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San Antonio Current
San Antonio's News4SA gets flak after comment about dead body being 'good for ratings'
By Michael Karlis,
2024-04-24
A comment was captured on a hot mic as authorities searched for a teenager that went missing while tubing at Canyon Lake. San Antonio's News4SA is facing online backlash after an unidentified person commented in a video clip from the NBC affiliate that getting footage of a dead body being pulled from a local lake might improve ratings.
The incident happened last Wednesday while rescuers were searching for 19-year-old Roiner Alejandro Rojas Pereira, who disappeared earlier this month while tubing in Canyon Lake. On April 14, Pereira separated from his tube and drifted toward a water intake near the lake's dam, the Express-News reports . His body was found over the weekend, according to the daily.
News4SA posted video of the search, which the news outlet covered via helicopter. During the 30-second clip shared on the station's website, an unidentified person can be heard saying the discovery of a body would improve the station's ratings.
"I hate to say this, but man, if we get the part where they discover the body, that would be good for ratings," a man's voice says. "Good for ratings."
News4SA officials didn't respond to the Current 's request for comment.
The clip, which has since been removed from News4SA's website, was shared on the r/sanantonio Reddit page , where commenters voiced their distaste.
"I wouldn't call that journalism but it certaintly is news," Reddit user @peanut42 said. "We need to expect better."
Another Redditor, @Automatic_Actuator_0, commented, "Seems like a hot mic over some B-roll they didn't check before posting. A neat peak behind the curtain."
Meanwhile, user @dontbethatguy simply wrote, "Gross."
However, others said they weren't surprised to hear someone in the news media express such a sentiment.
"A news director's #1 rule: "If it bleeds, it leads," user @ Ishaped210 said.
Another user agreed.
"That's how the media works," @Wardenofweenies wrote. "Ratings and money is the name of the game."
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