"Does this actually happen?"
Yes. I'm a high school teacher, and I have not only listened to numerous conversations between students where they discussed their various strategies for texting, applying makeup, eating, etc. while driving, but I have witnessed them on many occasions, driving to and from school. This includes the "here, hold the wheel for a second" technique illustrated in the photograph.
While it's certainly dangerous and makes me terrified every time one of my students proudly brandishes his or her newly minted driver's license, their strategies are often pretty ingenious. I once had a student demonstrate to me the proper hand position for holding a taco upright while shifting, without spilling the taco's contents, freeing the left hand to steer.
These kids, I tell you. When they're not busy putting themselves and others in mortal danger, they're coming up with brilliant ways to do so more efficiently.
From the photographer - quoted from the PDN site linked in the comments above...
Gill says he thinks this practice was common for them. "Would the kids be texting if I were not there? Yes," he says. As for whether he should have told them to stop rather than taking a photograph, he says, "It's not really up to the photographer to be the parent."
Has nothing to do with being a parent - if I were the back seat adult passenger in a car with two yahoos doing this, I would bloody well be yelling for them to stop, not snapping pictures.
I used to hold the wheel for my girlfriend while she napped on long drives home from the bay area. She drove a stick shift and I'd grown up being taught that driving a stick was impossibly difficult thus I wouldn't dare try it. I've also allowed other people to steer while I was eating something that required two hands. I'm sure I quit doing any of this around age 23, when I matured a bit. When I hear of teens having sex and babies and doing drugs I remember how naive and reckless I was and can't believe we don't supervise them more. Do you know how fast I used to drive?
Has anybody read the link posted by #7?
So bloody what if it was staged. Is that all this blogger took away from this article? It very appropriately pointed out the issues with distracted driving except Radley Balko or whoever this idiot is has has panties in a bunch because they might have used a staged photo! Boo @#$# hoo.
Sorry for being grouchy, but people who feel that they need to constantly be in communication with others while driving PISS ME OFF! If there is an emergency, I can understand but we all know people who think it's ok to carry on the most mundane chats while driving. Sorry, I don't care how bloody long you've been doing it, you are distracted and you are hazard to yourself and others so STOP IT!
#3: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of teenagers."
I think you went one negative more than you intended. ;-)
Amateurs...here in San Fran, you'd need a bigger lens to catch the simultaneous sandwich eating and makeup applying while texting.
I'm not sure how I survived my teenage years, but we'd swap drivers while driving. Usually one would slide under/over. We also did it by crawling across the roof of the car and coming in through the driver's window.
Getting outside of the car while holding the door and "skating" down the streets on Converse All Stars. The shoes heat up so sometimes you have to take them off when you get back in.
All of this on busy streets at teenage speeds.
I'm crowing 40 and I've never been in a wreck. I just spent 4 months riding a motorcycle through India, too. That was more dangerous then my teenage antics.
I didn't even think twice when I saw this photo and thought "I can’t really conceive of a scenario where it wasn’t staged" was a joke. Seriously.
hey, remember driving along while your buddy in the front passenger seat crawled out the window, over the roof rack, in the driver's window and took the wheel from you as you scootched over?
Do teens do it? Absolutely. Even "adults" (yes, the quotes are sarcastic) do it. But I do have concerns that the photographer may have put them up to it, which would be both unethical AND stupid.
oh sorry Gornzilla, I see you do.
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I had a friend in high school who used to do this for me all the time. And I frequently was asked to take the wheel when he was driving. And I would never, ever, NEVER do it now.
Don't worry about it, Takuan. Teens are reckless. It catches me off guard when I meet people who think the photo would've been staged.
When I was 10 or 11, my dad would have me steer like this when he was checking a map or going through his wallet, etc.
I'm surprised that so many of you find this unusual.
doesnt everyone do this! i will eat a taco and drink chrome soda and drive all at the same time!!!
I can tell you for a fact that GETV's Irina Slutsky does this all the time. It's so scary. I try not to be an enabler, but when she takes her hands off the wheel... it's do or die for the passenger.
Yesterday I saw a woman waiting for a red light with her hands off the wheel looking down. When the light turned green she didn't notice, the car behind her gave a small polite honk, and the woman just stepped on the gas without bothering to touch the wheel. I watched her for as long as I could try to figure out when she eventually grabbed the wheel. She seemed to be in both of her lanes (South Van Ness Avenue is a 4 lane road). I stopped watching and crossed the street.
When I was growing up, back when cars had solid metal dashboards and didn't have seatbelts, I used to steer for my Dad while he filled, tamped, and lit his pipe. I used to shift for him, sometimes, too - he'd open the clutch, shout "shift" or "downshift" and drop the clutch back in as soon as I found the gear.
That particular car had no gas gauge - you drove until the motor started coughing, then you pulled the lever that engaged the secondary tank and started looking for a gas station.
