Man Self Immolation: A Florida resident named Maxwell Azzarello set himself on fire outside a Manhattan court on April 19. After the incident, Maxwell has been admitted to a burn unit of Cornell University in critical condition. At the time when the person set himself on fire, the hearing on the case of former President Donald Trump was going on inside the court. During this time, a large number of media persons were also present outside the court. The video footage that came after the incident is shocking; after setting the fire, the security officers present at the spot were seen running here and there.
When this incident happened outside the court, CNN’s cameras were running at the same time. Many news channels had gathered to cover Trump’s trial. Maxwell Azzarello was distributing leaflets before dousing himself with petrol and setting him on fire. At present his condition is critical. During this incident, a problem arose for the media persons because the person had set fire in front of the camera and this was a serious issue, but on ethical grounds the video footage of the person burning could not be shown.
CNN reported
During this time it was seen that CNN anchor Laura Coates showed the footage of the incident to her viewers. Meanwhile, the anchor said, ‘We have a man who has set himself on fire, our cameras are rolling right now and a man has now set himself on fire outside the court. ‘You can smell burning flesh.’ During this time, CNN’s camera kept rotating between Coates and the horrific incident taking place in the park. Five minutes after the incident, CNN displayed an onscreen message saying, ‘Caution: Contains graphic material.’
Media channels apologized
On the other hand, as reporter Eric Shawn was speaking, Fox’s camera captured that moment. After this, within a few seconds the media network presented a picture of Trump standing in the dock. The reporter said, ‘We deeply apologize for what happened.’ Overall, it was seen that after this incident many reporters and media houses made mistakes and apologized for them.