Thanksgiving Marches On

By now, everyone has heard of the accident that injured two at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. At the time of the accident, NBC continued with parade coverage by showing old footage of the balloons involved in the accident floating along the route. Some have taken aim at NBC for merely mentioning that they were showing old footage and not immediately covering the scene of the accident.

Indeed, the main issue was the old footage and the anchors sticking to the script. Many, this being one example, have expressed bewilderment as to why NBC didn't cover the accident.

NBC was wrong to move ahead with the script as planned. Instead of going right to the scene and reporting the live news, ruining the parade for those watching on the television, NBC could have at least run the news along a news ticker at the bottom of the screen, as the cable news stations do, and say that the viewers are watching a video of last year's parade with detailed reports on the accident coming after the parade. Thus, people wanting news of this incident are made aware and the children are not interrupted from the yearly spectacle.

Hindsight is indeed 20/20 and NBC should consider such a thing should it happen again in future parades. A simple solution would spare a lot of scrutiny (except from those that are never satisfied with anything to begin with).