CNN’s reporting on the October 6 Massacre is a reminder that we’re not just stories

The journalism community in Thailand has condemned CNN’s actions when reporting on the October 6 massacre in Nong Bua Lamphu. They’ve released statements and presented their explanations, but not everyone is having it.

There’s a lot that’s already been said and a lot that will be said about the heartbreaking events of October 6. For one thing, we now have to distinguish which event we’re talking about: the student protests of 1976 or the mass killing of 2022 in Nong Bua Lamphu. There are conversations to be had on mental health and gun control, conversations which hopefully happen and produce results, though we may be wishing upon a nonexistent star. There’s also the bereaved, the parents and family members who were left behind, who shouldn’t be forgotten after everything dies down. 

But we also shouldn’t forget those who were lost. Thirty-seven—13 adults, 24 children aged 2 to 5 years old. These were toddlers. What were they doing when they got killed? Napping. 

Despair and frustration swept through the whole nation, and we’ll probably continue to feel it in the next coming days. The whole world is mourning with Thailand, but that mourning has unceremoniously been interrupted by CNN of all people. 

The multinational news channel has gone under fire for its coverage of the shooting, namely how two of their journalists filmed footage inside the murder scene barely 24 hours after the shooting. The floors were still stained with the blood of the victims. Later, a photo showed the CNN team climbing over the fence after having shot footage inside the daycare.

CNN’s report on the October 6 shootings draws the ire of the public

#กราดยิงหนองบัวลําภู: Image of CNN news crew climbing out of the childcare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu taken by a Thai journalist pic.twitter.com/Zj50VovIdE

— FCCThai (@FCCThai) October 8, 2022

Since then, the two journalists were slapped with a 5,000 baht fine, did the customary public apology and wai-ing that the police love, and have left the country. CNN has also taken down the footage and issued an apology.

However, this whole incident seems to be an indication that for the most part, anything that happens outside of the West is just merely a “story”. It’s heartbreaking, it’s saddening, and it could even be devastating. But if it’s nowhere near their shores, it’s just a story to read and watch.

CNN has been rather cavalier about the whole thing. When the official Twitter account of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand tweeted their statement condemning CNN’s actions, CNN simply replied to the tweet with their statement. They did the same thing when replying to the tweet of the Thai Journalists Association. The statement was never released as a stand-alone tweet. It seems like CNN has conveniently swept the whole thing under the rug—that is, for everyone else except Thailand. 

Their explanation behind what they did has also fallen on deaf ears, mainly because their explanation seems really hard to believe. They claimed they were given access to the daycare by Health Department Officials who weren’t authorised to give any sort of permission because, well, they were Health Department Officials. Surely the journalists would have clocked that.

pic.twitter.com/7bHfEEfwSX

— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) October 9, 2022

Fine, let’s say they didn’t. What was the thinking behind going into the scene of a crime barely a day after the crime had been committed? Did they really not stop to think while they were there inside that this was unethical? Did they wonder, if indeed they truly were allowed inside, why it was that no other news agencies were allowed in?

Even when everything was shot, filmed, and sent to whichever editing bay it needed to be sent to, the footage had to be edited, cut, and approved by a team of producers and editors. Sure, there were two journalists on the ground that day, but there was a whole team who saw the video and greenlit it to be aired. 

They didn’t do this in Uvalde. What made them think it was okay to do it now?

Their utter brazenness seems to show that throughout this whole situation, they were merely after a story. Yes, it could be argued that they simply wanted to get it out there to inform the whole world. But it’s also telling how they were okay doing it here but not somewhere like the US where shootings have, sadly, become the norm. The victims of Thailand deserve the same dignified coverage. Why would they think of them differently anyway? 

The victims of this tragic shooting aren’t just stories to be told in the same way that the victims of Uvalde and other school shootings aren’t just stories. These lives that were lost aren’t just names on a page. The thought of going into a crime scene after a situation like this would have never occurred to them if it happened in their hometowns, so why did it occur to them here?

Perhaps they weren’t even aware that this is the implication they were sending when they decided to point their cameras and start recording. It seems to be that way since it went through so many channels and still got greenlit. Only time will tell whether their apology is sincere, and hopefully, no one will ever be the subject of inappropriate reporting all because someone wanted to make good TV.