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NPR had an odd disclaimer this morning when introducing its StoryCorps segment, the in-their-own words feature in which people tell their own story.

"Some may find the graphic material in this post disturbing," 

Well, of course. They're supposed to find it disturbing. It's the story of a boy who found his father's gun and accidentally shot his sister to death.

"A warning  before we play this tape," a similar statement on the radio said today. "It is graphic."

 thing news organizations should be doing is warning people away from the story.

So here. It's disturbing. And that's why you should listen to it.

We hear these stories all the time. Some child found a father's gun and accidentally kills a sibling. "That's awful," we say and go on with our lives. We never hear whatever happened to the child.  Now we have. It's not pretty. And it's not something to turn away from.

There's a postscript to this story, reported in 

The story, which provides more details of the Smith killing, asks a fascinating question: Should Smith's parents have been prosecuted?

“It would have torn us apart,” Sean Smith says.

But the writer suggests it would have allowed the family to be angry at the court system instead of themselves.

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

NPR had an odd disclaimer this morning when introducing its StoryCorps segment, the in-their-own words feature in which people tell their own story.  It's a story nobody should turn away from.

The boy who accidentally killed his sister

Go Deeper.

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