I'm posting this while driving a stickshift SUV on I-95 and drinking a cup of coffee. OK, not really. But I could, you know.
My mother used to have me or my sister steer for her when she was digging for something in her purse or had to blow her nose. Didn't have seat belts back then, either.
Why wouldn't they just have the passenger do the texting?
Oops, forgot to sign in. My sister and I used to steer for our mom when she had to root around in her purse for something or blow her nose. Didn't have seat belts back then, either. (Oh, and we were maybe 8 or 10 years old...)
Sorry if this gets double-posted.
My older sister, while driving me to some school thing as a kid, pulled that on me. I think I was 12 or 13 at the time, and I just about had a heart attack when she barked "Take the wheel" and started pulling off her sweater. We ended up mounting the curb, but missed the fire hydrant. (Hey, I was a kid, had no CLUE how to pilot a vehicle, and was out of my mind with terror. Never mind piloting from the passenger seat with no warning.)
I, for one, have no doubt that the teenagers did it with an adult reporter in the back seat with no prompting WHATSOEVER. I am less certain, but entirely willing to believe that they did it naturally, without a thought to showing off.
Having an audience for your antics as a teenager sometimes encourages you to greater heights of ridiculousness, but it ALSO sometimes drives kids to "tone it down" out of fear of getting caught. I suspect they genuinely didn't see anything wrong with doing it.
As for "Why not get the passenger to send the text message?"
Dictating it would be public, resulting in that adult in the back seat overhearing the message. A mistaken belief in privacy is a big reason for texting. AND it's less personal to get someone else to do it.
And really, when you get down to it, teenagers have TERRIBLE judgment and risk assessment - it's part of the definition of "teen". The driver probably just plain didn't THINK, or if he/she did, overestimates his text-driving-ninja-master skills.
@takuan Can't say I do. But then again, over here they don't let you drive until you've turned 18. And lately they've introduced probation period during which minor infractions will result in revocation of said license.
@the rest of the "I did this all of the time and look at me crowd": I'm not saying that this is the most dangerous behaviour in the world, but you *do* realize that people who did this and either got killed or killed someone is probably not going to step forward? So it's really pointless, data-wise.
Oh, and another thing: Can anyone explain to me why this Mr. Hill is still driving, after causing a deadly accident? I do not quite understand why he isn't in prison because of manslaughter, much less why he's still allowed to drive.
"Could you take the wheel for a second? I have to scratch myself in two places at once."
Who the hell cares if it was staged or not. As a 17 year old teenager, I have done the same. Text and have someone hold the wheel, or hold the wheel for someone else. Yes, its not safe, but neither is smoking. From the sounds of it, most of you believe teenagers don't do this, its true, almost everyone does.
-Jared
At least the photographer would have known his journalistic principles were safe if the "driver" (or should I say, "team of drivers altogether not equaling a single qualified, rational driver") plowed into another car while attempting this idiotic maneuver and injuring and killing some innocent person in the other car.
I don't care what your credo is for whatever you're doing, but if you witness something this witless, stupid, and inconsiderate of other people's safety, you break your little pretend wall of objectivity and tell them to cut it the hell out. (Because I'm sure the teens had totally "forgotten he was there". Or perhaps they were showing off for him due to that invulnerability teenagers are sometimes known for being deluded enough to believe they have.)
What makes me even sadder is that anyone would even have to point this out. Utter insanity.
whops. Forget my last paragraph. I really should look our for these "article continued on next page" indicators...
When I was still taking classes to get my license, I one saw, to my horror, a woman merging into freeway traffic READING A MAGAZINE while driving.
old-school paper magazine, fully spread out on her steering wheel.
Not new behavior. But still stupid.
My ex drove parts of the unpaved Alaska/Canada hwy steering with his knees while reading a book.
I'm always driving with my knee around LA super high, writing short blog posts on my iPhone.
not kidding.
no fatalities yet.
Anon57, wrong.
Am I the only one who uses a knee to hold the steering wheel?
Kids these days.
"Yes, its not safe, but neither is smoking."
Yeah ... and I don't smoke. So what's your point?
Is this a US thing? People in the UK Talk/Text, but usually with one hand on the wheel and the other on the phone. If you are on the phone then you really are a Tosser, you should be concentrating on the road. (The same vitriol applies to people putting makeup on/reading maps/adjusting the Satnav)
I have seen people hitting a bowl while someone else steers, why wouldnt this be real?
Y'know that part of your brain that recognizes a dangerous situation and tells you "Holy crap! I could get killed!"? Photo-journalists have that brain-part reprogrammed to say "Holy crap! This would be a great shot!"
