In the pro-palestinian thread, Tamerlane has just weighed in with some criticism of the media decision to play over and over again, the very inflammatory loop of a small number of Palestinians celebrating news of terrorism. I agree that this was irresponsible and unhelpful.
I am curious what other responses people have to the media (including also radio, internet and print media). I hardly ever watch television but, under the circumstances, was glued to my TV for more than hour at various points yesterday. It disgusted me that within a few hours of the tragedy, one station (I don’t actually recall which) had already created a kind of logo for the event in which the image of the collapsing World Trade Center fades into Hollywood-like lettering saying “America under Attack.” To me this kind of image-production is so banal and inappropriate. Is there really any need, just a few hours later, to make this human catastrophe so “telegenic”? Wouldn’t it be better if, at least for 24 hours, television mirrored our shock and horror by dispensing with business as usual, instead of packaging it?
In the spirit of Esprix’s “FACTS” thread, I’d be interested in keeping a tally of problematic coverage of any kind. But I’d also be interested in discussion, analysis and debate.
Well since you were there, how “small” exactly was the celebration? It is well known and documented that these countries’ citizens hate us and rejoice in our tragedy.
Mandelstam, I’m with you 100% on the “logo” thing. There is something unseemly about immediately whipping out a decorative slogan for coverage.
Even though I am not a firsthand eyewitness, it if my belief that more citizens of our “enemy” countries were home watching their televisions in dismay and horror than were out in the streets celebrating. Call me naive. That’s what I believe.
I was home flipping through the Various stations, Canadian and US, and I was appalled at some of the things that CNN and the Networks were doing. Every rumour was reported no matter how wild, (for example one anchor reported there were believed to be 8 hijacked planes)
And the stations, each trying to outscoop the others for ratings tried to pin blame right away. Every theory stated pointed to Palestine or Afghanistan, and for the rest of the day that was what every station has reported.
Now I can guess as well as these people but really without solid evidence it is irresponisble to single out a nation or group.
Reminded me of the Election coverage and it just sickened me.
I couldn’t tear myself away from the television, no matter how nauseous it made me, but what angered and dismayed me the most was after about…oh, six o’clock pm Central time, news stations were still reporting old news, but doing it an ‘immediate bulletin’ fashion that mde me think something NEW had occurred. I mean, at 9:30 pm I heard this:
“The unimaginable has happened. And we have the footage…”
EVERYBODY has the footage, and it happened twelve hours ago. They urge the public not to panic, and then insight us to panic by blaring timpani laden music and scrolling ‘bulletins’ that talk about things from 9:00 am.
I think the single most inappropriate thing I saw was the footage of one man jumping to his death from one of the towers. Our industrious camera person tracked the fall until he either fell behind, or landed on top of, a shorter building; I couldn’t tell.
To me, it reeked of pure sensationalism. They’d said people were jumping and hey, I believed it, didn’t need to see the tape, thanks. I especially didn’t need to see it over and over again, which is how they were airing it (I say “they” because I was channel hopping and forgot which network was doing it).
I’m a fan of the “don’t like it, don’t watch it” school of thought, but this is the news, covering a monumental act of destruction in my city, and I’m watching for information, not clips better suited to Faces of Death. There’s a still photo of the same jumper, I think, in the papers today. Why? Somebody gunning for a Pulitzer or something? Please. It’s not that I want to go into denial about the jumpers, I just don’t think it’s at all necessary to exploit their deaths this way.
There’s a world of difference between hearing about something and actually seeing it. In school we read about things like the Holocaust and the American Civil War but seeing photos from both events gave me a better idea of what it looked like.
I noticed the coverage on CNN of the attack in Kabul. The correspondant said it was unclear who had launced the attack. He also said that the explosions sounded like missle attacks he had heard in other places.
After that, a network affiliate here in Dallas said that “CNN is reporting that a US counterstrike is under way in Kabul”.
Agree 100%. It also doesn’t take much imagination to realize how the victims’ friends and relations must feel about it.
Another thing that disturbed me was on the radio this morning. They’d splice in soundbites with some slow song by Sting. It all sounded like some kind of radio play that, rather than magnifing the sorrow as no doubt they’d hoped, cheapened it. It’s almost as if they didn’t think the listener would realize just how terrible it was without a soundtrack.
I agree with the OP completely and I saw that logo you are talking about with the crosshairs and all that. I think it was CBS. Anyhow I thought it was tacky as well. Basically CNN and ABCNews have been the ones I have been liking. And BBC for Net news. (They are normally more responsible than American journalism)
The thing that has been pissing me off however, is this local radio station (Albuquerque New Mexico) a subsidiary of Citadel communications http://www.770kkob.com if anyone wants to send hatemail has been EXTREMELY unprofessional and irresponsible. They have hung on one person, who it was I forget talking about how they aren’t ruling out the use of nuclear weapons. The quote as close as I can remember was,
“We are not ruling out any response to this attack on the US.”
