There's nothing quite like working in live television. Especially when it comes to rolling news. I've been there... It's exciting, fun, fast-paced, adrenaline-inducing, and of course, unpredictable. You're taught to expect the unexpected. And to think on your feet. Because a lot can go wrong, and often does.
Whether it's a technical blip, a guest unexpectedly dropping F-bombs during an interview, the autocue going down, or something much worse, those behind the scenes, and in front of the camera, control what the audience sees, notices, or doesn't. Some of the fails can be funny. But others can have a far-reaching and traumatic impact on viewers. That's why certain television stations have a few seconds' delay on live broadcasts. It allows the crew to take control and even cut away should things get out of hand.
Someone recently asked, "What is the most shocking thing that you have seen happen on live TV?" and there was no shortage of answers. Bored Panda has scoured through almost 3,000 to pick the most intense ones. From the sad, the disturbing, to the downright traumatic, the comments prove that anything is possible when the cameras are rolling. If you want to know a bit more about live broadcasts, you'll find that info between the images.
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I’ll add a shocking thing that was good. Watching the Berlin Wall come down. Extraordinary that it came down and we were watching it live. It seemed profound that with cameras and electronics you could watch history being made as it happened.
I remember that. And it was shocking: the Berlin wall was a constant for 33 years of my life, and it never occurred to me that it wasn't permanent. Then suddenly... gone.
Yes I was mid teens and this broke my idea of what the world was. West good, Russia bad, we stay away from each other, apart from spies, and wars in jungles, which make us sad. But this really blew my mind. That a whole political system could collapse and change. So much hope...
Load More Replies...I cried. Didn't really know the history because I was young, but I knew it was significant.
Load More Replies...For a short moment in history we had politics that cared about peace and the people. And afterwards German reunited and against all nay-sayers, the West and East together managed to get the East up to standard. Not without pain, not without losses (and not without shytes embezzling money). But it worked. Always remember what people can achieve!
I don't like the way a lot of them say thank you these days, though
Load More Replies...I was nine when it came down, it was absolutely amazing watching it on tv. My grandparents came from an Iron Curtain country (then Yugoslavia) so it had some added meaning.
It feels like a life time ago- like, the world for a brief moment had a glimmer of hope.
I remember watching this live on TV. I have a (a possibly false) memory of The Hoff wearing a leather jacket with light bulbs on it singing as the wall came down.
The wall was first breached on the 9th. November, and members of the public were knocking chunks off it for weeks afterwards. When Hoff sang for the crowds on New Year's Eve most of the wall was still standing, although several unofficial crossing points had been created along it's length. The Hoff performed stood on top of the wall and he was indeed wearing a light-up leather jacket.
Load More Replies...I remember that. I would have been 30 years old. Wasn't also this the year that a lot of leaders got together to promote peace. But it failed.
Controlling a live television broadcast comes with massive responsibility. It can be a hair-raising experience for the crew, to say the least. There's a lot going on behind the scenes at a television station. Each person is meticulously carrying out their assigned roles and duties to ensure a smooth show.
But sometimes things go south, as anyone who has ever worked in TV will tell you. Often, how you handle the disasters and recover will determine whether the impact is big or small.
Watching 9/11 unfold live was unreal. Burned into my memory forever.
CBus-Eagle:
9/11 - watching thousands of people die on TV was so difficult to process emotionally. I felt like I was walking around in a semi-catatonic state for about a month trying to get my brain to fully process what those people went through. Whether on a plane or in one of the buildings. And those firefighters and police that rushed into the buildings….still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
I was 30 and my mom, an electrician at a nuclear plant, called me to find out what the hell was going on. They were on lockdown. I turned on the TV just minutes after the first plane hit and was on the phone with her when the second hit. I remember telling her, "A lot of people are going to die because of this." I wasn't referring to the passengers or the people in the towers.
Similar thought process. I was at home (in Germany) doing a jigsaw puzzle and zapping around, more or less accidentally hitting on CNN when it happened. Tried to reason out how it could have happened by accident when the second plane hit. Not exactly sure about the phrasing I used, but the gist was about "they're going to find someone to take revenge on" and I wasn't thinking of a single person either (let alone the "one" responsible)
Load More Replies...This one got my vote. Watching a plane fly into the second WTC tower and people leaping to their deaths was definitely the most shocking thing I've seen on live TV.
Yes, I was going to comment the same thing. All of the recordings have the audio dubbed over, but the sound of people jumping when watching it live is something that will stick with me forever...
Load More Replies...I was at home for lunch in the UK and watched the second plane hit without knowing one of my best mates long time friend was in one of the Towers. Met him a half a dozen times and really more of an acquaintance but my wife and I still cried our eyes out when we found out. Rest easy Denny (Kevin). Oh, and sorry mate, The New York Jets are still rubbish.
The thing is about that day, everybody knows exactly where he was and what he did. I do not know a single person who can not tell you about that day
🙋 Me. Was living in rural France, didn't have TV or internet set up at that time. On a trip to the local supermarket, saw a strange picture on the front of the regional newspaper - they had printed the photo sideways. Opened up the paper and "oh fúck" (for so many reasons). Went across to the DIY place, bought a cheap LNB and got my old analogue satellite receiver working, aimed at Astra 1 it was mostly stuff in German (until I found CNN) and, really, one didn't need any translations.
Load More Replies...I *just* missed seeing it happen live - I was almost 21 and turned the tv off to go to bed about ten minutes before it happened (it was late night here in Oz) Saw it all the next morning. My mother woke me up (I lived at home and Mum and I worked at the same place at the time) before I even opened my eyes she scared the living daylights out of me: ''America's been attacked; the WTC and the Pentagon are gone''. I have never in my life ever wanted so badly to stay at home as I did that day, to stay close to my parents and grandparents (next door) Then numbly listening to soundbytes and the news reports on the 35-minute drive to work. I ''unfroze'' and sobbed and sobbed in the kitchen of the cafe we worked at for at least twenty minutes. The one thing I remember clear as day, I even remember their faces, was how many people all kept saying the same thing: ''It's like watching a movie, it just doesn't feel real''. Terrible day I'll never forget.
I was in hospital with my newborn. My husband called to ask if I had seen the news. I remember watching people jumping from windows and wondering what sort of world we had brought our child into. Expected it to be the start of WWIII.
But are you old enough to remember the attack in 1993? That one dates you.
What many people don't realize is that "live TV" isn't always live. Often, there's a slight lag. "Seconds are often lost as broadcast signals are transferred and processed between stations, satellites, and other relays, creating unintentional lost time between the material and live viewing of it," explains Atlas Obscura's Director of Programming, Eric Grundhauser.
But that's not the only thing stopping you from viewing something in real time...
The Challenger Explosion.
Fishmike52:
7th grade for me. We all gathered in the library to watch. They just sent us back to class. Nobody talked to us about it.
Just remember kids you can be anything you want when you grow up! You can even go to space!
Just another reason genx are the way we are.
We watched it live in class because a teacher was aboard. It was so hard to comprehend & process at the time.
Yeah, that was literally the reason so many of us were watching during school.
Load More Replies...Seem to recall watching this on Newround as a child and being deeply shocked. I liked all things space-related and it was just so unexpected to me.
Yup. Classes ended, went back to the dormitory, turned on the TV and...
Load More Replies...I didn't watch much TV in college but happened to be home on this day. Figured it would be cool to watch so turned on the TV. I can remember thinking, "This can't be happening ..." But it certainly was. A harsh reminder of how difficult and dangerous it is to send people into space.
First grade. JFC, right on several rolling TVs they brought into the school library so we could all see.
Wow, and nobody even talked about it afterwards in the classroom?! As a teen who watched 9/11 happen live in class, I can't imagine just going about our day and not talking about it. Granted the magnitude was much bigger, but we shut down all of our classes that day and just had essentially therapy sessions when it happened. I know things were treated different in the 80s but this is a sobering reminder of that...
I was watching this in 5th grade. Watching shuttle launches at school were a big thing back then.
