CNN: Soulless vultures.

The BBQ Pit
81

I’m not sure I completely agree. I am of the opinion that more gore needs to be shown on the news, not less. Especially when it comes to the sanitized portrayal of wars. I know of too many photographers who have had their pictures “censored” by editors because they were too touchy, hit too close to home, showed too much the reality of war for its readership.

News is news. If something is happening, I want to be able to see it, to form my own conclusions from it. I don’t care if it’s happy feely or gut-wrenchingly painful. If its WTC survivors falilng to their deaths, or corpses floating in Lousiana, I want at least the option to access the information myself, not what some network exec or governmental agency thinks I want to or need to see. Let me make my own decisions. Let me self-censor.

82

Approximate exchange between some Senator and Cooper on 360 tonight:

Senator: I’d like to thank former Presidents Bush and CLinton for their words of support, Senator Jones, Congressmen Smith and Doe, Secretary Blahblah for their whatever it is they did. And I don’t know if you saw this, Anderson, but Congress is going to convene in an unprecedented manner and pass some sort of bill to help out, for which I’d like to thank the other Senators. And I’d also like to thank…

Cooper: Excuse me, Senator?

Senator: Yes?

Cooper: I did not see that. I must have missed it…BECAUSE FOR THE LAST FOUR DAYS I’ve been surrounded by the sick, the dying, and the dead with no word from anyone about when help is getting here!!! There are dead bodies and filth and destruction all around me. And don’t you think that it rubs these people the wrong way to hear and see politicians patting themselves on the back, while the victims don’t have anything to eat? Can you imagine the anger and frustration?

Senator: Uh…
It was great!!! I was kind of half expecting him to cancel the remainder of the interview.

I’ll try to remember to link the transcript tomorrow, as it’s not available yet.

83

You’re wrong that none of them are helping. I’ve been watching for days and I’ve seen/read several reports of reporters helping people they come across. I’ve heard of people being given rides, food, water, and also reporters taking names and information to pass onto distant relatives, which in some cases is all they can do. I’m sure there are hundreds of other stories we haven’t heard about. Now the reporters will be accused of tooting their own horns for sharing such information, but I’m glad to hear of these things happening.

At the very very least, the “reporters on the scene” are interviewing people who are a) giving a slice of information about the tragedy that could help authorities, b) perhaps letting friends and family know they’re alive, and c) adding to the eyewitness historical information. The helicopter videos are also adding to the store of information that future historians will be thankful for.

I’ve been watching several different channels because this is a once-in-a-lifetime event. WHOLE FUCKING TOWNS HAVE BEEN WIPED OFF THE MAP. A WHOLE FUCKING MAJOR AMERICAN CITY IS BEING DESTROYED RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES AND SOME OF YOU ARE BITCHING ABOUT TOO MUCH MEDIA COVERAGE. What the fuck is wrong with some of you people?

I know that head-in-the-sand, don’t show us anything icky or disturbing attitudes are rampant nowadays, but this is ridiculous. I went to a concert last night and while standing in line I started talking to the woman behind me. It was a stupid conversation starter, but I said “I can’t believe what happened in New Orleans, can you?” She said “Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it?” I said “What??” She said “Yeah they really dodged a bullet, didn’t they?” I said “Um, no, several levees have broken and water is pouring into the city. Tens of thousands of people are stranded, possibly thousands of people have died and more are dying every minute. It’s a horror.” She said “Oh, last I heard, the hurricane went through and everything’s ok.” This was Wednesday night. I just shook my head. I got the feeling that she wouldn’t have even ever heard of Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Biloxi, let alone what happened to them and so many other towns.

84

Well, it’s all very technical. You see, the hurricane was a punishment from God against all the homos and other assorted debaucheries(totally kidding). That makes the flooding holy water which killed all the vampires. My deepest sympathies go to Anne Rice in this, her darkest hour. She gonna come whoop my ass for that joke.

I reached my limit with the coverage with NBC news tonight. The first report the aired showed police trying to deal with the situation and being flat out overwhelmed complete with footage of cops breaking down and crying. Their city was falling apart.

The next report showed a reporter stopping a police officer and asking him why he wasn’t doing anything to help the victims. :mad: I have never wanted to beat the shit out of a reporter more than I did at that moment.

85

Here’s the conversation I referred to. Reading it doesn’t do it justice.

86

Miller, I’m no Polycarp booster but comparing Siege’s heliocentric posts to Polycarp’s general good nature shows a true lack of discerning.

Not to say she’s a bad person, but she could sure work on altering the perspective in a post or two. Turn off a lot less people.

