Found Footage For Real

The horror genre of late has been rife with found-footage films, with stories told in the first-person in which the main character is the party filming the action around them, often for no other reason than they wish to "record" what's happening for posterity's sake. DIARY OF THE DEAD, CLOVERFIELD and the upcoming Spanish film [REC] (which I haven't seen as it's apparantly being remade in the US and they won't release the original until the remake is coming out...damned distributors...), as well as non-horror attempts like Brian DePalma's REDACTED all send up flares warning about the dangers of production and consumption of media.

Browsing around a couple of weeks ago online, I found the following article posted on CNN.com and thought it pertinent to share in light of my review of DIARY OF THE DEAD. Anyone who thinks these films are too far-fetched because anyone in their right mind would stop filming and attempt to help needs to read this: Indian 'Witch' Tied to Tree, Beaten by Mob

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- An Indian woman accused of being a witch was tied to a tree and beaten by a mob, with television footage of the incident aired in India on Friday...
...Tiwari said he was disturbed by the fact that a journalist filmed the incident before contacting authorities.
"The media filmed the incident, then called the police -- instead of the police first," Tiwari said.

Personally, I knew of this phenomenon far before now, as I witness it all the time when there's any incident at all - people have their cell phones out recording it for easy upload on YouTube, etc. This sickens me more than a bit. At least I know the horror genre is still completely right-on about current culture and expressing anxieties and fears about it, despite the common person's seeming inability to get past the "corny-ness" of the first-person trope and see themselves as the producer who is being lambasted by the very film they're watching...