Interviewer: “Does that include the use of tactical Nuclear weapons?”
“I repeat, we are not ruling out any response.”
And the announcer talks constantly about how they might use nuclear weapons and they repeat it every time some fascist redneck calls in to voice their views, and people are ready to nuke Afghanistan when they don’t know shit about it. The radio announcer even said he is sure that 90% of Americans would support that. Makes me sick.
Now this pisses me off, my country being attacked. However I do not think Nuclear weapons are the answer and I think this kind of journalism is very inflammatory.
Another thing that happened is that the announcer (Larry Ahrends for flaming purposes) would take phone calls and if anyone mentioned ANYTHING that wasn’t “Yay US. we have to pull together, give blood and kill the bastards.”. he shut them up. This lady started talking about how we should avoid tyranny that could so easily come, and he shut her up. It was the single most reasoned response I had heard this morning and he shut her up.
This “packaging” of a major new event started with the Gulf War. You’ll recall that CNN, who made their name at that time, slugged their coverage “WAR IN THE GULF”, complete with logo, animation and graphics package. Other networks soon followed suit and this is what we have today. I’m not so sure you should be disgusted; the networks worked up similar packages in record time with the OKC bombing (“TERROR IN THE HEARTLAND”), the TWA 800 crash, Polly Klaas, and the US Embassy bombings. Most importantly the reason they do this is because audience research has demonstrated that VIEWERS LIKE IT. So let’s not worry so much. They’re not trying to cheapen lost lives; it’s just how they do stuff.
“So let’s not worry so much. They’re not trying to cheapen lost lives; it’s just how they do stuff.”
Thanks, Torgo (and others). I’m not exactly “worried” but I still think this is a new low. You’re right about the Gulf War origins of the packaged “news event.” But usually the biggest problem about this phenomenon is that it breeds the endless milking of faux events: viz. Gary Condin syndrome, or 24-hour-a-day Monica details.
The reason I think this is worse is that this is a far worse a tragedy than the Gulf War. I’m sure for most of us reading this is the worst thing that has happened in our lives and far worse than anything we thought possible. The networks are aware of this. I think they could have held off from coming up with slick graphics involving the tower collapse for at least 24 or 48 hours.
BTW mswas, I don’t think it was CBS. CBS had their own “Attack on America” logo with a green target spinning. Although it too was crass it was not, to my mind, as garish or offensive or as large and overplayed as the really ultra-packaged tower-collapse-with-fade-into-ATTACK-ON-AMERICA-complete-with-very-dramatic-musical-accompaniment.
Point taken. Perhaps some of the more garish American TV outlets could have taken a cue from the infinitely more subtle BBC Television. Did anybody see their coverage as it was piped in on the Discovery Channel and PBS? Talk about a world of difference.
Right now (9:50 Eastern time) Fox News Channel is quoting a report that there are over 20,000 casualties. But, they are taking the word “casualty” to mean “death” rather than “injury.”
This is a huge error. (At least I’m fairly sure they’re wrong. I sure hope they’re wrong.)
Fox News was interviewing some guy off the street who apparently saw the crash, and he was wearing a brand new Fox News Channel cap. I wonder how he got that. . .
Up until last night I heard and read several references to an “apparent” terrorist attack. Now, I’m all for erring on the side of caution where the press is concerned… but when three commercial airlines hit major installations in the space of an hour, I think it’s safe to assume there’s nothing freakin’ “apparent” about it!
And I agree about the coverage of the Palestinians celebrating. NBC cut away to that not more than two hours after the towers collapsed. It was a really jarring transition – one second Katie Couric is talking about this unbelievable tragedy in the US, then she says something like “now look what we have to show you.” Cut away to a shot of no more than 10 happy Palestinians. I mean, it pissed me off that anyone would be celebrating, but there was something eerie about that transition, you could almost hear the axes grinding in the background…
I think it’s just horrible and disturbing how the media were taking pictures of people falling to their deaths from the eightieth story. In this this situation I can’t think of anything more wrong to photograph or videotape, let alone publish.
They hate our government but not our people. It’s worthy to note that as we speak now, Palestinians are donating blood for the victims. Yasser Arafat was shown on TV donating his blood, too. They said they had donated 700 units so far. They also observed 5 minutes of silence in their schools today.
Yes, they hate our government becuase they see it as the cause of their continued repression and suffering. But they recognized that those who died yesterday are innocent civilians. A Palestinian friend of mine - a woman - broke down crying when she saw the building come down. Next morning she wondered, “I’m just thinking about all the kids who would be waiting for their parents to pick them up from school - and then no one shows up…”