I normally really really try to resist sharing images that put individual people on trial for things that aren’t their fault, but I just saw something that really does need to be addressed.

One of the curious things about this line of work is that you often get to watch reactions to events unfold in real time. One of the best ways to do that, of course, are the “firehose” networks (like Twitter!)

The trouble is that when you’re working a content production beat, it can be really really really really tempting to ping a primary source observer for updates.

The result is that once a video of an event gets discovered, a perfectly average person with next to no interest in dealing with the public relations machine is suddenly sucked into the middle of it.

This is particularly curious if you consider that as time advances, the value of the documentary footage should decrease — it becomes less rare. Being “second,” to a story is less valuable than being “first,” etc.,

When a non-communications professional run-of-the-mill-civilian actual human does this, it’s called trolling.

I’m not really sure this constitutes a photo release, either — but the behavior is far too prevalent to be accidental.

Here’s the thing though, this kind of stuff is why everyone hates us.

There’s got to be a better way.