I belive I was working third shift so I was sleeping when this happened. I didn't find out about it after I got up later in the late afternoon or evening
Challenger was the first rocket and crew to blow up during liftoff. There had been an accident in which lives were lost previously, but not during liftoff when those used to be televised. As such, it was a shock to see it suddenly blow up, killing all those on board. It was, however, only the first.
There's a 'trick' that's become known as the "seven-second delay." And this is more intentional than a lag. It buys the TV crew some crucial time to catch anything they think is inappropriate, indecent, or traumatic, before viewers see it. They can cut to a presenter, another scene, or even an ad break.
"Though intentional delay has come to be known as the 'seven-second delay,' the amount of time that the footage is held back is really up to the people at the controls," reveals Grundhauser.
Often, there will be someone in the control room, like an Executive Producer, who knows the station's editorial policy. They will give the command for the Director to drop the live. Other times, the Director will just do it.
But even with intentional and unintentional delays, some questionable and shocking scenes make it onto air...
Trump bragging on live TV that he had the tallest building in New York right after the twin towers fell (like within an hour or two). I was blown away someone could be that twisted.
tRump is the king of hyperbole. Everything of his is the best, biggest, smartest, most awesome. I cannot believe the sh!t that comes from his mouth.
Pathetic excuse of a human! The orange garbage drag queen kn high heel shoes! Shivers.
Biggest assh*le of the planet. But he is sick. He should get help. And all the power taken from him.
Read his behavior from childhood to adulthood. He doesn’t care about reality only cares about himself…the lies will never cease.
An attack on the US Capitol building, by American citizens.
fartharder:
Jan 6. I had CSPAN on because I was expecting nonsense on the floor. I sure got more than I bargained for.
And a few of them have been killed by police already. No conspiracy theory, no deep state. They were killed because they were a-holes and they committed crimes. Doesn't reflect well on the rest.
Load More Replies...It reminded my of Hitler's attempted putsch in 1923. And so did the aftermath.
I never cared for Mike Pence, but Trumps' failure to immediately shut them down for Pence doing his duty, and not condemning the 'crowd' calling for his summary ecksekution clinched it for me.
And I was not a bit shocked that the orange garbage drag queen got away with it! The only thing that will stop that disgusting excuse of a human is him dying of old age! He gets away with everything and how the US let's him is beyond comprehension!! It's pathetic!!
Load More Replies...Traitors. If they had been a foreign country trying to overthrow our government, they would have been mowed down and war would have been declared.
Imagine if they had been Black Lives Matter protesters or basically any group not made up of Trump’s Christian, very white fan club.
Load More Replies...Right up there with 9/11 for me. Such a traumatic day in U.S. history (and world history).
Indi, yes, it's world history. I'm not american either but we were equally horrified by it. Nothing is amusing about shít like this.
Load More Replies...And still some claim it was a "false flag" event, FBI in disguise, and worst of all, "They were tourists, and nothing really happened."
Unfortunately, I don't think we'll get to witness it, the only consequences he will ever experience it will be in the Afterlife (which I don't believe anyway). No consequences, ever.
Load More Replies...I sat there with my mouth ajar watching TV in disbelief. An insurrection? Really? Those people are insane.
This! I know maybe some people saw this coming but watching this unfold in real time was unreal to me! I was calling everyone “are you seeing what’s happening?!” It was so insane to me.
Recently, a grown man standing on the stage at a major political event doing a salute made famous by the Na**is and not getting any real blowback for it.
Interesting censorship, BP. I take it that that is f***ist and not f***wit! Obviously both apply!
Load More Replies...So does the truth. "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” - Martin Luther King
Load More Replies...The richest j****e in the world 🌎 such a lovely sweet human being that even some of his children hate him with a passion. No wonder.
theres a video of another dude doing it on stage at a republican town hall meeting. he screams "fight, fight, fight" then gives the weakest, most unsure, most "child saying a swear word and hoping his parents didn't hear" salute. Truly Pathetic. Hitler would have had these chuds in the gas chambers too.
How come ICE hasn't deported him yet? (Not that we want him back.)
He's white. Ice only after non whites. It's sickening.
Load More Replies...In real time, the US is showing the world how a democracy can be turned into a dictatorship overnight in historical time. After today, the only thing he lacks is the military and he will have that under control before his term is up. He's here for the duration.......................whether anyone likes it or not!
We mentioned editorial policies earlier. It's basically a set of guidelines that a broadcaster or media organization follows to minimize risks. The BBC's Live Output Guidelines explain that these risks can include "causing harm and offence; giving undue prominence to products, organisations or services; or creating legal problems."
The site notes that hard and fast rules to deal with individual incidents are not practical. And that's why there are guidelines in place to "deal with problems such as strong language, national & international emergencies, impartiality and product placement."
OJ’s low speed chase.
Clusterf**kySh**show:
It was almost surreal - I remember thinking "Well, now we know he did it, else he wouldn't be running." We didn't watch the trial in school, but they called all the juniors and seniors into the auditorium to watch the verdict when it came down a year and a half later. That was pretty surreal, too.
Ah I was going to say O.J.! I was a sophomore in high school and was in class when it was announced. We knew what the verdict was when some kid starting yelling “he’s free!” while running down a hallway. Most of us in the class exchanged exasperated and angry looks.
Jr. High for me. I'm wondering how this Naked Gun remake is going to handle him. He was in the OG trilogy.
Load More Replies...Lol yep, I remember watching this live with my parents as a kid. And the era of entertainment news was born! FR though, this is what began the new era of television news. Where things are sensationalized and "creatively edited" to garner higher ratings. Not just you know, reported objectively to inform citizens of what's happening in the world. 🤦🏽♀️
I remember everything about that trial. There was no way you could convince me he was innocent. Me and the other people at work were stunned at the verdict. Sorry, but OJ was guilty as sin.
I actually passed that bronco on the south bound side of the freeway. I was my move out day at UCLA. Me & a friend went to the local grocery store to get some boxes to move our stuff and there were helis hovering all over Brentwood. Since the TV was packed already, we had no idea what was going. Driving south back to San Diego, I started seeing crowds gathering on the overpasses. And then at a point, the traffic going north stopped, a minute later a white bronco followed by a bunch of cops drove by. I thought it was just a typical LA police chase until I got home and all the things I experienced came into context. It was a bit surreal and funny.
I remember the big question being for me and the people I was watching it with me was he going to off himself or surrender to the police. I was only a child at the time, kinda morbid in hindsight. Not that he was a sympathetic person or anything.
C**p I wasn't very old... Not even 10 but I laughed myself stupid over it
I thought he was guilty as hell, but I couldn't disagree with the verdict. Wildly incompetent prosecution.
I had a party/game night planned. We all drank beer and watched OJ instead.
The BBC guidelines state that all live output should be monitored closely, especially those where things could go south.
"Editors should assess the risk of a problem arising in our live output," reads the site. "It is equally important to make this assessment for a local radio phone-in, a high profile event like a big music festival or sporting fixture, or breaking news story of a sensitive nature, for example, a siege."
As an example, the BBC says, "When reporting live from demonstrations, disturbances and riots, programme teams should cut away and record material for use in an edited report, if the level of violence or disorder becomes too graphic, or may install a delay." Like the “seven-second delay,” which we mentioned earlier.
2011 Fukushima earthquake.
Me, my ex, and my mom were watching the 3am news on TV and they went live to the earthquake.
We watched as the tsunami rolled ashore, and it was so traumatizing watching the aerial of the wave coming in and people driving down the highway or walking not knowing how much danger was approaching.
We saw so many people die and get swept away. People trying to warn others, etc.
I never saw that footage/view after the original Livestream.
I was in stationed in Northern Japan when this happened. This was probably the only time I felt like I actually did something in the military.
May God bless you for your service friend❤️ whatever country whatever branch you're sacrifice is appreciated by me!
Load More Replies...This was so sad. I've seen hours of footage and it never gets easier.
