PIrl, that article is such music to my old birders ears. She is such a wonderful human being and inspiration.
The Storm of the Century
Mary is a fun person, too, with a great sense of humor along with her serious side.
I can believe this, everyone across the united states in going nuts after what happened at Va. T. !! A young boy killed himself the day after, but thank goodness he didn't take anyone w/him. Today someone shot a hostage and then himself at the NASA in Houston. Then our own local Wal-Mart had a man walk in with 2 guns and demand food & drink!! He was in there foe an hour and a half beofre the polce took custody. They are taking him to the hospital before jail, as he demanded to pay for the food before he left. I'm staying home where im safe from now on!
It's hard to keep things in perspective when the media is constantly reminding us to always be afraid. After a sensation event like VT, there will be a small number of people who will ape the event. But there are 300 million people in this country, and most have survived the week unscathed.
I know this sounds insensitive. Truly, my heart aches for the families and friends of the victims and the perpetrators (those families hurt too).
One of the things the media does (unintentionally) is to distort our concept of risk. If you are a member of the middle class, are not involved in illegal activitities (especially substance abuse and drug dealing), you always wear your seat belt, don't smoke, and get regular medical check-ups, the odds are you are going to make it to the nursing home.
Seandor: I'm not disputing a word you've written but I think the media does far too much INTENTIONALLY! There was no legitimate reason for NBC to run those tapes so constantly.
I agree....it only makes the next nut case want to do it "bigger and better". Now we have a bunch of copycats running around threatening and killing innocent people.
I agree with all of you. Seandor, that's the kind of reality check that helps ground us and get back the sense of normalcy. The media is so sleazy. Like the saying says, if it bleeds, it leads. At the same time they pick and choose which negative news to report - usually to fit their view / agenda. Almost 20,000 people are killed every year in this country by drunk drivers. How big a deal is made of that by the media? Can you imagine the political bloodbath that would ensue if 20,000 soldiers were lost in a year? And in one respect the drunk driving victims should be harder to accept. They did not volunteer to put themselves in harm's way. They received no training, etc. I can understand why many just choose to disconnect from the news.
Victor - your number is just for drunk drivers but 50,000 are killed every year in auto accidents. We stopped watching news a long time ago. I listen to radio instead.
True, pirl. And let's not forget the thousands of murder victims and the nearly 1/2 million who die every year due to smoking related illness!! Totally avoidable.
Exactly why I don't watch TV for news. Videos of criminals (since there are video cameras everywhere, there are videos of crimes!) don't thrill me. Same with rubberneckers at accidents. Ever wait a looooong time in traffic going North and finally get to where the jam is - from each driver slowing down to get a look at the ambulance, police car and wreckage in the South bound side of the (divided) highway? When they have the same films on all the channels, once is too often. Like the 2 towers going down and up and down and up in slow-motion... It feels most ral the first time, to me the subsequebt showings are the numbing part.
Well, if WE ran the ZOO.........
X, C
I've been lurking here and following the big storm since Pixie started the thread. I'm glad you all made it through relativley unscathed. Your discussion and thoughts on the media pretty much mirror mine. They rush from one catastrophe to the next like a cat chasing a flashlight beam on the carpet, chasing every bit of misfortune and running the tragedy into the ground. Then the next big disaster comes along and yesterdays news is quickly discarded and forgotten.
Singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn summed it up nicely in in his song "Night Train"
Anyone can die here they do it every day
It doesn't take much effort tho it goes against the grain
And the ultimate forgetfulness of violence
Sweeps the landscape like a headlight of a train
early_bloomer
The media is horrible. We all agree. I agree with Pirl, they want us to worry about murders and storms so we watch the news.
No one has yet mentioned the importance of Anna Nicole Smith, Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton to our nightly news! Why are bimbos so important?
Surprisingly, I read 2 good items in Sports Illustrated about this. Imus crudely insulted the Rutgers women's basketball team and they were hurt and offended. But it was being hunted down by the media that turned their lives upside down for 2 weeks. One of these fine young women had no address because her guardian recently died. They found her. Another left home to escape the constantly ringing phone. They tracked her down too.
