Too cynical?

Maybe I've gotten to be too cynical, or maybe after a week of Balloon Boy coverage I just have hoaxes on the brain, but this morning I found myself questioning something else that has been getting a lot of media coverage. Good Morning America was talking to the woman who foiled a robber by praying with him, and as I watched I couldn't help wondering if this story was really authentic. The first thing that struck me was the fact that the whole thing was caught on video. Is it just a coincidence that the entire incident, which I believe was about 40 minutes in length, just happened to take place in perfect view of the security camera? I was also struck by the fact that for the entire 40 minutes, no one came to this woman's assistance. They showed a short clip of her 911 call and had a brief statement from a policeman saying how brave the woman had been, but why was she alone with this armed thief for 40 minutes? Even the outcome appeared to have a "made for television" aura to it - apparently after seeing the video, the thief's mother convinced him to do the right thing and turn himself in. Ahhhhhhhh.

So am I completely heartless to question this? I don't think so. A big part of media literacy is questioning what we see. If nothing else, the story reinforces my belief that a lot of what is presented to us as "news" wouldn't be news without the dramatic video. Certainly the Balloon Boy story wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal without live television coverage of the balloon floating through the air. Think about this the next time you see a so-called news story about kids fighting on a school bus, or an animal caught in a well. Without the video, would this be news?