I just saw something on Fox News that totally pissed me off. I’d like to relate it here to make sure I’m not just being a totally insensitive clod.
First of all I, like most everybody else, have been really on edge these last few days. I have felt for those who have lost loved ones. I really have. The sheer enormity of this horrible tragedy has brought me to tears. But some shit is just too much.
Ok - here’s the deal - Fox News had on a few relatives of missing people. The host is letting each say their piece – where their loved one was last seen, what they look like, the whole deal. All through this I’m thinking. “is the network really doing a good thing for these people in giving them a chance to find their loved ones? Or are they simply relying on glurge at these people’s expense to present ‘riveting TV’”. I feared it was the latter.
This convinced me: The host gave each of her guests a “chance to get a message to their missing loved ones.” Essentially this was merely a way to get each of these poor people a chance to totally lose it on national TV.
One women said something like, “Please just come home John. If you don’t come back we’ll lose mommy. She can’t take this heart ache.”
My thoughts: What the fuck is Fox thinking? They are not providing a service to these people. They are pumping them full of false hope – knowingly. These people are hoping to find brothers and fathers and sisters and mothers who were last known to be on the 100th floor of one of the towers when it collapsed. I’m sorry. It sucks. But these people are dead. For Fox to host this glurgy fucking program, making these people cry on TV for ratings is fucking despicable.
Am I off the mark? Is my anger overflowing? Is it unwarranted?
Someone tell me I’m not Captain Insensitive.
I just added almost this exact entry at my LiveJournal – I still can’t believe how pissed I am at FoxNews.
I saw a picture of a cop car loaded with people’s pictures with little notes on them.
Some may say any hope is good hope, but this is definitely a case of false hope.
“Oh, shit, that’s my wife! I better call her.” :rolleyes: I feel terrible for those people… one lady mentioned her husband was on the 102 floor of the first building or something… lady, I’d hate to tell you, but the viewing audience isn’t going to find him even if they wanted to. And we do, believe me. But he’s gone.
Well to add fuel to the fire, FoxNews also reported a car bomb at the State Department and also panned in on the White House when they learned a plane might be headed for it. This type of sensational coverage doesnt surprise me, isnt this the same network that puts those “WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK” shows on television. This is the BBQ Board, right - FUCK FOX NEWS
Saw the same stuff on CBS today, just now saw it on CNN, as well as MSNBC doing a loooong bit on it a few hours ago. Now I’m getting really cranky with all the cranky people acting cranky as if there’s a damn cranky thing to get cranky about. So I say, a hearty FUCK YOU to all you cranky Fox News cranks.
I saw that program. I was concerned that it was manipulative. I had mixed feelings.
I did think that each of these people already KNEW that there wasn’t much hope. I mean, they still hope…but they have got to know what the odds are. I thought perhaps giving them this outlet was somehow cathartic? I also wanted to give FoxNews the benefit of the doubt - they said that they were doing this to show the rest of America a closer look at the real human toll of this tragedy. It seems so remote to just hear about numbers, and statistics. Seeing indivduals talking about their missing relatives makes it REAL. And I think that’s something some of us need to see.
I was see-sawing on it until that woman broke down begging her husband to “come back or we’ll lose mommy,” or whatever she said. I found that totally manipulative and sensationalistic of Fox.
As long as we’re bashing FoxNews I’d like to say thanks to the insensitive fuck who introduced John Walsh (host of America’s Most Wanted) by saying flippantly “Boy if anyone knows about crime it’s you!” or some shit. Yeah I know you meant because he has a show about it, but this is also someone whose child was kidnapped and found headless in a ditch. Have a little freakin’ tact, wouldja?
Let me clarify … the show was at the very least questionable. I thought the part where they said “here’s a chance to say a message to your missing loved ones,” was bullshit.
Missing loved ones? That sucks. Want to let us feel for you? I totally understand. Let Fox put you on the spot to get a message out to someone who you know there is a very slim chance is still alive? Manipulative and sensationalistic.
I hate the way each network has its own name for this tragedy “America under Attack” like it is a made for tv movie.
Or the stupid questions like from that idiot on CBS, Erin somebody.
“When you think of your brother, what first comes to your mind?”
“Uh…where is he…that I want him back”
But I agree with Yosemite that they are showing the people searching for their families to let the rest of us see the
real horror of all this. And just to give the searchers some hope.
I re-read the OP, and I wanted to add a few more things.
I remember how I felt right after I suddenly lost a dear family member - I wanted to talk about him. I wanted people to listen. To not talk about him meant that he didn’t exist - and he did. It was a healthy and healing thing to be able to talk about him, and have people listen. This is quite typical among people who are grieving.
I interpreted Fox’s choice to interview these people as partly that. The people wanted to talk. They felt helpless. Yes, you can tell by their dispair that they know that there isn’t much hope, but they feel better DOING something. Like making up the little “missing” signs. They flock to any news media and show their signs. They WANT to be seen, and heard.