I had my TV on (Australia) when this shocking earthquake was happening, but before the tidal waves, and the camera showed the world, second by second, real-time tragedies and ongoing losses, unimaginable panic as the waters poured in and over and didn't stop. I can't recall how many hours I sat watching that, as we did with the Twin Towers, the fact that we in Australia and around the world could watch these disasters as they were happening is still fixed in our minds as it was then.
It was a shock for Japanese watching it on tv. We (opposite side of the main island on the Japan Sea Coast) had a lot of rocking and rolling and knew that somewhere just got bashed badly, but the tsunami ended up being the worst of it. There hadn't been a great big tsunami for awhile here, so everyone was rather slow on the pickup about getting to high places for safety. Since then, there have been many changes including the emergency evacuation statement used. Prior to this event, the evacuation announcement was approximately something like: If you would, please evacuate. There is a possibility of a tsunami. Now, it has changed to a more forceful: TSUNAMI! GET OUT IMMEDIATELY AND GO TO HIGH GROUND!!!
I had a classmate whose aunt was stuck in her car under mud, luckily they found her before it was to late. Another friend was stationed over there. I messaged his wife, also a friend, to see how they were doing and she said they were all at the hospital cause that was the only place with power.
The guidelines add that sometimes events and sporting fixtures are the focus of protest, which occasionally turns violent and escalates into a riot situation. "Our main coverage should be the event itself, although where the protest has materially affected the running of the event, then it will normally be editorially justified to reflect this in our coverage," explains the site.
However, the BBC makes it clear that producers should try to avoid "inflaming the situation" and/or showing graphic scenes of violence, particularly in close-up.
The tsunami that hit December 26, 2004, the unbridled power and destruction brought tears to my eyes, watching the people walking on the sea floor amazed, ignorant of the destruction boiling over the horizon was so terrifying.
I had spent nearly 6 months in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam before heading to Tamil Nadu to visit family. The plan was to spend a month in India before meeting a friend in Colombo then time in Kandy. I never made it to Sri Lanka because of the instability of dealing with the aftermath. Also, we lost nearly 20,000 and it was chaos where I was in India. I made many friends in Thailand, especially where I was mainly based in Surat Thani. I know of the handful who were confirmed killed, but there are still dozens I’ve no idea what happened. I lost contact after the disaster & haven’t tracked them down. Two decades later and I have some amazing memories of people I’ve no idea if they survived.
I was working as a sub editor in a daily newspaper. We received hundreds of photographs of the destruction, dead people from our correspondents. It was heart wrenching. We were told not to select and publish anything disturbing. Had to go through the whole album to pick few pictures. I can still see them.
Did they submit those to authorities to help identify the dead?
Load More Replies...I lived in a coastal town in South Africa at the time. There was something so wrong with sea there on that day as well.
My uncle, aunt, and two cousins were there when it happened. They were supposed to be on a snorkeling tour in Khao Lak the day it happened, but they had to go inland to the hospital cause my aunt broke her leg. Khao Lak was one of the biggest areas hit and accounted for a majority of the deaths in Thailand I believe.
Yet another natural tragedy we watched on Boxing Day morning, when the children's movie show was suddenly replaced by the announcement and switched to the real-time Tsunami. Everyone was transfixed.
I was watching the news and they were filming the start of the Rodney King riot in LA. All of a sudden they panned to an area where we see Reginald Denny being pulled from his truck and severely beaten--shocking in and of itself, yet the general idea that someone is filming someone getting beaten and NO ONE is helping was mind boggling at that time. Now stuff like that is all over the internet, but not so in 1992. It really freaked me out at the time.
I've lived in Southern California my entire life. I remember the 1992 Los Angeles riots very well - I live about 30 minutes away from LA. I was young enough that I couldn't understand why people hated each other over skin color - I was a white child who had been adopted into a Hispanic family, so my skin color was not the same as my family's. I knew racism existed and why it existed, and I'd been taught about the Hólócaust, but I still didn't understand how bad racism could actually be until seeing the coverage of the LA riots on TV. It was surreal.
I don't understand color prejudice as an adult. Makes no sense.
Load More Replies...This is the premise behind the song "Ode to Billy Joe." The song is not about what was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge. The song was about the casual and indifferent way this family discussed the sui**de of this young person while eating lunch (called dinner in many areas of the southern USA) and asking for another biscuit (not a cookie but sort of like a round, unsweet scone).
No one helped him? Gosh, that's pretty interesting to say - Four black residents of South Central Los Angeles, Bobby Green Jr., Lei Yuille, Titus Murphy, and Terri Barnett, who had been watching the events on television, came to Denny's aid. For some reason four black people rushing to help doesn't count. America.
I remember watching Reginald Denny being beaten. It was so bloody disturbed as to what people will do to each other.
Just to be clear - BP sharing this (seemingly racist) lie that no one came to his aid is BP spreading clearly false information.
Downvotes for pointing out BP is spreading false information? Does this mean people like the lie and want to see it moved forward?
Load More Replies...In democracies people have a right to due process. Many of us consider that important, while others would love to see extra judicial punishments for people they resent. Values matter.
Load More Replies...When it comes to who calls the shots on what to take live and what to cut, the BBC advises that the person in charge should be someone who can react quickly, effectively, and with authority in the event of a problem. "They should have easy access to the senior production team and the presenter," it adds.
And what must that person do if or when something goes wrong? "In the event of a problem, they should be able to authorise a broadcast apology or use of the studio to pull away from a performance or contributor, should inappropriate strong language/ gestures, etc. occur unexpectedly."
Gary Plauché k**ling Jeffrey Doucet in the Baton Rouge airport. Doucet was a child m**ester who had kidnapped and r***d Plauché's son.
Didn't serve any jail time. Respect to the prosecutor for giving him that plea deal.
Marianne Bachmeier in Germany did the same to the ra*pist of her daughter. During the trial, no less. She went to jail, but I don't think she minded much. It brought up a big discussion, though, and helped to draw attention to the often dismally lenient jail times for rapists.
He didn't just r**e her daughter, he unalived her as well.
Load More Replies...Good. That is what those sick people deserve. I hope Gary was treated with respect in prison.
Child molesters are pariahs to people in prison, so I expect he was.
Load More Replies...I can't say I blame him... Would probably want to do the same in that situation. There's no fixing p3doph1l3s.
After the shooting, the boy who had been assaulted, got mad at his father for killing his a****r and did not talk to each other for years.
I saw Oswald k**led on live TV. I was eight. I saw and heard the President of the United States say F**K on live TV this morning. I will be 70 in two weeks. So, in between, not so much.
Unhappy_Gate9739:
I saw it too at age 9. I was eating breakfast and I remember my father crying out, "Oh my God, he shot him!"
You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that Oswald was "eliminated".
"2 can keep a secret, if 1 of them is dead... "
Load More Replies...I was twelve. My parents were irritated that none of us three girls left the room because we knew we shouldn't watch stuff like that. In real time.
Some believe the Mafia was behind the assassination, and Jack Ruby did have Mafia ties. .
I didn't see Kennedy shot as I was in school but did see the funeral procession. Heartbreaking to watch his little boy salute the coffin.
I was 11 when JFK was assassinated, think it was around 6.30 pm UK time. My main thought (before I saw the footage) was 'why aren't they showing my favourite TV programme - Emergency Ward 10'
You might have seen before that normal television programming is sometimes cut in the event of big breaking news, a national or international disaster, or a state announcement. One minute, you're casually watching your favorite comedy, the next thing, the news appears.
What's happened here is that the station has deemed the event or announcement important enough to broadcast it live. Each organization has its own way of dealing with situations like this. But in the case of the BBC, it says, "When a live non-news programme finds itself covering a major incident or disaster, it will usually be appropriate to hand over to BBC News, although staff may be asked to continue operating cameras and directing."
In this case, those on duty are expected to follow a set of principles that are there to protect viewers who unexpectedly find themselves watching an unplanned broadcast...
British comedian Tommy Cooper collapsing and dying on stage during a live broadcast.
The audience (and probably most of us at home) thought it was part of the act until they cut to a commercial.
I remember this. I was staying with my grandparents and we were all laughing so much. Tommy went the way any comedian would surely love to go <3
The thought of everyone laughing at you while you are dying in pain is absolutely terrifying.
