Eyewitnesses to Hell
As newsreel commentator Harry von Zell stated, “we were not in the business of shocking people.”
Journalistic ethics then, as they do now, brings debate as to exactly what footage to place onto the screen. And even then, even if the footage ultimately never was shown to the public, it still gets shot -- and some of what is seen sometimes affects those who had to witness it, even decades later. The viewfinder can’t always serve as a shield.
In 1977, Max Markman sat down on the other side of the camera lens and recalled being the only photographer who made it to the 79th floor of the Empire State Building when a U.S. Army B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the building on July 28, 1945, killing 14 people and injuring 26. The footage of human death and destruction found within the building that Markman shot that day and shown in this clip was suppressed by his company and not shown on the screen, but yet Markman had to go there and shoot.
He had no choice. It was his job, for he was a news cameraman.