And the news media wants to hear them. Why? Well, partly because it tugs at the heart-strings, and it is maudlin and sentimental - the stuff TV feeds on. Partly because it is the Right Thing to Do - to show American the human side to this tragedy.
Just a little while ago I saw the people on FoxNews interview (on the phone) a girl who just lost her brother. They talked with her for a LONG time. She babbled on and on. She even offered to play the absolutely heart-breaking last phone message that her brother left, right before he died. She wanted to play it. Should have Fox denied her this? I thought I detected a second of hesitation before they told her, “Yes, please. We want to hear it.” I think they did that because she NEEDED us to hear his voice - she NEEDED us to be touched by his life. That way he won’t really be dead, his memory won’t be dead, because then he touched us. America. And she wanted that. I totally understand the feeling.
I also think that perhaps Fox asked all the other distraught relatives to say something to their missing loved ones because to not do so would be to totally admit defeat, something the distraught ones would not want. Whenever there is a missing person story on TV, the reporters almost always ask the interviewed relative to say something to the missing person. It has become (at least in my mind) a commonplace practice. So I wanted to give FoxNews the benefit of the doubt, and figured that they asked these people to say something to their loved ones, because perhaps they (the distraught relatives) would have expected it. Or perhaps not. But it was something that occurred to me.
I saw the same kind of bullshit on NBC last night. They were really trying to play it up, which pissed me off. It’s fucking tragic enough. But NBC came in with the ‘touching story’ angle complete with dramatic prose, a photo array of a victim in happy times, and piano mood music!!!
yosemitebabe, I agree. Too bad some people here have to get self-righteous about something that is, in the scope of things, extemely minor.
The people that Fox interviewed wanted to share their grief. It puts perspective, a human face, on the tragedy. 5000 people dead is a hard number to get your mind around, but seeing pictures of individuals who were most likely killed gives it some meaning on a personal level.
Maybe Fox was a overly sensationalistic, but it doesn’t deserve a “fuck you”. As NaSultainne pointed out, other networks are doing it too, but I don’t see any of you saying “FUCK YOU CNN!”
If they air 300 of these type of stories and just one person says they saw so and so at a hospital somewhere, then it’s worth it. Yes the odds are long, but there’s a slim chance. We saw the firefighters get out of the rubble yesterday so anything is possible.
I saw a similair story on, I think, MSNBC. It was about a guy who called his family (sister and mom I think) and said he was being evacuated and he’d call when he got out. They never heard from him again. They showed a home movie from 2 weeks ago of him swimming. His brother was saying hwo they all looked up to him because he was the only one who made something out of himself, first to go to college, etc. They were walking around asking people if they saw him. I was horrified, then I realized, this story is being played out a thousand times over.
People won’t just give up and accept their loved one is gone. They might be in a hospital somewhere, a nameless victim. Maybe someone was close to them in the stairwell and can give an update.
These people are looking for closure of some type. They realize more than any of us can fathom the depth of this horror. They can’t just sit home and wait.
Not to the victims. Not to their families who have yet to see a body. I find it unconscionable for anyone to hold out false hope to those in mounring, and more so to display that on international television.
I’m sorry you think I’m “self-righteous.” I’m not sure if that’s exactly the term you meant, but if so, fair enough.
But if it’ll make you happier, Fuck CNN. Fuck the Big Three. Fuck any news outlet that sinks to wallowing in human misery.
I saw that piece too. That struck me a little different. It seemed to me they were intending to talk to her as one of the relatives of a missing person. Then she told them of her brother’s death and it really seemed to throw them for a loop.
I think they handled that as well as could be expected.
But I still think that there is line they cross. Talking about your loved one on national TV accomplishes all the positive things that people have pointed out in this thread, but tugging on those heart strings too hard doesn’t help much, and may actually hurt.
Maybe I’ve misrepresented myself. I’m not in a position where I want to have the news of tragedy shut out. I do feel sympathy for people. I do take appreciation of the situation in being reminded that missing people have loved ones who only want them back. I just get a little pissy, when those that are charged with presenting media coverage use these people and push them into situations that they know ahead of time accomplishes little, all for the sake of “riverting TV” or “compelling content” or however nicely you’d like to phrase “doing it for the ratings”.
Ya know, I might go along with all the vitreol here were it not for one thing.
At present, the networks are losing SCADS of cash right now. Something to the tune of 300 mil a day, as they are showing NO advertisements. (Not that any advertiser in their right mind would want their commercials on during all this.)
If they are doing it for ratings, why? Nothing being shown is benefiting anyone financialy. Or am I missing something?
They are doing it for ratings, and random fill. The fact is that there are not nearly enough newsworthy things happening to support 4 days of round the clock coverage, but none of the networks or advertisers wants to be seen callous for running Friends reruns and advertisements for fabric softener.
I am also sure that in a few months, whichever network has the highest ratings right now will be advertising relentlessly that they were the “most watched” blah blah blah, and they will be able to charge a little more for their ad time during standard newscasts.
