Suicide today in my building (Arlington, Fredericksburg: school, tax, zoning) - Northern Virginia - Virginia (VA) - City-Data Forum

BeechF33A · 07-20-2010, 08:13 PM

This morning around 1000 someone smashed the window in his office on the 7th floor of our building in Rosslyn and jumped out, committing suicide. He was a Verizon employee. Died on impact.

I called Fox Channel 5 this afternoon to ask if they'd carry the story. They said no, they and other local TV stations won't carry it for fear of encouraging other would-be suicides.

I can understand their POV, but I also think a suicide deserves to be reported. It's definitely "news," particularly the one in our building this morning, which basically shut down the building entrance for the rest of the day. There were at least six Arlington police officers there all day.

Denton56 · 07-20-2010, 08:31 PM

It makes more sense than you might think. CopyCat suicides are fairly common. Suicides tend to give other people permission to do the same thing. If they are all over the news, even better, from the POV of people who might be thinking about suicide. They can kill themselves AND be famous. The media doesn't want to feel responsible for additional suicides. Copycat suicide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

tgbwc · 07-20-2010, 08:42 PM

I wouldn't expect them to cover it.

BeechF33A · 07-20-2010, 08:48 PM

I don't see why they wouldn't cover it. It's news. They definitely cover suicides in the Metro system. Kind of hard not to cover thousands of people being inconvenienced by a stopped train due to a suicide.

RVA-Jsn20 · 07-20-2010, 08:52 PM

While I wouldn't necessarily care if I saw it on the news, I would still think they'd at least mention it.

banevader · 07-20-2010, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeechF33A

This morning around 1000 someone smashed the window in his office on the 7th floor of our building in Rosslyn and jumped out, committing suicide. He was a Verizon employee. Died on impact.

I called Fox Channel 5 this afternoon to ask if they'd carry the story. They said no, they and other local TV stations won't carry it for fear of encouraging other would-be suicides.

I can understand their POV, but I also think a suicide deserves to be reported. It's definitely "news," particularly the one in our building this morning, which basically shut down the building entrance for the rest of the day. There were at least six Arlington police officers there all day.

Most media outlets rarely report suicides unless they are graphic or happen to be caught on camera.

Actually if they did, they would probably end up giving them a sizable chunk of news coverage as there are usually 10-20 suicides a day in major metro areas.

So..and I'm not trying to sound callous,OP...while this a major event for you and the people in your building,this is just routine for news departments.
And routine items just aren't considered "news" by the media.

tgbwc · 07-20-2010, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by banevader

Most media outlets rarely report suicides unless they are graphic or happen to be caught on camera.

Actually if they did, they would probably end up giving them a sizable chunk of news coverage as there are usually 10-20 suicides a day in major metro areas.

So..and I'm not trying to sound callous,OP...while this a major event for you and the people in your building,this is just routine for news departments.
And routine items just aren't considered "news" by the media.

I agree. It is different than somebody jumping onto a Metro track. So a guy commited suicide and it closed the entrance to the building. This might be news around the water cooler, but that's about it. Sorry.

ChristineVA · 07-21-2010, 04:09 AM

I did think it would get a mention too. My co-worker's daughter works in that building and she called her mom right after it happened. I think it's newsworthy in that it happened in a very congested area, that people could have/may have been hurt in the process, etc. I don't think it needed blow-by-blow coverage.

No, instead we got two nights in a row of the mean mockingbird in Fredericksburg.

Caladium · 07-21-2010, 07:53 AM

It's a sad story, but IMO a suicide isn't newsworthy unless it happens in a public area and needs to be reported as a traffic alert. Otherwise it's just gossip.

A person dying from suicide is really no different from a person dying from a heart attack in an office building--heart attacks don't make the nightly news, either, unless they happen in a public place. A guy who has a heart attack in his car and drives into a farmers market makes the news. A guy who has a heart attack in his office does not.

But I guess I'd rather see the suicide story make it onto the news than see national news on the local news. That's one of my biggest pet peeves--I hate seeing stories about things like the gulf oil spill on the local news! For crying out loud, the viewing area covers three states and the nation's capital. Yet they can't think of local news to report on?

I'd like to see stories on zoning changes, new laws, developments being approved, how the bag tax is working out, school issues, etc. etc. They'd have more than enough stories every day if they'd wake up and realize there's a lot going on outside of the beltway.

ChristineVA · 07-21-2010, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caladium

It's a sad story, but IMO a suicide isn't newsworthy unless it happens in a public area and needs to be reported as a traffic alert. Otherwise it's just gossip.

You are correct, of course!

My thoughts about it though were:

A) It appears he jumped out of a window on the 11th floor of an office building in Rosslyn (busy area, busy sidewalks).
B). He used a chair or something to bust out the window enough to jump so I imagine there was glass flying down (and maybe a chair).

Apparently, no one on the street was hurt but that was a close call, IMO.

Of course, I'm getting the story secondhand and maybe it's all wrong.

I just thought the news would have been all over it due to the location.