Load More Replies...I watched this with my mum and dad and we all thought it was just Tommy being Tommy and sliding behind the curtain. Very sad. He was genuinely very funny and his magic was more complicated than given credit for, as he made it comical as well.
Most magicians of the day regarded him likely the best ever. You really need to know the trick, to make it fail convincingly, every time
Load More Replies...My parents and aunt were in the audience and they felt absolutely terrible as presumably all the audience did for laughing, even when the stage curtains were drawn and the lights came on. But, I suppose for a comedian to go out to laughter is poetic, fitting and not something to feel sad or guilty about.
Some of his jokes were terrible but the delivery was so perfect, you could not help but laugh
I sometimes found him hard to understand, his diction could have been better, but his timing was exceptional.
Load More Replies...I was just 13 at the time, and like most people I initially thought it was just part of his act.
The first thing I remember was the OKC b**bing. Seeing the aftermath and staying up to watch the search and rescue crews look for bodies.
Will someone please tell me why this one is not higher up on the list? 168 souls were lost that day, April 19, 1995, in which 11 of those were Children and 3 FBI agents. I lost my best friend and her young baby. True, you didn't probably see the bomb blow up the building, but you probably saw the aftermath. As long as we are in Oklahoma, May 3rd, 1999 an F5 tornado ripped through the middle of the state and their was total mass destruction, injuries and deaths.
I'm not trying to be an a**e, but do you remember watching the Bradford Fire Disaster unfold on television? Probably not, because it was in the UK, the North of England to be precise. Some things are a big memory to you because you were local. Same for me. But that's a small part of a huge world.
Load More Replies...Nope. None of the recovery was. It was just a few photos and rescue efforts. Even if they had footage, I doubt it would ever be released.
Load More Replies...Anyone can provide a link to wiki of this event, I'm genuinely curious? I'm not understanding the censored word (f*****k b o r e d p a n d a c e n s o r s h i p) and googling "OKC b**bing" brings back a bunch of results for a sports team.
Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing . If you can, check YouTube. There are a number of videos about it.
Load More Replies...I didn’t see this live, but as a green card holder I had an appointment at the Immigration Office that morning. It was very unsettling as when I got on the elevator to go to my appointment 5 or 6 guys in suits followed me into the elevator. They were intimidating and I had no idea what was going on. Not even one of them said a word. The appointment went well. When I got home I saw the news coverage. I’m glad I didn’t see it beforehand because I’m not sure I would have been able to make myself feel safe enough to go to the appointment.
That bombing was the scariest thing I experienced and I wasn't even at ground zero. Explosion blew out the plate glass window where I was working
The picture of the fireman carrying the tiny little body of a baby killed in the bombing is so sad. I still get tears in my eyes thinking about it.
I remember watching an interview with his mother. She was a piece of work.
And here are the BBC's guidelines for such live broadcasts:
Always report the facts and avoid speculation, source all information, take great care with language and how you frame things, ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that names of people who have died, been injured or are missing are not broadcast unless producers are satisfied that next of kin have been informed. Of course, this doesn't apply to prominent figures.
Reporters are also asked to "avoid putting people who are injured or grieving following an accident or disaster under pressure to provide interviews."
The Bay Area earthquake footage of folks driving as bridges buckled and collapsed stayed with me a long long time. They replayed those folks driving into their death over and over. That was the worst.
Nobody drove off the bridges. The fatalities were from the double decker freeway collapsing on their cars. I slways hated driving on lower deck of that structure.
The post doesn’t say that anyone drove off the bridge. It says the people were driving to their deaths, in that the traffic was still rolling for a while, because nobody had a chance to brake or turn around. As someone who had used that bridge before, it must have been terrifying for you watching it unfold live on-air. I really hope that the people in charge learned their lesson so it couldn't happen again elsewhere.
Load More Replies...I was in Redwood City about to turn onto the freeway. The whole roof thing of the gas station on the corner collapsed in front of us.
Wow, one of those 'it could have been me' moments. I'm glad you were OK.
Load More Replies...I was about 40 feet up on a scaffold on Twin Peaks that day running a table saw that day at 5:04 terrifying. Probably the mot impacting day of my life.
Dude. I remember this. Really weird balance of the horror of knowing people were dying and fascination with the way the bridge was almost rippling as it collapsed.
Oh, as a former bay area resident, I remember this like it was yesterday. Just horrible! I was so worried about all of my family there.
The BBC also tells staff to "balance the public interest in full and accurate reporting against the need to be compassionate and to avoid any unjustified infringement of privacy."
The site adds that it is rarely justified to broadcast scenes in which people are dying. "It is always important to respect the privacy and dignity of the dead."
The president of the United States just said "f*ck" on national TV a few minutes ago. Does that count?
Me too. I despise him and I have never really hated anyone in my life until he waddled into politics.
Load More Replies...Honestly, in view of all of the other heinous $hit he's done, him dropping the F bomb isn't even a blip on the radar. It's a nothing burger.
Just watch as other heads of state start füčkîng copying him!
Load More Replies...Guys, did we really expect the Trumpsterfire to be classy? No. Classless? Yes.
He’s so classy and completely has the intellect and disposition needed to be president.
Please let me be correct in assuming you are being sarcastic, Please! Stable genius my azz.
Load More Replies...The right freaked out when Obama wore a tan suit but crickets when the president throws out an F bomb on live TV
OK, maybe it's because I'm British, but why would Obama wearing a tan suit outrage anyone at all, Republicans or Democrats? I don't get it. It's not a racism thing, is it?
Load More Replies...I haven't seen the footage in question, but of all, ALL the things I know, heard, saw, and read regarding him this quite possibly the only one where I'd say "what's the fuss about". But then swearing and cussing is not nearly as much of a no-no in Germany as it seems to be in the US, and Mango Mussolini is known for many things - self control, moderation, class, or reserve noticeably NOT among them.
It's not like it will affect him in any way. That orange garbage drag queen gets away with anything and everything so I'm just waiting for him to die of old age and then ill have a big party celebration 🍾
Apologies for the massive wall of text, but BP hasn't heard of text formatting, for some reason & brevity has never been my strong point. I'm going to assume that any tl;dr comments from the MAGA crew simply don't want to see the truth put before them. I just really wanted to make a point (which I might even use elsewhere on social media.) For the people on this post who are mocking 'the libs' & whom I can't reply to directly because they have been downvoted, let this British observer point something out. Yes, Trump "lives rent free" in their heads, & yes, TDS exists. Have you never thought why that might be, though? It's because they are watching their own country being torn apart by Trump & all his sycophants. They are angry that their fellow Americans, - maybe including their own family & friends - voted in someone with so many prejudices, a convicted felon with an under-qualified administration where (bizarrely) infamous medical conspiracy theorist RFK Jr is now in charge of the country's health & social care, a wrestling manager is in charge of education, & a TV presenter is the head of all the nation's military. They are worried about their retirement, access to medical care, if they'll be facing poverty, if they're going to have their previously legal citizenship revoked & be deported, tearing families apart. They watch as their narcissistic self-styled "peacemaker" (who bombed Iran out of the blue) & his massive ego overreacted to protests against him, bringing in the National Guard & Marines to beat protesters - his own citizens - into submission. They watch as the successful education system is gutted, & foreign aid is withdrawn without any compassion or charity, despite the fact that millions of people could die, apparently justified by the 'America First' ideology, despite the US being one of the richest countries in the world (albeit with a giant gap between the rich & the poor.) They watch the indiscriminate firing of masses of federal workers "to save money" just ahead of Trump increasing national debt by trillions of dollars, & dramatically increasing spending, while he organised a massive military parade to celebrate 250 years of the US Army, which, as it fell on Trump's 79th birthday, inevitably ended up being more to do with himself. They see the president deciding to put arbitrary tariffs on nearly everything everywhere, while constantly making u-turns & then changing his mind again & again as markets around the world are thrown into confusion. They witness the muzzling & rendering impotent of the justice system so the executive branch is more and more powerful, with the president himself personally much more in control of everything, & he begins to roll back people's hard-won rights. They feel afraid of the consequences of having expressed particular opinions on social media, & that there is so much censorship in the name of "free speech." Pete Hegseth put national security at risk with accidental sharing of highly classified military plans - twice - including to his mother & brother, via an unsecured messaging app, among other mess-ups that have gone unpunished. Now Trump & he are frittering away money by renaming ships that were named after LGBT, & Black people (Harvey Milk, Harriet Tubman), but they claim it's not a homophobic or racist decision. That's why TDS exists - do you see it now? Also, do you not see the irony of the MAGA obsession with the seemingly irresistible urge to answer to liberal comments with the usual "rent free" rhetoric & insults? Regarding antagonising the 'other side', both camps are culpable. So to TDS, I'd add LDS - liberal derangement syndrome - but I think the Mormons might object. 😏 I know it's unlikely, but if anyone wants to use this comment to show people exactly why "the libs" are angry.with Trump & his administration,, feel free!