I've gotta be honest, I think it would be pretty easy for a photographer to get a candid shot like this--without the kids showing off. I've been in the car with more than a few people who do this without thinking they're being daring or cool--they just do it because they want to do something other than driving. Yeah, it's stupid, but in a lot of teens' minds, it's not dangerous.
and really, I've done this for my parents. It's not necessarily a generational thing, besides the fact that the kid is texting.
I dated a woman who could drive perfectly well with her knees, so I am sure she could text and drive looking up and down essentially safely. Sure, there is some risk, but not much with a passenger to help.
roads were emptier back then.
If you don't want us to type on our smartphones while in the driver's seat, then it's BB's responsibility not to post engaging topics while I'm driving.
Sent from my iPhone
That's a fairly standard move, isn't it? I think most people perfected it in high school while cruising around getting stoned.
Oh it happens.
The only bad car accident I've ever been in was one where the driver was trying to unjam his dad's shotgun while the front seat driver (his friend who borrowed the shotgun) held the wheel on the way home from a day of pheasant hunting. I was 15 at the time and they were both 17, none of us knew any better.
Both of them were focused on unjamming the gun and didn't watch the road, we started drifting off the road to the right, I yelled and then came the inevitable new-driver over correction to the left. Ended up flipping end over end 5 times in an '81 Chevy station wagon off of those huge country road ditches. Shotguns, ammo and dead pheasants were scattered everywhere. We all walked away without a scratch, but "holding the wheel" isn't something I allow when I'm in a car now.
@Jared:
Yes, its not safe, but neither is smoking.
Smoking endangers the smoker and, to a lesser extent, the smoker's loved ones. Texting while driving endangers everyone on or near the road. If you're going to make an analogy then at least use the one that makes the most sense:
"Yes, its not safe, but neither is drinking and driving."
(Ya selfish little prick.)
Why is everyone going on about smoking pot while driving? It's just as risky as drinking while driving, and I don't see anyone bragging about pouring Jack into their 32 Oz Thirstbuster on the way to the club while someone holds the wheel... I've done that and man driving while someone else holds the wheel is scary if you haven't done it before.
These responses just go to show how misguided this citizen journalism thing is. Everyone who has worked in journalism has seen how people forget after a while they are talking to a journalist. It seems unbelievable, but the hot lights and the tv crew, that can all fade away sort of. not always. but sometimes it happens.
Then we have the responses where people say who cares if it was staged. Well of course you should care because journalism is about capturing truth.
Then there are the paranoid nuts who say of course it was staged these things always are. You people are simply uneducated and inexperienced. Sure there are staged photos in reputable publications, they're called portraits or they may be labled as photo illustrations. Candid photos though are candid.
For the most part journalists are too busy and too over worked to make things up. It's actually more work to make things up when you are a reporter or photo journalist.
Then for the people who think the photog should have stopped the kids... No. You don't interfere. You try to keep safe, but you don't interfere. You interfere and you become part of the story.
The real issue is not whether the photo was staged. The mere fact that there was a photographer in the car makes it staged.
The point is: Can anyone doubt that this activity occurs many, many thousands of times a day? Oh, and you don't need to be a teenager to do it.
Every car manufactured today should be required to have a built-in Faraday Cage. To prevent all electronic signals from coming in. Yup, including radio, if necessary. If there were a way to only allow passive (i.e. non-interactive) signals in, it would be great. I'm not an engineer, so I don't know if that can be done.
No matter what so many of you seem to think, the overwhelming experimental evidence clearly shows that humans do NOT multitask. They only think they do. The crap most of us do while driving is just nuts. But, the absolute dumbest in descending order are texting while driving and talking on the phone (hands free or not). Even if you had an extra set of arms
Ahh, youth.
Stupid? Yes. Dangerously reckless? Probably not.
I did this as a kid, but it was usually to facilitate taking a bong hit. I still do it as an adult when driving on the freeway if I need to grab a CD from the book or the like.
I agree that cellphones and gadgets are dangerous distraction in general, but wash the sand out of your vag's for chrissakes. The general incompetence of drivers is the core problem.
I say this as someone who's been rear-ended twice by people talking on their phones. They may as well have been fiddling with their radio or eating a big mac.
Never underestimate the invincibility of a teenager, or college student. The invincible ones who survive are more often the successful adults.
I remember one time in college when on a road trip with a friend (we went to a rural school) I held the wheel from the passenger seat while he climbed into the back seat looking for a particular CD. Cruise Control kept the car at an even speed.
Does anyone really think the teenagers weren't acutely aware of the photojournalist's presence?
I know I will set off the safety nuts with this one, but all I have to say is that driving is not a massively complicated task. Obviously you shouldn't text in traffic but on the open road, with plenty of space around, it is a totally manageable task.
What is stupid here is that the teenager pictured has a qwerty keyboard, so the phone is not easy to operate with one hand. If I am able to adjust my stereo, flip through a street directory/press buttons on a GPS or roll a cigarette while driving, then sending a text is not a big ask. I don't care what you have to say... it is no more complicated than any number of other activities that are considered acceptable while driving.
