Posted on 09/05/2006 7:36:47 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
THE footage of Steve Irwin's death should be destroyed, his manager and friend John Stainton said today.
"I would never want that tape shown," Stainton told CNN talk show host Larry King.
"It should be destroyed.
"At the moment it is in police custody for evidence. There's a coroner's inquest taking place at the moment.
"When that is finally released it will never see the light of day.
"Never. Ever.
"I actually saw it and I don't want to see it again."
Irwin, 44, died on Monday when stabbed in the chest by a stingray barb while snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and Stainton has said footage of the incident is "terrible".
The footage shows Irwin pulling the barb out of his chest before dying.
While Stainton wants the footage kept under wraps, media experts say it may soon be circulating on the internet.
"The key point is once there's something on film, it's impossible to keep it contained," Paul Levinson, chairman of Fordham University's Department of Communication and Media Studies, said.
Mr Stainton, who broke down several times during the CNN interview, said Irwin's wife, Terri, was struggling with her husband's death.
When King asked a teary Stainton how Terri was doing, Mr Stainton replied: "A lot worse than me".
Mr Stainton told how he travelled with Irwin's body in a caske
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
I believe that too.
If Steve could somewhow magically appear from the dead and were to be guested on the Tonight Show, I wonder how he would describe the incident.
No prob. Their hairstyles were remarkably similar.
Perhaps not the whole thing but maybe a still or two showing that if the defensive stingray was captured on the film. Would that be enough for you?
It was still attached to the stingray. Damned inconvenient, since I presume it was still quite alive and trying to swim away.
Most people are speaking out of raw emotion. I for one see nothing wrong in watching the video. Someone commented it should not be broadcast for entertainment purposes. Who said anything about being entertained by it ?? Steve's show, and in fact many wildlife shows are all about interaction between different species in nature, and a lot of it involves gruesome killings of one by another. Heck, I have seen most of the al qaeda beheadings on video, not with pleasure, but to see exactly what kind of people we are dealing with. Steve's final video would seem pretty 'normal' by comparison, and I can bet he would have wanted us to see it too -- innocuously titled "How Sting-Rays attack their victims"
Where did you read that it was still attached to the ray? I'd like to read that article. I don't know how they knew the exact length of it (however many cm it was that I converted up to nearly 8") if it were still in its sheath on the ray's tail.
I got the definite impression it was broken off before the ray swam away. They're made to do that, to be "shot." They grow back. Our local sea aquarium head said that after they cut the main spines, they trim the spines of the petting sting rays once a month, like trimming toe nails.
Oops, my bad, you could be right. I inferred that it was still on the stingray from articles on the beasts themselves, not from news about Steve's death. I could easily be mistaken, and if so, I'm quite sorry -- I don't mean to start or propagate false info.
No, no - don't worry. Several people have said it and I wanted to know if someone had actually reported it that way, as I didn't believe it happened that way. No problem - I'd just really like to know.
"... Where there are stingray touch tanks where visitors can "pet" rays or when show divers routinely hand feed rays in giant saltwater exhibits, for diver and visitor safety the barbs on the rays are snipped off with a pair of pliers. The tip of the barb is then presented as a harmless stub that can't penetrate the skin of visitors or divers who routinely handle the docile rays..."Of course, it doesn't say that it -doesn't- grow back either... Anyway, my comment was a presumption, and I shouldn't have worded it as if it was definitive.
Now the rumors fly. I saw Stainton on Fox & he said there was no blood in the water. Dr. Badin said that the pericardial sac filled with blood & the compression from that blood would prevent the heart from beating, rather quickly. Not that he bled to death in an outward bleeding. The sac fills with blood.
There was discussion of this on Fox News, I cannot remember if it was Dr. Badin or another doctor, I've seen so much about this story, but they said that the poison the barb emits isn't really that deadly, but pulling it out may have caused more damage as the barb has small hook like projections on the sides, much like a fish hook. There is no way to truly know, but pulling out may have caused more tearing & caused more bleeding into the pericardial sac.
Of course, they also said that pulling an object out, would be a knee jerk reaction, not one that one would think about.
If it gets out it will cause national uproar!
But I wouldn't mind seeing film of Joe Wilson, Colon Powell, Richard Armitage, David Korn, and a few others dropped in a large vat of steaming horse manure. I might even make some popcorn.
How about raycaps, like the nailcaps for cats.
Yes, but in recent years there has been an increasing glorification of thrillseeking (or deathwish) tempting fate, and contests of suffering, from "extreme sports" to "Jackass" to "Ultimate Fighting," to eating live worms on TV -- to the death-love of the "Goth" set.
People need to understand the consequences.
Sounds like a plan...
What's the next generation of wildlife tv hosts going to have to do to get and keep their audiences, place their faces one inch from the snake? Kiss the snake? Put their heads inside the croc's mouth? It'd be like airing a tv series featuring a heart surgeon who did a little juggling act with the two hearts before transplanting one of them into the dying patient. One has nothing to do with the other. No!... There's absolutely no reason for it except to thrill audiences and increase ratings. It's bad television and it's a bad example for up-and-coming wannabe Steve Irwins. Show the tape. Over and over again.
I liked Irwin a lot. I thought he was nuts to always push things right to the edge as he did, but I liked him and feel terrible for his wife and kids and don't want to see a repeat with the next Steve Irwin. One is enough. We don't want people copying him, or there WILL be more deaths. So that's why I think the tape should be shown.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming him for what he did, just speculating.
And yet the ray that zapped him was a passerby, not the one he was following. Like having another snake sneak up on him while he was bobbing heads with the first one. It must be some ray conspiracy, I tellya.
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