Do I qualify for Bored Panda's longest-ever comment? If I do, do I get a prize? 🤞
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When Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed during a match, I was sitting eating my dinner and I looked up to see him on his back being given CPR by one of the physios. I genuinely thought I'd just seen someone die, but thankfully he made a full recovery and even continued his playing career. I didn't finish my dinner though.
He played for the team I support after this, Manchester United, and I was so proud to see him play.
Marc-Vivien Foé died on the pitch, Cameroon vs Colombia, june 26th 2003. Horrible.
They didn't televise the whole thing, did they?
Load More Replies...I was watching that with my dad. We were having a good rant about how upsetting it was that he left Tottenham and then the poor lad collapses.
It reminds me of the buffalo bills player Damar Hamlin when his heart gave out and he passed out
Me too -- silence in the stadium, players on both sides kneeling in prayer until they put him in the ambulance (on field) and took him to the hospital. I believe the commentators gave at least one update on him as the game continued.
Load More Replies...Remember this so well. I was so much looking forward to the football championship and when it happened, I couldn't stop crying Watching it live was just so deeply "anxieting" (sorry don't know the word). I'm so glad he recovered and went back to playing football!
Tony Hawk landing the 900.
Dukes_Up:
I think this is the greatest example of perseverance ever caught on camera.
norm_190:
I was a kid and just finished a little league game and we all went out to eat as a team after the game. The restaurant had this on TV and we all saw it and went crazy. One of my core memories.
Yes! We really need more positivity! The world has so much negativity and people need to keep those type of comments in their head!
Load More Replies...It really was an inspirational demonstration of pure determination and perseverance.
And amazing skill...Tony Hawk is a skateboarding legend!
Load More Replies...I'm a middle-aged British woman with a complete lack of interest in sport, but I do at least know who Tony Hawk is (though that's mainly through me being a gamer, and seeing new Tony Hawk games come out seemingly every other week.) I admit though, I don't know anything about skateboarding itself, so can someone please explain what a 900 is, and why it's such a big deal?
From Wikipedia: "The 900 is a 2½-revolution (900 degrees) aerial spin performed on a skateboard ramp. While airborne, the skateboarder makes two-and-a-half turns about their longitudinal axis, thereby facing down when coming down. It is considered one of skateboarding's most technically demanding tricks." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/900_(skateboarding)
Load More Replies...Tony hawk actually stole this trick from Tas Pappas. Watch the documentary "All This Mayhem." Sad story. But Pappas was attempting it with higher air and more often. Film was taken and photos were published. He was barred from that X games after d***s. Tony took his trick.
"Stole" and "took" seems like a weird way to describe completing any trick, much less one so difficult that few have ever successfully completed it. Is no one supposed to ever do a trick that anyone else has done lest they be labeled a thief?
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For my parents it was the e*******n of the Ceaușescus... not shocking for them because they hated the dictatorship but if you think about it today it's kinda shocking to broadcast a public e*******n during christmas time xD.
Thanks for censoring essential words in this story BP, that makes so much sense. Do premium users get to actually read what's written?
A genuine request - what was the D**N censored word?
Load More Replies...Beats watching the EastEnders Christmas Episode. Which is always grim.
Hah .... they edited this out again ! The word is E x e c u t i o n.
I remember this well. I remember far too many of the posts here. Means I'm old my my. I visited Romania during his dictatorship and shortly afterwards and a couple of times later. It's a beautiful country (still many problems though), so much to see and experience and lovely, open-hearted people
Remember they showed the Saddam Hussein hanging really vividly as a kid.
Yes, and finding him hidden underground hole. The hanging was simple and oddly not hard to approve or view.
The Hillsborough disaster.
They were in cahoots with the Police, who all decided to blame the Liverpool fans so they could cover up the absolute shambles of crown control by South Yorkshire Police. Stories like, Liverpool fans robbing the dead, urinating on the bodies, stopping the volunteers from the St John’s Ambulance from doing their work. What’s even worse is that the former editor, shown with all the evidence to show that the Police lied to him, and evidence showing all his stories were false, said that given the chance, he’d still print the story. Wąnker.
Load More Replies...For whatever reason, this is the news event that has haunted me more than any other. Perhaps because it happened when I was at an age where I was just beginning to understand that horrors could happen in the most ordinary circumstances. I still can't bear to think about it.
Remember this and Heysel. Watched the latter live. Can't believe they actually played the match afterwards!
There is a dramatization of this called Anne, about her son who died and the following inquest
I am a SWFC supporter and I am totally ashamed and saddened how the media and police spun this to be the fans fault. Us SWFC fans were and still are heartbroken at what happened at our ground. They will always be remembered in S6 xxx YNWA X
The Grenfell tower fire.
I remember the first time driving within view of Grenfell after the fire... :( All the companies involved who cut corners need to be prosecuted.
The government that removed safety requirements and said the companies could self-certify should be made to answer for this. Their free market ‘ideology’ killed people.
Load More Replies...That was horrible. I can’t remember how but I came across live coverage on my laptop while washing up and doing other housework. My other half was at work and I messaged him because I couldn’t be isolated seeing this play out, but he really needed to concentrate on his work. I couldn’t not watch, it felt like cheating or disrespectful to take the easy way out. He did happen to have to go into London, right past it, that week, and he said he really loomed over the community in a miserable and potent way.
OMG, yes. Britain's 9/11. But here they never cared to find the people responsible....
I'll never forget it either and wonder about it every now and then. Last I heard it was a kitchen fire on something like the third floor that blew up really fast through the cladding. The way construction is done these days, at least in the US, not one person can be proven liable without extensive and costly litigation. That is why responsible parties settle for pennies and get off.
Load More Replies...I was supposed to go to White City that day, but the customer cancelled the visit. I could see the smoke from my flat in Hampstead.
I was in White City at work, we had a view of it out our massive windows. Horrific.
Load More Replies...We had recently been swept up in the crowd fleeing the attack on London Bridge, and as we left the city on 14 June, we drove on the motorway past the Grenfell Tower, engulfed in flames. A lot of tragedy for one city in a short time.
I remember the person on the phone trapped inside calling their loved ones to say they couldn't get out, so they said their goodbyes, you could hear the fire effects in the background. Then silence, still sends chills through me.
A two year live streamed g**ocide in the Gaza Strip.
As long as you ignore Sudan and all the far greater humanitarian disasters on this earth you are exposed as selecting jews to hate. Protest Assad much?
