More time on evening news spent covering football and holiday shoppers

[brentspeak]

than was covering the death of over 11,000 in the Asian tsunami.

My eyes almost popped out of my head as I'm watching cheerful network news anchorwomen talk about the poor holiday season turnout and THEN discuss the unbelievable tragedy taking place on the other side of the world.

Was ANY football game interrupted with at least a quick special bulletin about the tsunami??

[riverwalker]

1. when FOX first announced the news

early this morning when the death toll was initially 3000, they just had to add "and even some AMERICANS may be among them!". In other words "we know you don't care about this, but maybe you can relate if an American is a victim". Now that the toll is over 11,000, even if one American was swept out to sea, the 10,999 dead are just nameless brown people to 'murkins.
We lost 3000 on 9/11 and demanded the world stop spinning.

[Bluebear]

2. Other boards are gleefully reporting that God's punishing the Muslim world

It makes me sick.

[Stephanie]

3. When the Twin Towers came down the whole world watched and prayed for us

The news was 24/7 not just here but all around the world. Now many thousands more are killed and the only news I get of it is a few minutes on the nightly news. I'm ashamed for my country.

[cruadin]

5. Don't be ashamed of your country, many of us feel the...

pain of such a tragedy.
It's just that the corporate, info-tainment industry can't deviate from their script just because a bunch of foreigners got killed by a natural disaster far, far away.
They've got their profits to consider.

[LibDemAlways]

4. Dead Asians are of no interest to the

American "news" networks. They will grudgingly cover this type of event for a few seconds before returning to the really important stuff like Scott Peterson. Tonight Tweety had a panel that spent time rehashing the cultural significance of Janet Jackson's boob at the Super Bowl. Our "media" has become a sick, sorry joke - just like our government.

[Bluebear]

7. Well said.

[lyrical di]

6. Call for world news channel

When I logged onto the computer tonight for the first time in 24 hours, I saw the reports of the tsunamis and earthquakes. I stared at the TV screen and demanded that my hubby search for breaking news footage. He could find nothing on tv on any of the channels. I had to resort to all the international news sources to get information. It's like looking for true WORLD NEWS in any major U.S. newspaper. The American slant is so strong that you aren't getting objective straightforward news reporting, but editorials and opinion pieces as to why certain disasters should be of interest. The Christian Science Monitor is one of the few papers that has a planned focus on world news. There is nothing on TV.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

8. Giving us a brief relief from adrenalin for the January massacres in Iraq.

And don't wanna upstage the spectacle of the Crowning of the Emperor...

[qs04]

9. The Senegal ferry disaster...

The Senegal ferry disaster occured three weeks after the Bali bombing and had almost 10 times the death toll was pretty much ignored -- unless it was covered by TV media which I don't watch -- while Bali was headline news 24/7. It was the worst maritime disaster the country had seen; more people died than did in the RMS Titanic sinking.

And the weekend Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed at least 46 people were killed by a collision between passenger trains in Zimbabwe. (I recall the death toll being significantly higher but I can't find anything to support that.) It too was pretty much ignored.

There are of course many other such incidents but these two stick out in my mind.

/edit

Tsunami death toll is now at 19,930.

[Nobody]

10. My heart goes out to the grieving families and loves ones

May all separated families be reunited soon and may the death toll stop climbing.

[flygal]

11. according to Jon Stewart's America....

Body Count Conversion Rate:

2,000 massacred Congolese = 500 drowned Bangladeshis = 45 Fire-bombed Iraqis = 12 Car-bombed Europeans = 1 snipered American

My other favorite:

Kidnapping Newsworthiness:
y = family income x /abductee cuteness / skin color/ + length of abduction x media savvy of greiving parents