Report stirs debate: News or exploitation?

From Hal Boedeker Sentinel Television Critic

Local television newsrooms handled a child's call to 911 in sharply different ways.

WFTV-Channel 9 anchor Martie Salt suffered an unusual on-air moment last week: She choked up during Wednesday's 5 p.m. newscast.

"I couldn't read the next story," she says. "I was crying. Bob [Opsahl] took over. He picked up where I left off. I had to get my composure over the next few minutes. He had tears in his eyes too, but he could read."

Listening to a 911 tape stunned Salt. In a conversation with a dispatcher, a 7-year-old Melbourne girl told of watching her mother's fatal shooting. The girl identified her 18-year-old half brother as the gunman. Matthew Wayne Almand was later arrested in the slayings of his father and stepmother.

Salt's tears reflected the strong reactions the tape provoked in local television newsrooms, which handled the call in sharply different ways.

WESH-Channel 2 and WOFL-Channel 35 decided against airing the call.

"This tape takes advantage of a distraught 7-year-old girl at the worst moment in her life,'' says Ed Trauschke, news director at WESH. "We still covered the story. I don't think it [the tape] added anything.''

See what Paul Harris has to say about Exploiting A Child's 911 Call.