The other was a column on the former Duke LaCrosse coach. He and his family were haunted by the press. Eventually, they were also pelted with eggs, had rapist lover ,etc. signs put up on their lawn. He was fired by the A.D. even though he believed the kids were innocent, because "it's not about truth anymore. It's about the media and special interests groups" For anyone who doesn't know, all charges were dropped, dna didn't match, etc.
The news tends to sensationalize things in the name of ratings. Thankfully most of what the news tends to place an emphasis on is the exception rather than the norm. Do you all remember when the news keyed in on shark attacks and caused a nation wide panic? The reality was that the chances of you getting attacked by a shark were about as good as you winning the lottery. There are many more people who die in riptides each year, but that doesn't make for good news or bring in killer Neilsen (?sp) ratings.
I agree whole heartedly with all of you - unfortunately - if you build it, they will come. Nothing will change as long as there is an audience. The same goes for the rags they sell on the newstands.
Yes, Anita, and that includes Long Island's Newsday!
What I try to remember--and it's not always easy when there's a media frenzy about something--is that about 30% (on a good day) of what is published in the daily media is true. The other 70% of what is reported should be discounted, or at least, viewed with scepticism. I learned this many years ago when a close friend was the subject of a story in the newspaper. We KNEW that most of what was printed in the newspaper (yes, this was in the long-ago days before the Internet) was inaccurate or just plain not true, but still it was hard not to get swept up. I try to remember this when I am tempted to "rush to judgment" about something I read or hear on the news.
Long ago one big time person was hauled through the courts and found not guilty. The judge told him he was "free to go" and his reply was, "Where do I go to get my reputation back?"
All very true. Media is often inaccurate not only due to their agenda, but to their incompetence. I was interviewed twice in the last few years. Once was for a feature on our lab at Columbia as it was winding down. It appeared in Mechanical Engineering magazine. What I told him as background he put in direct quotes and vice versa. He also invented stuff I did not say. Second was an article in the Journal News, the local paper here, about the skyrocketing property taxes. Same deal with being loose with direct quotes, etc. She also de-emphasized what I was trying to stress. I think they just want a name to put in so it shows they did their job. Then they write whatever they want. If the subjects were different or I thought the story was completely off, I would have pursued it further.
Pirl, I can't remember his name but I will always remember the point. It was the security guard at the Atlanta Olympics that they accused of the bombing and dragged through the mud for weeks. Richard Jewell?
I seem to recall the initials being RD or R something but not Jewell though I do remember his name. I'll go hunting and see what I can find out.
Ray Donovan. Here's the page from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_J._Donovan
I guess we were thinking of different people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell
And don't forget innocent OJ Simpson, who is still searching for the real murderers. Oh - bad example.
And Homer Simpson
Doh!
Jessica Simpson
Which of the Simpson's is indicative of current American culture?
All of the above. However, my choice for most intelligent is definitely Homer.
I don't know. I've never seen the show. Are the Simpson's related to that Paris Hilton person?
They're both cartoons.
You're sharp, Victor!!!!!!!
LOL LOL. I've been out in the sun too long so my brain is a little slow but, very funny. I thought it was funny that two Parises were engaged to each other.
PARIS: Paris my darling, only woman I've ever loved, will you marry me?
PARIS: Oh, Paris, Paris, yes, my darling Paris, yes. Paris dear, shall we inform the media?
Fortunately for my career as a comic-journalist, they got un-engaged.
xxxx, Carrie
..............but they'll "always have Paris".......
Thanks pirl. I agree with Dave on the bimbos. There should be a BimboTV channel where all the morons who actually care what they are up to can watch. Any news about them would be banned from everywhere else.
I hope that would include today's "one square" toilet paper person!
How dumb was that?? Don't ever get too close to her!
This morning, on radio, the host said that now we know why Lance Armstrong dumped her!
Please don't say 'dumped' in this context.
OK, if you promise not to shake hands with her.
Who is this one-square t.p. person?
http://thelondonfog.blogspot.com/2007/04/sheryl-crow-wants-to-ration-how-many.html . I wonder if they see their careers passed before their eyes when they make comments like that...