Where's The Line? Fox Shows Footage of Dead Supermodel

Last night on "Geraldo At Large," Fox news showed footage of the body of model Ruslana Korshunova, 20, who had died Saturday in a fall from her 9th-floor window in Manhattan's Financial District, an apparent suicide.

The footage showed Korshunova lying partially uncovered on the street at the scene, her profile and upper body clearly visible in a long shot which seems to zoom in from the other side of a police vehicle behind yellow crime-scene tape (see below).

The shot, labeled 'EXCLUSIVE' in the upper left-hand corner, was a long one, shown in fullscreen and then again in half-screen as Gerlado Rivera talked to his guests. The later showing was interspersed with B-roll of Korshunova walking on the runway and in glamour shots.

There are no hard and fast rules about showing dead bodies on TV. Generally, it is a custom dictated by taste and a news imperative; certainly showing a body under a sheet gets the point across. When it is done, it is considered noteworthy — for example, the coverage of dead bodies in New Orleans during Katrina, in Myanmar last month following the cyclone disaster; showing images of the Saddam Hussein execution, before, during and after. For newspapers, the same caution applies — even this year, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, it was notable that New York Times ran a photo of dead Iraqi soldier on the front page. Generally, news organizations avoid running photos with identifiable faces.

There are rules about some things, of course — the Pentagon prohibits photographing of the flag-draped coffins of fallen soldiers, and takes great pains to keep them hidden from view. But, though Fox has certainly seemed to honor that policy (and reacting with great outrage if offending images are ever shown), in this instance, the editorial discretion is their own.

So: Is this really as gratuitous and exploitative as it seems? A long shot of Korshunova's dead body does not show the scope of a natural disaster or the ravages of the battlefield, nor does it show proof from a corrupt regime that a tyrant is dead. It does, however, cater to a certain ghoulish curiosity. Is Korshunova's death news? Of course — but it doesn't need to be so graphically illustrated. A sustained shot of Korshunova's face, her face pale in death, clearly visible in profile with what appears to be blood at the side of her mouth — that adds nothing to the story other than a horrific, shocking image to gawk at.

The clip is available here; we're not embedding or screengrabbing for obvious reasons. Or maybe not so obvious, I guess; well then, call it editorial discretion.

Update: Per TVNewser, David Clark, EP of weekend programming, said: "It was a producer error and we deeply regret it."

Comments

[gamoonbat]

I suppose that this dead body was a lot prettier than the dead bodies of our soldiers which media outlets such as Fox refuse to show? Tasteless!

[RobinSeattle]

Knowing News Corp, whose Sun newspaper in the UK is famous for its page three girls, just be thankful they didn't show her completely naked.

Next on Fox, celebrity colonoscopies! Whose brown rubbish ramp is clean and whose is maybe headed for cancer? We have the exclusive photos you have to see!

Don't bet against that occurring.

[indypete]

Dead, pretty, rich white girl.... and she's a supermodel? That's enough to push a crazy black preacher off fox. The picture of her lying in the street is just icing on the cake to them.

Sleaze, not news.

[markjsand]

If her body was on the street blocking traffic and the police did not cover her body then the media has a right to show people. People on the street saw this. How many thousands of people had to walk by this on their way to work etc.?

Who are we trying to protect? A supermodel because she is a pretty supermodel can not be shown when she is dead in a gutter, but it is ok to show hundreds of Iraqi blown to pieces or missing arms and legs with the street covered in blood and gore on a weekly basis?

Sorry, but when a famous person jumps from a building on to a New York street and stops traffic it is news. It is not a private suicide.

[Sarah511]

I'm not at all in shock that once again this station would air something in bad taste. What gets me is how crazy they seem to be about the "fact" that women never jump off buildings and how suspicious they are about anything not scandalous.

[tiger313]

I love how desperate faux "news" is.

[GenRom]

I think this topic has been covered in Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry".

Fox only aired it before some other network. If they hadn't, someone else would have. Doesn't make it right but this kind of thing has been going on for decades.

I never hear (heard) anyone protest with the airing of the Zapruder film. Remember, that film shows President John Kennedy's brains flying through the air.

Blood and guts sell! Unfortunate, but true. If people didn't want to look at it, the media wouldn't show it.

[yngcelt]

Like Kelsey Grammer's character says in the film "15 Minutes"; "If it bleeds, it leads". Gotta love the American media. And I mean ALL of the media with their bloodlust.

[UncleLiberal]

When I worked in television news in the early 90's it was common practice to NOT report on suicides...showing a suicide's body would fall under that I think.

[Cutie02]

breathtakingly beautiful... so sad

[Norsky]

To bad "Faux" didn't know she was going to jump so they could have filmed her on the way down. Now that they would have never missed.

[Mdeand]

This is unnecessary for Fox to show this footage. Yes, they crossed the line.

[shedances]

I agree that death fascinates & frightens many people; but I think Fox news crossed the line of good journalistic taste in showing such footage. After all, this was a single suicide (not a massive killing or war related deaths). And I can't imagine how such photos affected this late model's friends and family members. It must have been a nightmare to see this tragic death repeated on the news.

K

[ngannon]

Fox crossed that line a long time ago. Fox "news" is the equivalent of a sleazy magazine- some stuff may be scintillating but look elsewhere for any accuracy, truth or taste because there is none to be found there.

[amantedelibros]

The problem is that FOX is not good journalism, so they have no measure of good taste to dictate them. I don't understand why FOX is even allowed to exist. Sure, freedom of speech, but it's not allowed when it incites violence, hateful acts, etc...Why are these bozos even on the air? Who owns FOX to begin with? My ignorance results from the fact that I never watch FOX television, therefore I never watch anything on it. I decided long ago, when it first came out, that it had no credibility, so I won't participate in giving it any semblance of ratings or acknowledgment of its existence. Maybe if more people tuned it out, it would cease to exist. (???)

[wutzhappn]

Hmmm, maybe you should tune into Fox sometime. You might be surprised to find out that they do present opposing points of view most of the time. Can anybody say Colmes? And O'Reilly surprisingly comes to Obama's defense more often than you'd expect. If you never watch Fox, you wouldn't know this, of course.

[Fudgefase]

Lots of feet around the background of her body - rubberneckers.
It's human nature. Oh, yes, I did take a look myself. Death fascinates us - it's the one thing in life we can't avoid.
I expected her to be more broken looking.

[collprof]

So sorry your perverted expectations were not met. Perhaps the next free faller you encounter will be broken up enough for you to go to your next cocktail party and say you saw it all.

Death fascinates us? Wow...you are a "dead person walking". Get a life.

[Fudgefase]

I did some nursing a while back and I guess I've seen a few dead folk. Not corpses - people. I never saw a jumper though, and had always understood that they tended to be colossally damaged on impact. This image was simply not what I'd expected. Not sensationalist. Not ghoulish. Just a straightforward observation.
I'm afraid if I saw someone falling, I'd tend to look away when they impacted - and depending on how far they'd come, see if I could help them in any way while phoning for an ambulance. If you were ever bleeding profusely, you should wish for someone like me there. I don't shriek and faint - I get on with it.

[6925thCobras]

Most television sets come with remote controls, so change the channel if you don't like it. And if you don't want to watch this "news story" on Fox, the Huffington Post has it posted on their web site so you won't feel any guilt about looking at it, just righteous indignation.

[swift goat pet for truth]

The line?

You mean, like, bottom line?