Crime Stories
Published in Le Nouvel Observateur/Supplément
(France) on 16 November 2008
by Sarah Halifa-Legrand (link to
original)
ItÂ’s in the homeland of Al Capone, where news items have a preponderant status in the media world, that a new style of journalism has appeared: crime paparazzi.
Night is falling on Los Angeles. Taking his stand right where the black ward begins, Howard’s waiting, on guard, sitting in his car, his receiver connected to the police radio frequency. He’s on full alert, sniffing for the right story, ready to go for it, determined to run every risk to be “the first one one the scene”, the first one who’s going to film exclusive footage to sell immediately to TV networks and newspapers to have them broadcasted in real time, in the very famous breaking news.
He can cash up to 1000 dollars if a nightÂ’s eventful. His business consists of shocking images: car pursuits, burnt cars, sensational fights, beatings, crime scenes and dead bodies. The best of all these sordid stories is the one mixing sex, death and celebrity - an explosive and fast-selling cocktail.
Howard’s job requires a good dosis of adrenalin and cynicism; it really is no surprise if this new kind of journalism was born in the native country of the Far West’s “Wanted” signs. In the United States, those paparazzi provide up to half of the daily newswires and network footage. As for Kerry, he is a “classical” journalist: he works for the “Daily News” (based in New York) and earns 2,000 dollars a month. It is actually Bob Tur who revolutionized this journalistic genre by filming the Los Angeles riots in 1992 from a helicopter equipped with cameras. This made it possible for Americans to watch the bloody confrontations, which ended up with 55 dead people and around 2000 injured, live on their TV screens.
All these paparazzi consider themselves as heirs to Arthur Fellig, also nicknamed Weegee. This New York native was a photographer during the first half of the 20th century, and the first one to capture the Big Apple’s night life, too. Fifty years later, his successors are still talking about what, for them, is the “daily novel of ordinary violence.”
Night is falling on Los Angeles. Taking his stand right where the black ward begins, Howard’s waiting, on guard, sitting in his car, his receiver connected to the police radio frequency. He’s on full alert, sniffing for the right story, ready to go for it, determined to run every risk to be “the first one one the scene”, the first one who’s going to film exclusive footage to sell immediately to TV networks and newspapers to have them broadcasted in real time, in the very famous breaking news.
He can cash up to 1000 dollars if a nightÂ’s eventful. His business consists of shocking images: car pursuits, burnt cars, sensational fights, beatings, crime scenes and dead bodies. The best of all these sordid stories is the one mixing sex, death and celebrity - an explosive and fast-selling cocktail.
Howard’s job requires a good dosis of adrenalin and cynicism; it really is no surprise if this new kind of journalism was born in the native country of the Far West’s “Wanted” signs. In the United States, those paparazzi provide up to half of the daily newswires and network footage. As for Kerry, he is a “classical” journalist: he works for the “Daily News” (based in New York) and earns 2,000 dollars a month. It is actually Bob Tur who revolutionized this journalistic genre by filming the Los Angeles riots in 1992 from a helicopter equipped with cameras. This made it possible for Americans to watch the bloody confrontations, which ended up with 55 dead people and around 2000 injured, live on their TV screens.
All these paparazzi consider themselves as heirs to Arthur Fellig, also nicknamed Weegee. This New York native was a photographer during the first half of the 20th century, and the first one to capture the Big Apple’s night life, too. Fifty years later, his successors are still talking about what, for them, is the “daily novel of ordinary violence.”
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