I am more than shocked as I see the Israeli ground forces are ordered and do shoot innocent children who are looking for food parcels, as well as starving adults. This is more than war; this is murder in the first degree and total genocide. Why does the US keep supplying Israel with most of the war's modern and savage armourment, bombs, weapons, all killing machines, bulldozing homes? What society is the Middle East, and Israelis are also Middle Eastern. They have all fought with each other for centuries. Why must we get involved? It is not our war, but many of their countrymen who immigrated to other countries are also creating violence and killings in peaceful societies because they are born to live with war in their whole psychology. They are spread too far now and incite with their lack of control or respect for the countries that took them in. Now, culturally, fighting with any weapons is their aim. It is NOT a Western War, so we should keep out for our very lifestyle is threate
They literally cut the heads off of babies then whine about it f**k them
No, Israel mostly slaughters babies with air strikes - burning them to a crisp, burying them alive under the rubble, or turning their tiny innocent bodies into lifeless jelly with the explosive shockwaves. But that's okay by Israel, because all Palestinians are guilty, yeah? “The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death,” Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a radio interview" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/27/israel-gaza-propaganda
Load More Replies...Hamas: “The evil Zionists are killing innocent children! Almost everyone they killed was innocent.” Also, Hamas: “Let’s educate our kids from age zero to murder Jews. Let’s show them how to use weapons and teach them that Jews are pigs! Let’s send them into a war zone to increase the chances of them dying.”
Some Israeli politicians have openly declared their genocidal intent towards the population of Gaza. Here's one: “The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death,” Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a radio interview" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/27/israel-gaza-propaganda. But of course, if the IDF murders children in Gaza as Yitzhak Kroizer wants, that's okay by you, because you just KNOW those children are all sub-human terrorists who deserve it. I've recently re-watched the BBC TV series "The Názis: A Warning from History". It rubbed my nose in the fact that Israel's gone full on Názi towards the Palestinians - and you, Adrienne FWB, sound exactly like the former Názis interviewed in that series, but with your hatred directed towards Palestinians rather than Jews. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b01kkxvd/the-nazis-a-warning-from-history
Load More Replies...Genocide is a serious term with a specific definition. It's important to stick to facts and approach this issue with care, as the situation is complex and deeply human. Facts: half the deaths are Hamas combatants. While 25K civilian deaths is horrific, this is urban warfare where the terrorists hide behind their civilian population. If Israel truly wanted to commit Genocide there are way more effective and simpler ways to do it given Gaza is such a densely populated area. What we're witnessing is horrifying, but far from Genocide.
It's a fact that Israel's actions have been judged genocide by independent observers: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide. Fact: the claims you make about the deaths and so on are unverifiable anti-Palestinian Israeli propaganda. Here's a fact about an Israeli politician's attitude towards Gaza: " “The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death,” Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a radio interview" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/27/israel-gaza-propaganda
Load More Replies...Anthony Demazzo: which "this country" are you talking about? Certainly Israel is a huge threat to Iran, but it's hard to see how it's a threat to this country (by which I mean the one I'm in 🇬🇧) or the world. Right now, there's only one world leader who looks like he might cause the next world war, and that's the current president of the USA. I despise Benjamin Netanyahu, but I recognise that he's a well informed and very canny political operator who wants to survive and wants his country to survive - neither of which would be the case if he kicked off a nuclear hólocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu
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The pizza driver with the bomb around his neck. Brian Wells.
I kept thinking they wouldn't show it; that they'd cut away any moment. But they didn't. I couldn't believe they filmed it live.
News outlets have no conscience or soul. Anything to get viewers.
Load More Replies...They made a movie about this - Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist.
Nodar Kumaritashvili losing control of his sled and slamming into an unpadded concrete column at 100mph during the 2010 Olympics sticks out to me just based on how many replays of it were aired because “he didn’t die on impact”, and was pronounced dead at the hospital later so networks thought it would be fine to show. I’ve long held that “he didn’t die on impact” because of Olympic optics, and really they transported a corpse to the hospital. There is just no way that guy didn’t die almost instantly.
The same applied to the Senna crash - they wouldn't pronounce him dead at the racetrack.
There are processes to go through. Retrospective judgement of "oh they must have died instantly" is just silly, the first responders, ambulance crews etc. have a job to do, which is not to hold their hands up and say the patient is beyond help.
Load More Replies...I remember watching that as well. It was brutal and I thought there is no way you eat a concrete pillar at 80 mph and live even a second after that.
Yep. Back in December of last year, a motorcyclist was struck and killed by an SUV right outside of my family business's office. We were the first ones to run outside to try to help. My mom freaked out and ran back in to call the police. The motorcyclist was dead on impact, 100%. Later on my mom said she couldn't understand how the kid had died instantly, as there was no visible blood, nor was he dismembered or even visibly "damaged". I tried explaining to her how when the human body/brain strikes something solid at a high enough speed... physics means you're gone instantly :(
Load More Replies...When Dale Earnhardt crashed at the end of the Daytona 500 and passed away. Honestly, the impact did not look bad.
We were watching, it didn't look that bad. I remember the one commentator looking back at the track and saying, "oh, that's bad, really bad."
Load More Replies...Yep. I used to enjoy the bobsled course in Lake Placid, NY, USA. Then saw this.😥
I can still remember the sound of him hitting that column. It was metal btw, not concrete.
I saw a news anchor get completely trashed on television while covering a parade live. She was slur singing along with the marching bands “baggy sweatpants…boots with the furrrrr” and hitting on her co-anchor “Bill…everyday I come into work with a sign that says Bill…you’re still a hottie” She was absolutely wasted and having the time of her life.
It was the single greatest bit of programming that I’ve ever seen and *how dare they* claim it was because of cough syrup. That woman was living her best life and I’ve never forgotten it.
I remember Anderson Cooper sent a reporter to Colorado when pot became legal. She went with a group that had rented a limo to take a tour of all the shops. They showed the taped segment, then cut to her live to discuss it... and she was buzzed. It was ac360, so they tortured her by keeping the interview going while people were giggling at the studio. So about how many miles did you travel today? whispered voice: ask her about the taxes...hehe
The Bradford City football stadium fire in 1985. Pretty sure it was live as the images are seared in to my memory (if you’ll pardon the expression).
I remember the anguished voice of the commentator saying "Oh that poor man!" when the cameras cut to a man on fire
There’s a recent documentary that’s still available to watch on the BBC. And it’s very good. It was a horrible tragedy and even though I was only 11 years old at the time, I can still see the flames in my head from the tv pictures.
I was a fire marshal at my work and as part of the training we watched part of the sad events at Bradfords, Valley Parade. As a football fan I spoke to the trainer and he showed me the whole recording, which showed just how slowly it all unfolded and people not moving away as quickly as you would expect. It was as if because the pitch was in front of them there was no rush to move away from what started as a small fire started probably by a cigarette or match.
Four and a half minutes is all it took to go from a lacklustre football match to absolute tragedy - my brother was in the stand but thankfully got out uninjured, so many others were sadly not so lucky. The commentator for the live broadcast that day, John Helm, has said he has never watched the footage since.
This is the one. I don’t follow football but I was sharing a flat at uni with a flatmate who liked to put the sport on the TV on a Saturday morning. The TV was burbling away in the corner until we suddenly realised that what was coming out was not normal. It did all build up slowly and no one was sure what was happening. And then it was huge.
Bud Dwyer blowing his head off in live tv.
I don't know, why you were downvoted. Here an Upvote. This was a song from Filter about this event.
Load More Replies...This was one of those I came looking for. Won't go into details, but I had a personal connection to this one.
I was attending Uni in PA at the time and remember this more vividly than I might like.
I was living in PA at the time this happened and remember it being all over the news.
When I was around 8 or 10 years old (late 80s or early 90s), there was a civil war happening in my country of birth. A real nasty one with s*****e b*mbers popping off in public places. One tv in the house and 8pm was nightly news. Never missed it and the whole family would gather to watch it.
This is etched in my mind.
A policeman walks the cameraman to a newspaper on the ground and lifts it to show the severed head of the b*mber. It was shown on the news.
No one freaked out because we had seen worse IRL by that time.
A man walked up to his wife at a grave site (of their daughter) and shot her in the back of the head while she was slumped over the headstone, grieving. It was live and they didn't cut away in time. I will never forget it. Used to have nightmares about it.
Additional info: the gravity site was the daughter who had committed s*****e, the dad blamed the mom. Tragic.
Her name was Maritza Martin Munoz. Her daughter's name was Yoandra. Yoandra was 15 years old when she committed su!cide, after having found out that she was pregnant. We shall remember their names.
I'm guessing Dad had a WHOLE lot more to do with the daughters passing than Mom did.....what a pos
My first memory of F1 is watching Senna die.
