Part of me can’t help but wonder how many takes it took to get that right…
You lost…your wife?
No, wait, that’s not right. I can do better.
You…lost your wife?
Let me try again.
You…lost your wife?!?
Nah, too callous. Take four.
You…lost your wife?
That’s good. Okay, I got it. Live in three, two…
I’ve watched about five seconds of cable news about this damn hurricane and refuse to watch more. I agree that the story slugs on CNN.com are pretty unsettling.
But people DO want to see it. It’s dramatic. Cable news has descended into info-tainment, and this is just another example. They wouldn’t do it if the ratings weren’t stellar. Follow it with Natalie Holloway and wrap it with Gwyneth Paltrow commenting on Brad 'n Jen and you’ve got a successful newscast.
Hear, hear. I’d much rather see some maps and get actual details of what’s going on and where.
Trunk, I think you’re a little bit off-base. Earthworm Jim isn’t profiting by bringing up CNN’s coverage. It’s not like he’s plugging a blog of his own in lieu of CNN. Is he not allowed to comment on CNN’s shitty melodrama? He didn’t tell you to go listen to the reports. He didn’t even provide a link. I fail to see how he’s as bad as CNN for bringing it up.
Have any of the anchors acted like William Hurt in Broadcast News and faked a tear or two? That’s killer stuff.
As a former TV news person, I can say that this quote should be on every newsrom wall. Brilliant, John Mace…brilliant.
“Nice” news has been tried and rejected by the public. They want “faces of death” and the TV folks are just meeting the demand. I came to grips long ago with the fact that I was cashing my checks on the backs of other peoples suffering and tragedy.
No shit. CNN needs a GIS department. I could generate a 3D topo from a DEM, then overlay streets and show rising water levels in about 5 minutes.
I don’t think one needs to subject oneself to watching a video entitled “screams for help” to conclude that it consists of footage of people screaming for help.
And Trunk, there’s a big difference between what Earthworm Jim is doing and what CNN is doing. CNN and the other media outlets are inundating their viewers with footage of people screaming and suffering. Earthworm Jim isn’t providing footage of anything, he’s just complaining about how the media is covering the event. If he were saying “We should all ignore the human suffering that has resulted from Hurricane Katrina and not talk about it” then his post would be hypocritical, but that’s not what he’s saying.
I note that the CNN page finally shows where a breached levee is on its city map. It’s a step in the right direction, at least. But you’d think that a major news outlet would have vastly more information than this by now.
Well, I for one am somewhat fascinated by most of this coverage. This devastation is far worse than I’d previously thought. Each additional news report only underscores just how bad this hurricane actually was.
As for the dopey reporters? I just ignore them. They know they’re acting melodramatic and over-the-top…they also know that people will remember them… people who will be in a position to hire them as they advance their careers. The reporters are trying to be entertainers, basically, but the pictures speak for themselves.
[South Park]
New Anchor: “In other news, Authrites have finally captured the child molestor known as Mr. Slippyfist. He had been taking naked pictures of young boys, which we will show you now”
[/South Park]
Personally, I thought that the weather people were about to collectively cream their pants with this storm.
I’ve never seen so many of them just so jacked up about it. It was darn near simu-cast for all the networks on this thing.
It could be worse. They could start doing the lead-ins for their coverage with “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan and “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin.
I can’t imagine anything worse than this sort of tasteless humor.
Bah, Shatner would have nailed it in one take.
Okay, the ideal CNN coverage will be of people climbing to their roofs to avoid the flood, the houses on fire and hungry pterodactyls swooping down, their claws and beaks flashing.
Where are the vampires? I thought New Orleans had lots of vampires and shit.
I think there are certain people on this board who want me to die of laughter. You awful, evil people.
…or “Run Like Hell”.
Or anything by Muddy Waters.
I watched once a documentary about this event. For some reason, I find weird to read about it from someone who was present (probably because it was a rather small place, and so far away that I couldn’t imagine I would ever “meet” someone who was there). I’d have been less impressed to read from someone who witnessed some more famous and larger-scale event.
Or “Before the Hurricane” by Martin Newell. 
I agree with the need for more actual info about specific towns and neighborhoods. I started a thread in GD that offers one possible solution to providing detailed images to the residents in a discrete way that discourages voyeurism.