Some people should not do it - and this is why the law says we all shouldn't (because laws are generally built around the lowest common denominator). But the law is dumb (in some cases) and contradictory, depending on which country you are in - so the argument that I should just follow the law because I'm supposed to seems ridiculous to me.
I love Halo 3. Best game ever. There is no WAY my dad could play Halo - the multitasking required is just beyond him. There is also no way he could send a text while driving. Some people are just not capable of doing it and the concept that others might be texting while driving is scary to these people - as they think "oh my god, I cant do it so there is no possible way that person could do it safely! WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!"
As a teenager, the only time I held my friend's steering wheel when he was driving was when he was taking his jacket off. Pretty reasonable situation as well, IMO.
I've been in the car when the driver has asked me to hold the wheel while they did a line of coke... I was much younger then, and think back and have to wonder how I survived, there's just several things wrong with that...
I was hitchhiking and got a ride near Rockford IL on the tollway. He was a VietNam vet, this was the 70's. He said, "take the wheel while I roll a joint." I steered for the minute or so it took him to roll the joint and then he returned to driving while we both smoked it.
In those days, in my youth, I never felt unsafe hitching and riding with pot smoking drivers but I always felt unsafe with drinking drivers.
Go figure!
Just to add to the stew:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/21distracted.html?hp
And, Teapot@81, you simply illustrate my point. One need not be a safety nut to understand the limits of the human brain. Your youth mo more allows you to multitask than my wisdom. You can react faster.
This isn't too bad actually. I was driving south on the 15 from Murrieta to San Diego one day and saw a guy with his feet up on the dash (diagonally from the drivers seat to the dash in front of the passengers seat) with a newspaper open across the steering wheel, strumming a guitar and trying to drink a cup of coffee. And in the leftmost lane. May the FSM strike me dead if I lie. No doubt this idiot has been selected against by now. Hopefully he didn't take anyone else with him. I hope he didn't get a chance to reproduce.
I'm amazed at the leaner-over drivers who think that just because they can hold a steering wheel steady while the guy in the driving seat performs his acrobatics, they think they are in control.
What happens when something unexpected happens on the road? When a fellow textomaniac and his friend drift on to the wrong side of the road in front of you? When a car in front brakes suddenly? Do you really think that two people, one of whom isn't paying attention, have enough co-ordination to cope with even minor emergencies on the road?
I've been in a car where the driver was steering with his/her knees while rolling a joint!
I've held the wheel plenty of times for a driver who had to attend to something - my mother, my father, my friends - it didn't matter who was driving.
Why is it so hard to believe that this photo was not staged? I would have a hard time believing it WAS stage.
Please. I was nearly sideswiped by a guy driving on the highway last summer. He was smoking with one hand, reading with another, and steering with his knees.
A little passenger assist would have been an improvement!
I grew up in a time before texting but I still believe this picture. I was going skiing with 4 friends and we got lost along the way. The driver started looking at a map so the guy riding shotgun grabbed the wheel (like the picture). But, we were dumber than these kids. The guy riding shotgun decided that the driver had the wrong map so he got another map out of the glove box and started looking at it. This is when the guy in the back seat reached over the driver and he took the wheel (and then started pointing to the map that the driver was holding). So, yes, I believe that scenes like this picture happen every day in America.
"As journalists, we are not here to judge or to direct, but only to observe and tell the story."
If you're not here to judge, why did you photograph the kids doing what you judged to be a clearly dangerous act? The idea that the press should be neutral is a load of nonsense. First, they're not. Second, they shouldn't be. They should call it like they see it. Otherwise they're lending credence to the ridiculous things that happen every day.
Oh! I am concerned at the irresponsibility of others! I am calling for government action/decrying the breakdown of society/condemning ineffective government action! I am putting 1.1 million tons of previously sequestered carbon into the atmosphere each year with my bloated western lifestyle, almost certainly reducing the quality of life of everyone on the planet, so that I can eat cheetos while I register my deep concern for society's ills!
(in fond memory of Phil Ochs)
I was driving down a road when a car ran a stop sign right in front of me and turned in the direction I was heading. They had a TV or a laptop showing a movie and it was sitting in the center of the windshield. This road has a lot of those little crosses and wreaths along it denoting deceased motorists. I had always thought it was because of drinking and driving.
"If you're not here to judge, why did you photograph the kids doing what you judged to be a clearly dangerous act?"
Who made that judgment? The photographer said it was shot last year for another story. Who knows what the subject of that story was? It was his editors that chose to re-use the photo (which never even ran with the initial assignment) to illustrate the point of this story.
Yup, this used to be our M.O. for bonghitting-while-driving on the twisty backroads of northern Westchester...