|
Sadly I feel the media has done a very poor job covering the tragic accident that happended Saturday night,. There have been a few articles that I have read that really get it that this was a tragic accident others don't get it at all. Also sadly I think we are about to witness round two. Young Kevin Ward Jr.'s calling hours are being held at the Trainor Funeral Home in Booneville N. Y. today, his funeral tomorrow has been moved to the South Lewis Senior High School in Turin, N. Y.. When I learned of this change yesterday it took me back years, we were exiting the church after Jimmy Shampine's funeral going down the steps of the church to media cameras going off in his families faces as well as many of the rest of the racing community members there to honor one of their own who lost his life in a tragic accident at Oswego. I have to admit the TV stations covering Jimmy's funeral were local news media channels from Syracuse N. Y.. I will also admit that until I saw the ESS notifaction yesterday about the change of venue for the funeral that I hadn't given much thought to the large media presence that will probably be covering Kevin's funeral.
I hope I am wrong and the news media will allow his family and the racing community this time to grieve in private and not turn his funeral into a media circus. After some of things they have written about Robin Williams death I have to ask how much is two much information for the news media to have access to?
Someone earlier in this thread stated if he was the other driver involved in this tragic accident it wouldn't have become national and world news. I had a very similar feeling on Saturday night when I first learned of the accident only I told my boyfriend if it were another ESS driver it wouldn't be the story it is coming to become. Even having that thought I never expected to see the headlines "Tony Stewart Killed young Kevin Ward Jr." or "Tony Stewart is a Murderer" when I woke up on Sunday morning nor did I expect to see the vedio of the accident on every news media outlet out there.
Growing up in Central N. Y. I might have expected to have the lead story on the Sunday evening news be about the incident not here in Az. where channel 12 news devoted 5 to 6 minutes to the tragic accident. They had Bruce St. James a local sprint car driver and radio personality in studio, a reporter at Canyon Speedway doing a telephone interview with Kevin Montgomery. I don't think it would be to far off to say they gave so much attention to the tragic accident and what changes it will mean for the sport because Tony Stewart was involved in the accident and Nascar comes to Avondale (Phoenix) twice a year.
While I have never met Kevin Ward Jr. or his family I do know some of the other families that race with the ESS, my thoughts and prayers have been with the Ward family, the ESS racing community, the Canandaigua Motorsports Park family, staff & fans, Tony Stewart, his family, friends and fans ever since Saturday night and will remain with them as we go forward.
I personally have lost the respect I had for a number of news reporters over the past several days. Everyone became an expert on auto racing over the weekend, sadly many of those so called experts have never been to a race track let along know what racing division they were talking about. While I don't feel the need to name names I will think twice about putting any faith in what some people report in the future.
Patti
|