What chaps my ass about Tsunami coverage.

[hangemhigh]

Major world event, humanitarian disaster of "biblical" proportion-so I turned on MSM. Amazing...bodies floating in the water, human beings being swept to their deaths on video, public morgues, grief stricken people, despair and hopelessness. Water shortages, disease, displacement, homelessness. Every heartbreaking detail. I watched and I cried. A world tragedy that deeply resonates with evolved people. The same suffering in Iraq at Chimp's command, and NOTHING. What's wrong with this picture? We're fucked, friends. Tell ME our media is not government controlled.

[Sannum]

1. "Our Media is not government controlled"

You told me to tell you.

I had this exact thought today...If people only knew what was going on in Iraq....

[maxudargo]

2. Well, to take your frustration seriously

I would say you have to understand the tsunami is not a political event. There is nobody arguing for the tsunami (although I won't be surprised if some idiot like Falwell comes out to say it is the just deserts for a bunch of non-Christians or something - you can bet he'd be saying that if the tsunami had hit San Francisco).

But the Bush Administration still insists that it's Iraq policy was good for everybody, espectially the Iraqi people, and there are still a lot of people who want to believe that.

Eventually, the reality of what has happened in Iraq will become so undeniably obvious it will out-weigh the lies and delusions on the other side. This administration is doomed to go down in history as the worst since the 19th Century, and the awakening will begin eventually. I too am surprised the American people were so dense on 11/2, but even dense people will have to face reality eventually. It's probably a good thing, in the end, that Bush has been given four more years to reap what he has sewn. Otherwise they would be blaming everything on Kerry.

It'll get better. The truth always wins eventually. That's why it's the truth.

[hangemhigh]

9. I hear this and ....

I appreciate your thoughts. You are right, the origin of the events are unrelated. The results are quite similar. That's the frustration for me. Tragedy! Horror! Suffering! And God did it!!!!! Show every detail. Oh, if a bloodthirsty maniac causes it in our name....."Never mind. Move along. Nothing to see here, folks." FEMA train-ALL ABOARD!

[HawkerHurricane]

16. Magna Veritas, et Prevalat

bad Latin,
"Great is the Truth, it Prevails"

[Cobalt Violet]

3. I'm pissed about all the highlighting of how many tourist were killed.

Only the rich matter. As if it's to be expected that hoards of native people would die. But OMFG not vacationers.

[manic expression]

17. Exactly!

I remember being so distraught with all of it...and then I go to a mainstream site (because it is my default homepage) and the biggest item is how many tourists are killed!!! I could not believe it. Absolutely despicable.

[PallasAthena]

21. Remember Monty Python's "news for gerbils" ? It's like that.

[maxudargo]

22. Yeah, that's bugging me a little

I mean, I understand journalists are expected to find the "local angle" on any international event, but it just seems to me there's a lot more focus on a few dead white people than a few thousand dead brown people...

I don't watch TV. Maybe I'm getting a distorted sense of how it's being reported from the Internet...

[neverforget]

4. I was watching the local Fox News station (Fox 12) and they led off with

a murder and 3 more crime stories and then finally got around to the earthquake and tsunami. What came to mind was "the death of one is a tragedy, the death of thousands, a statistic."

on edit: I don't have cable

[Catherine Vincent]

5. I'm waiting on the media to play a lot of air time on that little white,

blonde hair, blue eyed boy they found with no parents. He is a cutey pie but I hope they don't focus more on this than the rest of the tragedy.

[Obviousman]

6. I must be incredibly cynical

But I expected this to barely get any coverage sort of like the Darfur situation, or Rwanda. The amount of press it is getting is waaaaayy more than I expected

[hangemhigh]

8. A happy diversion for them...

and a nice break from telling me to get to the mall for the post-Christmas markdowns.

[BeTheChange]

12. Well, the "press" didnt start covering it till Monday

Not to interrupt the happy Holiday News cycle. You couldnt find it on the news till this time last night.

[WindRavenX]

7. I was just going to post this

I've noticed a disturbing trend, and this Tsunami incident only adds to my saddness. Remember the Iranian quake that killed tens of thousands? How much media coverage did that get?
People don't care about lives anymore...the media is not showing us the dead Troops or civilians we've butchered- why? Because they're brainwashing us to feel numb to human suffering. :cry:
It really is saddening. 23,000. Jesus.

[high density]

10. I was watching CNN International coverage via CNN US

early Monday morning and I thought it was decent coverage. When the domestic CNN feed returned, I had to shut it off. I wish I got CNN International with my cable service, but my cable company thinks that having 3 religious channels and 5 infomercial/shopping channels is a much better use of the cable system's bandwidth.

[WilliamPitt]

11. My favorite part

was the repetitive "Tens of thousands dead over there, but COULD IT HAPPEN HERE???" *insert ominous music*

Ah, media. Scaring the shit out of you for free for 50 years.

[TahitiNut]

14. Merely appealing to the myopic self-interest of their audience.

After all, if it only happens to *them* then it's not *our* concern, right?

[WilliamPitt]

15. And also to scare the cheese out of them

A frightened populace is malleable.

[tavalon]

13. I could tell you that

but I don't like to lie.

[EmpireWeAre]

18. The media blitz is incredible.

The train wreck syndrome.

I'm pissed, we see grief and destruction plastered all over the tee vee, Web and newspapers.

Pissed cause we're now carpet bombed with this:




But never this:

[LynnTheDem]

19. 23,000 versus 100,000

bush is GREATER than God; show all the death GOD caused but mustn't EVER show the far greater number of deaths caused by The Great bush-god!

Insanity run amok in the Soviet States of America.

[G_j]

20. for anyone aware of

the 100,000 deaths in Iraq, it's hard not to think about this.
The Iraqi deaths also were deliberate murders, something consciously done, not an act of nature. Who wants to think about the blood on their own hands? Now we can feel compassionate as 'our hearts go out to those unfortunate people'.

Notice also a few of the very recent stories being essentially overlooked:

C.I.A. Torture Flights
Authorized by Executive Order
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122804A.shtml

the prospect of Iraqi elections hits zero as the Sunni party pulls out. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1380191,00.html

China and Russia in joint military exercises.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4695831,00.html

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez has offered China a full access to the country's oil reserves. http://www.neftegaz.ru/english/lenta/show.php?id=53108



Of course they are reporting on the terrible tragedy in Asia (as of course they should)
I wonder what the media would be doing if the Peterson verdict had come out today?

btw. Bush's single failed missle test cost more than the US is giving to help these people.