luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

Thank you for taking the time to look and comment.

gwilliams6 response was VERY informative and answered my question along with an excellent example. The YouTube link he provided led to a documentary about the beginning days of the Ukraine war. It is graphic in places and heartbreaking. I would recommend watching it if you have an hour and a half to spare. This video shows some of what a photojournalist goes through to get the story.

TerryVS, mnmark, and Tom W were helpful with their responses also. I hope you saw those as well.

Dodie

gwilliams6

gwilliams6

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Thanks Dodie for your question and to all those who made informative or supportive replies.

Now a question. Was anyone, at all, surprised by the snotty snarky replies by User ID and Superfly TNt? I wasn't.

Tom W Loc: Lincoln Co, WA

I'd venture to say some people should have their cot set up in the attic....

User ID

So you really think something useful actually transpired in this thread ? Rotsa ruck to him who relies on legal advice from the clown car.

(Download)

gwilliams6

gwilliams6

RetCapt Loc: NorCal mountains

I am a retired first responder, 30+ years law enforcement, 16+ years fire/EMS. Both fields also included much SAR.

Over that period one deals with a lot of tragedy, so much so that too many emerge at the other end of such careers with PTSD.

Given that environment, the media are going to be there. That is their job. With very few exceptions I found the many photojournalists I dealt with to be able to balance professional responsibilities with compassion. In my LE career I worked a violent area with a great incidence of gang violence, sometimes against innocent young children related to opposing gang members, so as to affect the entire family. Most of my career was in command ranks in field operations, so I was, whenever I was on duty, the ranking member and thus the incident commander. One of my responsibilities, unless I had a PIO with me, was to liaison with the media. The regional media and I got accustomed to working together. In return for them not being intrusive, and letting my troops do their jobs, I made sure they were able to get their stills and video and would release what information I could on-camera. This mutual professional respect worked extremely well. I never considered the media to be the enemy. They knew it and responded in kind.

The responses of the several photojournalists on here are examples of the majority of photojournalists with whom I worked. Their information is excellent, and responsive to OP's inquiry. That is class and professionalism.

I cannot fathom the numerous other flippant non-responses. But in my short time as a member here, I see this same nature of posts in countless other threads.

It is unfortunate that once one learns their way around here, just seeing certain user names at the top of a post reliably indicates their credibility.

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

RetCapt,

First, thank you very much for your service with Law Enforcement and with Fire/EMS.

Second, thank you for your response reinforcing that not all media are paparazzi.

Yes, there are a few people on this site that like to instigate drama but it is so much better than when I joined back in 2013. I was about to quit when a nice person sent a pm and explained the troll and nasty person situation. After that I had no problem steering around them and finding the people who cared and were there to help. Don't give up on UHH; there are plenty of good people and lots of information worth sticking around for.

Thank you, again!!

Dodie

TerryVS

"I made sure they were able to get their stills and video and would release what information I could on-camera. This mutual professional respect worked extremely well. I never considered the media to be the enemy."

Thanks for what you do and your professionalism. Most contact with emergency officials for me are positive. The biggest issue is when there's a body lying in plain view. I shoot video as a profession (TV) and stills for social media. I've had officers come unglued over body pics. I invite them to review my footage. It's funny how the conversation changes when they see I've artfully hidden the body behind other objects!

At the end of the day we both have a job to do. Neither of us want to deal with what we're dealing with so let's get it done and move on.

As for folks here there's some good ones but with any group there's the turd in the punch bowl as well. Some of the best have left likely due to the snark.

Take care and enjoy retirement!

RetCapt Loc: NorCal mountains

luvmypets and TerryVS,

Thank you both for your kind words. I am greatly enjoying retirement. But not a day goes by when I don't miss what I was doing, especially the law enforcement.

On the internet, the only way to assess another person's character is what they write, good, bad, indifferent. I understand this. But I question if everybody does, or if they even care given the level of anonymity.

Going on that standard there are some extremely fine people on this forum.

The trolls are not going to interfere with that. In their own way they do provide an element of entertainment.