By Mary Best
Editor- in- Chief
March Madness brought back bittersweet memories for the Bonnies this year.
While it regrets the Bonnies’ nonexistent postseason, the Wolfpack knows what it feels like to follow its team to an exciting month of competition. It can recall the intensity and pride filling arenas across the country for last year’s tournament.
Duke University and the University of Louisville’s respective fan bases undoubtedly felt the same passion and thrill in Lucas Oil Stadium for the NCAA Midwest Regional on Sunday. The festive atmosphere reached a staggering halt when Louisville Cardinals player Kevin Ware suffered a compound fracture in his right leg, according to an April 1 Huffington Post article. After landing on his leg awkwardly and exposing his tibia on live television, social media and the like expectedly exploded with comments about CBS Sports’ decision to replay his injury.
Sports columnist Bill Simmons wasted no time in shaming the network.
“Show some dignity and go to commercial, CBS,” he tweeted Sunday.
While the general consensus on my Twitter feed seemed to agree with Simmons and discourage future replays of the injury, I’m going to give CBS the win on this one.
The shots following the initial live injury didn’t expose any blood or bone, sparing viewers a gruesome scene. CBS rightly focused on the players’ reactions and avoided Ware’s leg completely.
While each other major news program made their own decisions to either avoid airing the footage or “Good Morning America”’s devious choice to blur out the leg in its replay, CBS earned gold star number two and refrained from repeating the footage.
Sean McManus, head of CBS Sports, explained in the same Huffington Post article why he didn’t feel the need to air the footage again.
“I just didn’t think we had any obligation to be the facilitator of putting that footage back on the screen. We documented it, we described it and we showed it, and I think that was enough,” he said.
McManus is 100 percent right. Any critics of his decision would do right to remember that he was just doing his job. As a sports journalist, he has to present an accurate account of whatever event he is airing and tell the whole story. No one could have predicted this injury. What were McManus and his editors supposed to do? Cut the cameras and go to black because he was worried someone at home might not want to see a broken leg?
Of course not. He showed just enough to tell the story and then appropriately focused on the reactions of Ware’s teammates, coaches and opponents. Most importantly, he made the decision to keep the attention on Ware — not because he wanted to spread images of his leg split open — but because every person in that room and watching at home, for at least a moment, cared about whether or not Ware would be okay.
McManus also said anyone who wants to watch the footage will watch it regardless of whether or not CBS shows it. He helped CBS Sports maintain journalistic integrity during one of the biggest sporting events and most gruesome sports injuries of all time, earning him my support as a fellow journalist.
CBS Sports is moving forward with its coverage, and its critics should, too.