The sad thing is another driver, Roland Ratzenburger, perished during the practise session at the same event. He tends to be forgotten due to Senna's fame and brilliance. Senna had been campaigning for more safety measures. The silver lining is that they were implemented after the accidents, though it was too late for him and Roland.
In South Florida, there was a missing persons case of 2 young adults (19/20) who went out on a date, and disappeared. Had the whole community on edge, wondering what happened to them. The car was nowhere to be found, no trace of them.
They eventually found the car in a canal, and had live TV coverage of cops pulling the car out and investigating it. When they opened the back door, the chopper had a zoomed in view, and you could clearly see the girl's body in the back seat.
I've seen some stuff in my time, but that one shocked me for some reason.
When people disappear while driving a car and there is a body of water nearby, that should be the first place to look. Cars with bodies in them are often found years if not decades later.
I remember watching the news when the remains of victims were being removed from Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment.
I was quite young and didn't really fully understand that I wasn't actually in danger. I still have nightmares about it if I'm being honest.
The deaths of Ayreton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger and in the middle of his act, Tommy Cooper.
Was during the war in ex-yougoslavia, end of the 90’s. In France you could see on all the news channels a guy getting his head shot by a sniper. Almost no filters, I was really young and still remember it.
Not Gen X time, but the ecksekution of the guy on TV in the 60's in Vietnam by our allies.
I know you're trying to get around the ridiculous censorship, but of all the ways you could have written that, that was the hardest one for my brain.
Load More Replies...APS School attack Peshawar Pakistan, 16th Dec - 2014. S*****e bombers asked kids to gathered around him and then did blast. Continued for hours.
When I was home from school in the 90s and watched Geraldo Rivera bring on a panel of K*K members and Black Panthers and they all got into a huge brawl (obviously) and Geraldo got his nose broken. Nothing will ever compare to 90s daytime talk shows.
The North Hollywood bank shootout. I was home sick from school and it was late morning so nothing on tv but soaps and price is right. Then all of the sudden local news break and I’m watching the real life version of the movie Heat. The whole thing didn’t seem real.
Back when it was shocking in the US to see civilians using militaristic weapons outside of a movie.
i was watching this also. When the first perp got shot you could actually see the moment he died. It freaked me out. I was like, "I just watched someone die on national television."
(I don't mean to sound insensitive in calling him a "perp" and not by his name. I just don't remember which man died first. I believe it was Larry Phillips, but I'm not positive.)
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They never shown it, but Owen Hart falling to his death. I just remember the confusion as they wouldnt show the ring and JR is commentating on what's going on and what happened. And then to pronounce his death live was heartbreaking.
Can’t say I saw it live on TV, only after the fact… I heard the Space Shuttle Columbia break apart over my house when I was little and our family lived in East Texas.
I was playing with a very specific toy at the time that my nieces and nephews still played with as I grew up, and the sound of it still gives me flashbacks to that day. We turned the TV and radio on so quickly because my dad thought it was a gas station explosion.
Lee Rigby m**der - watching the journalist interviewing the killer on live tv with blood all over his hands was something.
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lee_Rigby#Attack
Zhou Guanyu's Formula 1 crash at Silverstone in 2022.
The live camera was at turn 2 pointing at turn 1 and you see the UPSIDE DOWN F1 car just careening from left to right across the screen.
I was like what the absolute hell was that!
They didn't cut to other cameras or the accident for 45min until they knew he was OK. As he flipped over the first barrier and slammed into the second.
Look it up, it's insane.
I also saw the Romain Grosjean crash in 2020 live when it burst into flames after hitting guard rail...
That both of those survived is down to modern F1 safety. Nikki Lauder was less lucky in his car fire - he survived but with severe burns. There were some horrible accidents in the early years, and there are still fatal accidents, particularly in historic racing classes. I remember someone being killed when I was at Silverstone Clasic a few years back - though I didn't see it happen. There was also a fatal accident at Oulton Park just recently.
The worst start to a F1 race has to be Belgium 1998. It was raining, and it was just like they were on an ice rink. It was an absolute disaster. On the second start, there were around 8 drivers less as they were not the designated driver for the third car. https://youtu.be/o02s_g5AUUE
I was there, at the start line and could see down the straight.Russell nudged him and he went flying, I saw what I thought was flames but thankfully it was just sparks. The whole crowd went silent. The race was red flagged for an hour before we knew he was ok.
That Kevin Ware leg injury. That was wild. Seeing his leg completely hanging on to skin and bone.
Dave Dreveky breaking his arm pitching after supposedly beating cancer. You could hear his arm break on national tv.
Argh, that just brought back the memory of the kid doing tricks on a playground bar - YouTube video or one of those platforms from a few years ago. I remember the sound of both of his arms dislocating at the shoulders when he flipped too far.
Load More Replies...Maybe it is mentioned later in this thread, but Hank Gathers and Reggie Lewis both collapsing on the basketball court and not surviving.
I thought of this one. One of his teammates passes out behind the bench if you watch closely.
Pursuit down here in Southern California and the dude domed himself live on TV with the helicopter zoomed in on him.
Sixtyninealldaychef:
Yep, was a kid when this happened. If I recall correctly, it was this incident that spawned a policy that camera crews working in helicopters have to stay zoomed out if it looks like something remotely violent might happen.
Reporter and cameraman getting m******d live on air. Story.
LividMushroom1473:
I watched that live over breakfast with my mom. I was getting my braces put on that day and they kept replaying it in the waiting room. I truly think of Adam and Alison every day.
Not much. I would say the fires here in Southern California. You don't see entire neighborhoods, miles and miles go up in flames and have no idea whether you're next, where to go, and what to do if all of a sudden your house, your job, your neighbors, and your kids schools go up in flames. Thankfully I wasn't affected but it was scary to sit there and watch...for days and all night. Just having the car packed and ready to bug out to god knows where not knowing if you'll ever return and be homeless and jobless overnight.
I live about 30 miles south of the "worst" of the SoCal fire areas, so my city isn't usually in any imminent danger even during the worst of our wildfires. But we get ashfall and the skies are darkened by ash and soot and smoke, and it's very sobering to look up at it and know how badly the fires are raging just a 20-minute drive away.
Well there was Columbine, 911, when Tyson hit of Holifields ear, ni**legate, Jessica in the well… that’s all I can think of.
Joe Thiesman’s leg being broken, Clint Malarchuk’s throat being sliced open by a skate, Dave Dravecky’s arm breaking after throwing a pitch, the Challenger disaster and 9/11. I’ve seen quite a few shocking things on live tv.
The sound that Thiesman's leg made! The entire stadium heard it.
Buffalo Sabres athletic trainer Jim Pizzutelli was a former combat medic, thank God…Malarchuk received over 300 stitches. The video is pretty gnarly, be warned.
Oh, Thiesman's leg. I was a big football fan at the time. You could almost hear it through the tv. Many years later I snapped a bone in my finger and that hurt so much, I can't believe how much pain he must have been in.
The meteorologists t**s. Her top had a strap snap right before switching over to her, she was on screen for like 2 seconds and it was burned into my 5 year old brain.
The guy who shot himself after the car chase on Shepard Smith's news program. He was furious it made it to air and I've never seen him so apologetic.
I want to throw in Damar Hamlin from the Buffalo Bills basically dying on live TV. I saw the play and thought nothing of it at all until he collapsed. Then saw all the players' faces and knew it was serious.
Good news - he did not die! He recovered and is still playing football to this day.
My hubby and we're watching that game..... Terrifying! We prayed sooooooo hard for that lil boy.... Cuz he was really just a kid still
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A news reporter was gunned down on live TV. I was watching it with my dad when it happened while waiting for the school bus, but wasn’t paying full attention so I disregarded it. I forgot about it until I years ago when I saw a video about live TV incidents.