I hope you take that as constructive criticism, Siege. We haven’t really interacted on the board but it’s something that jumps out of your posts. As I’m sure something jumps from mine, lol.

87

The story that got me wasn’t from cable (which we don’t have), but just the AP wire online.

A little boy was able to get on one of the busses leaving NO, along with whatever adult accompanied him. But he couldn’t take his dog. The troops (or whoever) confiscated it. Couldn’t tell him what would happen to his dog. So the kid screamed “Snowball! Snowball!” and cried until he threw up. Little kid’s lost everything, but managed to keep his dog, and they wouldn’t let him have it.

88

Hides fessie’s post before Unregistered Bull shows up…

89

Anytime a cable news network is talking about anything but: birthdays for the oldest living people; baby animals born at zoos; missing pretty white girls; famous people doing stuff; famous people in some sort of trouble; what’s new in movie theatres and on TV, well then, I just don’t care about it. I mean, what else is there to talk about?

90

That’s sad. But the Guardsmen are doing the intelligent thing here. They aren’t wasting resources on insignificant items. Besides humans on the bus might be allergic to dogs. The dog will also produce liquid and solid waste matter that bus isn’t designed to handle. It will also require resources that human victims need. Given that this happened to minor child, I can understand how he wouldn’t understand this. With the supposed adults on the Straight Dope, it mystifies me that so many members could find anything wrong with the Guardsmen’s actions unless that adult is an idiot and/or someone that thinks that animals are as important or more important than humans.

91

I don’t think anyone’s saying that the Guardsmen are mean and should have found a way to let him keep his dog. What’s upsetting to us grownups is seeing a kid react to a signifier of how his life has been turned upside down. How everyone’s life has been turned upside down. It’s still hard to grasp the big picture; little moments like this are all we can focus on.

Oh, and fuck you. What are you doing for Katrina’s victims, the human ones?

92

He’s looking for any thread that mentions helping animals so he can shit in it.

93

I don’t have or want pets (and I’m allergic to some), but I think it is probably a mistake to prohibit them on buses and in shelters. I would imagine that a lot of people are hanging on to their sanity by threads right now. If a small dog or two can help combat despair, that is a good thing. It’s probably a lot more disruptive to have pet owners wailing and carrying on (and hurting overall morale) than to allow a few pets onto the buses.

It also seems possible that some people didn’t go to shelters in the first place because they didn’t want to abandon their pets. Thus, the ban may have cost lives.

94

I completely agree with this part.

And to an extent, this part. Yes, humans are more important than animals, but to some people, animals provide much-needed comfort to distressed people. To go off on your own tangent (especially one that gets so many Dopers angry) in a thread (instead of starting another one) is a dick thing to do.

But I’m inclined to agree with you, albeit less…aggressively.

95

You’re right. I let my fears get the better of me and I vented in an inappropriate fashion. I suspected as much at the time, but my desire to vent overcame those suspicions.

CJ

96

Maybe so. Helping animals and wasting resources on them when you could be helping beings is just so fundamentally wrong that I couldn’t help myself. I shouldn’t have hijacked the MSPIMS threads since it was a forum dedicate to “mindless, pointless stuff”, and one can’t get more mindless or pointless than helping animals instead of humans in this terrible tradgedy.

97

you could be helping HUMAN beings

98

Not wishing harm on him or anything, but I wonder how fast UB’s opinion of animals would change if he ever had to depend on a rescue dog (or even just the “insignificant” neighborhood mutt) to alert “significant” humans to his presence in a disaster such as this.

Other than that, it must be a wonderful thing to be in a position to say what gets done and who/what gets saves from the comfort of your workstation. I really doubt that you’d be so judgemental from the floor of the Superdome.

99

You know, this one finally did it. I can’t identify with bodies floating in the water, or flooded out homes, or looting, or sweltering putrid filth in the Super dome. I understand them intellectually, but they’re so far removed from my everyday experience that I don’t feel much of an emotional pang about them. I know it’s horrible, but it seems distant and alien.

But the kid and his dog - I get that. I’ve had dogs, and kids - they’re close to home. Of all the horrors I’ve read about in the last four days, this is the story that made my eyes well up. It’s familiar in a way the other horrors aren’t. So even though it’s a minor inconvenience (and not even that compared to everything else) it gives me an emotional connection the other stories lacked.

And the kicker is - I think the guardsmen probably did the right thing, and I feel guilty as hell by proxy.

And FTR I’m not complaining that there’s too much media coverage, or that news needs to be all smiles and sunshine. I just can’t imagine the mentality that says “I want to watch helpless people screaming in terror”, or the mentality that says “Since the people want it, let’s give it to 'em!”

100

[Don Henley]
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
It’s interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry [/DH]