ok, so now we're in the media mode of white blond college students becoming

[Lerkfish]

the face of the Haiti disaster....

disgusting.

It reminds me so much of Katrina when the only people being interviewed were white folk.

[cali]

1. huh? could you fill us in? what did you see and where did you see it?

[MercutioATC]

2. I just saw a Latina rescue worker being interviewed.

Neither blond nor a college student.

Once we get U.S. media on the ground in Haiti, I believe we'll see more local interviews.

[Lerkfish]

3. one of the morning shows... Charlie Gibson was doing a story on some american college students

caught in the wrong place at the wrong time...

so, they had a reporter there, locally in Haiti, and instead of interviewing local victims, it was an interview of tourists with a close call.

(just being more specific)

[lapfog_1]

5. It always sort of pisses me off.

Any disaster anywhere, and the first thing our media concentrates on is "how many Americans were there, how many were killed or injured, and how many were inconvenienced". Their bet is that most of the American viewing audience only cares about other Americans or if they make the story about either Americans trapped by disaster or Americans coming to the rescue, more of their audience can relate to it. I would much rather they simply told the story of the disaster, complete with interviews of people who don't look like white Americans or sound like white Americans. I can empathize with people from other cultures and countries just fine.

[KittyWampus]

16. as a NY'er I have to say you are so far off base. Brooklyn & NYC has a large Haitian immigrant

population so there are a lot of Americans either with family down there or were VISITING FAMILY and missing.

I have watched news on various channels and they are not NOT just focusing on missing white girls.

[treestar]

22. True, like when they cut coverage of an Olympic event when

Americans look not to be winning.

OTOH, to be fair, we are Americans, so Americans there may be able to explain it to us in a way we relate to more immediately. And there could be African Americans there.

[Broke In Jersey]

4. I'm sorry you don't like looking at white people n/t

[Lerkfish]

6. LOL

way to miss the point.

I'm saying the media ONLY likes looking at white people, even when the victims are almost entirely nonwhite.

examples:

Katrina
the Tsunami (where a white blond model got more coverage than the locals)
Haiti.


look, I AM a white person, but I tire of the way these disasters are covered.

[HipChick]

7. +100

[Selatius]

9. It's a form of bigotry. The news directors probably think it makes the disaster more relatable.

That's as best as I could figure it.

[Lerkfish]

11. right. I think they THINK the public can't relate if there isn't a white face

it doesn't mean their surmise is correct.

[CakeGrrl]

29. True. To wit: The story of the guy who went down and rescued his wife

from rubble.

Great. It's good that he found her.

But how many of these same scenarios did Anderson Cooper cover yesterday? The rescue of a teenage girl while her brother watched was extremely compelling.

But news outlets couldn't wait to put the white success story, complete with a picture of the happy couple, on their ledes.

Maybe they think that's the only way to get white America to care about a tragedy in which, as CNN's crawl has reminded us for the past couple of days, the affected nation is 95% black.

:eyes:


For an added frame of reference, let's not forget other recent stories posted about: the omission of black characters from a movie promo poster in the UK; the complaints that a webcam could not recognize or render black faces; and the Photoshop whitening of Bobby Jindal.


Color IS a factor.

[Lerkfish]

8. I gotta laugh at what the unrec brigade chooses to target...

criticizing the media for its american/white bias gets an unrec? okeydokey... its not like we aren't already aware of this fact.

[Baclava]

10. How long have you hated white people?

sorry, couldn't resist

[Lerkfish]

12. heh good one

thanks for the laugh

[surrealAmerican]

13. ... but, but, but ...

... some of those natives don't speak English, and even those that do have a funny accent. How are our viewers supposed to understand them?:sarcasm:

[SheilaT]

14. First of all,

I distinctly recall lots of non white people being interviewed in the aftermath of Katrina.

Secondly, interviewing Americans caught in a disaster is a long tradition in our news media.

It was well parodied about thirty-five years ago by National Lampoon, when they did a mock newspaper which covered an earthquake in Japan which literally destroyed the country by using a headline saying something like: "Two American Women Have Japan Vacation Disrupted".

[KittyWampus]

18. News I've seen has focused on Haitian-Americans looking for MISSING FAMILY.

[Igel]

15. I thought the media usually focused on women.

I haven't found any pictures of the men.

Britney Gengel is certainly blonde, but there's no way she's blond. Well, unless she started off as Britt.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lerkfish]

19. how would this make me feel good about myself?

I know what I saw this morning -- charlie gibson reporting on white blond college students in the wrong place at the wrong time to be in this earthquake.

I didn't make that up.

but hey, at least you got to use the word "pseudo-liberal" so you can feel good about YOURSELF.

[snooper2]

20. so out of all the 100's of local news channels

along with the national news channels..

You watched one four-five minute clip...and based your whole analysis of all the news coverage of the disater on it.

:eyes:

[Lerkfish]

21. it was the first coverage I saw, and I commented on it.

so...before I put you on ignore, that is what happened.
boy, DU has turned into an incredibly nasty nasty place.

[snooper2]

28. oooh ....please don't's puts me on ignore...

:rofl:

[treestar]

23. If they are there, they don't have to be ignored because they are white

The 24/7 media would certainly cover black Americans who might be there, along with Haitian-Americans worried about relatives.

[Rebubula]

24. Your outrage...

...is duly noted.

As for Katrina, I watched alot of coverage as I have family outside of NOLA and there was plenty of black folk on the TV.

I would agree with you if the post was about media coverage of missing white girls...

[WolverineDG]

25. at least they were down there doing something

before this disaster. Where were you?

dg

[Lerkfish]

26. ok, so this thread has made me the object of such hatred and derision

its frankly shocking.

so to hell with it. I just made an observation.

[EFerrari]

27. And you're right. The media pretty much immediately went into

"those people don't even know how to have a disaster" just like Katrina.