The most shocking thing for me was here in the UK. It was July 2010 and the fugitive Raoul Moat was on the run for going postal. On release from prison. He acquired a shotgun and killed his girlfriend and new partner with it. Then gone up to a police man in his car and shot him point blank in the face. So there had been a country wide man hunt for a week because he was an outdoors man and had gone ground in the countryside. It was already surreal because on that day the police had used the famous SAS trainer and TV survivalist, Ray Mears to help track him down. Ray had found a tent he'd been sleeping in. It was 10 pm at night and the police had Raoul Moat cornered with a shotgun in a river culvert in the northern town of Rothbury. I was watching it live on Sky TV. A banner came up on screen saying Breaking News. SKY then cut live to a completely blind drunk UK football national hero, Paul Gascoigne. Who has turned up to the incident in the town doing a live statement about how he"d brought a fishing rod and a bag of fish and chips. Gazza was slurring that Raoul Moat should give himself up and go fishing with him. My brain at the time just crashed. I could not take in what was happening at all. So that was the most shocking. Raoul Moat shot himself half an hour later. He became something of a folk hero in the UK which was weird because he killed two people and blinded the police man who killed himself a few years later. Turned out too that Gazza did know Moat a bit because Moat was a doorman in Newcastle in the days Gazza was in his prime playing days.
Whoever wrote this one has it completely wrong. Gascoigne did not appear on live TV at the stand off with police, he had turned up in a taxi, drunk and coked-up, with a fishing rod, cans of beer and some KFC. He told the police that he was Moat's friend and if they let him through he'd take Moat fishing and talk him into giving up. The police turned him away. Gascoigne later said that he was so drunk and drúgged-up that he had no idea what he was doing, had no memory of it, and had never met Moat before. Also, Moat did not become 'something of a folk hero' at all.
Stole your comment so I can comment on the original post. It was well put together. Well said.
Load More Replies...Brazil losing 7-1 in the world cup semi finals 2014. It was so painful to watch towards the end! My Argentine husband was loving every moment.
Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
What have generations got to do with anything?
Load More Replies...The one thing that is, sadly, forgotten about this whole incident is WHY it happened. Rock had made an extremely poor taste joke at the expense of Mrs Smith's health condition. Had he not been slapped HIS career would have been blighted..
He laughed at it though and only got mad after seeing his wife's reaction. Pair of weirdo's anyway.
Load More Replies...Dan Wheldon being k**led in Las Vegas in 2011.
Downvote all you like but that’s what it says; just pointing out the weirdness of calling it a “bruise”
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The Janet Jackson nip slip during the Superbowl halftime show.
The worst part of this whole thing is how much Jackson was punished for it while everyone else pretty much got away with it
For us Londoners, next week is the 20th anniversary of the tube bombings. I am thankful I changed my commute a few weeks before as I could have been on the Edgware Road train at that time, which is a scary thought.
I was on my way to a meeting in the King's Cross area. Got to Tower Hill just as they were closing the gates and telling everyone the tube was closed due to a power surge. I made the decision just to turn round and go home. My son has left home to head into work about 1/2 hour before me, and it was several hours before I could contact him to ascertain he was ok. He was stranded in central London as the whole network shut down. That is one thing that will forever be etched in my head.
Load More Replies...Princess Diana’s death. I don’t care about the royals much but I’d stayed up late watching movies with a friend in Texas. It was maybe 3 in the morning when we switched back to TV. Weird to see it and realize almost no one else in our part of the world knew about it yet.
I must confess. I returned to my hometown that weekend, had a bit of a blowout with old friends. Woke up the next morning, my mother said "There's terrible news, Princess Di has died" My immediate response was "ooh will we get a day off work?" We didn't
Load More Replies...What made the biggest impression on me over the years was a positive one: the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990. I remember crying so hard while watching it on tv.
As Ricky Gervais observed: he didn't reoffend, did he? Proof that prison works!
Load More Replies...Wait... how did I go through this entire list and not see the one burned forever into my brain, to the point I used it for an album cover in 2008? The helicopter fleeing Jonestown, a cameraman still filming, and the higher up they get, the greater the understanding of the scope... I was nine. They cut into Saturday morning cartoons with live footage. Pretty sure that traumatized a third of my generation (the third that were watching CBS that morning)...
[ftr: Ti West absolutely NAILED this shot at the end of Sacrament (2013), except in his fictionalized version, he had the scope be much smaller. But that recreated shot over the end credits was breathtaking, if you saw it live.]
Load More Replies...I didn't see this happen, it was before I was born. In 1974 a reporter named Christine Chubbuck killed herself on live TV. She said "In keeping with the WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted s*****e.” Then shot herself in the head. Surprised it didn't make the list.
REALLY good movie about this (title is just Christine, if memory serves). If you're into meta, there's also a doco called Kate Plays Christine about the lead actress' struggles with trying not to go too Stanislavsky (for obvious reasons).
Load More Replies...Just to lighten the mood. I remember Sky News going to a pub, I can't recall where, to try to interview some regulars that had been "marooned" by floods in the pub. Cue the reporter being transported up the main street by boat to conduct an interview with the poor people. A few questions through the open window, then he asked "what are you eating" to which some bloke said "Oh we just climb out the back window and walk along to the Pizza House down the back road"........... It was only the main street that was flooded!
Isn't it odd that the majority of these incidents occur and are repeatedly televised in America? A country where you can't say sh*t or bug**r, a country where topless bathing is considered sinful, yet produces most of the worlds pornography?
For us Londoners, next week is the 20th anniversary of the tube bombings. I am thankful I changed my commute a few weeks before as I could have been on the Edgware Road train at that time, which is a scary thought.
I was on my way to a meeting in the King's Cross area. Got to Tower Hill just as they were closing the gates and telling everyone the tube was closed due to a power surge. I made the decision just to turn round and go home. My son has left home to head into work about 1/2 hour before me, and it was several hours before I could contact him to ascertain he was ok. He was stranded in central London as the whole network shut down. That is one thing that will forever be etched in my head.
Load More Replies...Princess Diana’s death. I don’t care about the royals much but I’d stayed up late watching movies with a friend in Texas. It was maybe 3 in the morning when we switched back to TV. Weird to see it and realize almost no one else in our part of the world knew about it yet.
I must confess. I returned to my hometown that weekend, had a bit of a blowout with old friends. Woke up the next morning, my mother said "There's terrible news, Princess Di has died" My immediate response was "ooh will we get a day off work?" We didn't
Load More Replies...What made the biggest impression on me over the years was a positive one: the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990. I remember crying so hard while watching it on tv.
As Ricky Gervais observed: he didn't reoffend, did he? Proof that prison works!
Load More Replies...Wait... how did I go through this entire list and not see the one burned forever into my brain, to the point I used it for an album cover in 2008? The helicopter fleeing Jonestown, a cameraman still filming, and the higher up they get, the greater the understanding of the scope... I was nine. They cut into Saturday morning cartoons with live footage. Pretty sure that traumatized a third of my generation (the third that were watching CBS that morning)...
[ftr: Ti West absolutely NAILED this shot at the end of Sacrament (2013), except in his fictionalized version, he had the scope be much smaller. But that recreated shot over the end credits was breathtaking, if you saw it live.]
Load More Replies...I didn't see this happen, it was before I was born. In 1974 a reporter named Christine Chubbuck killed herself on live TV. She said "In keeping with the WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted s*****e.” Then shot herself in the head. Surprised it didn't make the list.
REALLY good movie about this (title is just Christine, if memory serves). If you're into meta, there's also a doco called Kate Plays Christine about the lead actress' struggles with trying not to go too Stanislavsky (for obvious reasons).
Load More Replies...Just to lighten the mood. I remember Sky News going to a pub, I can't recall where, to try to interview some regulars that had been "marooned" by floods in the pub. Cue the reporter being transported up the main street by boat to conduct an interview with the poor people. A few questions through the open window, then he asked "what are you eating" to which some bloke said "Oh we just climb out the back window and walk along to the Pizza House down the back road"........... It was only the main street that was flooded!
Isn't it odd that the majority of these incidents occur and are repeatedly televised in America? A country where you can't say sh*t or bug**r, a country where topless bathing is considered sinful, yet produces most of the worlds pornography?
