When I watch the news, I want the full facts.
I realize this is picky compared with the many stupidities that occured yesterday, but was anyone else getting sick of the word “horrific” being used on ALL(yes, I said ALL, i switched back and forth, and failed to find a single network, local or national, that failed to use this term) networks to describe the tragedy?
I’ve always understood this word is a combination of Horrible and Terrific.
Nothing about this incident was terrific.
Chris W
[sub]I posted some of this before in a Pit tread, but it looks better here:[/sub]
There was a bipartisan commission set to deal with domestic terrorist attacks. The new administration decided that they had better ideas, but the media also had other ideas:
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/12/bush/index.html
Yes, the terrorists are responsible for the deed, but even in Pearl Harbor Rear Admiral Kimmel was disgraced for not doing a better job. In the current case, I think the media deserves some disgrace.
I think that the media is not doing the job of investigating like they used to. Today I noticed members of the media approving of limiting our rights in light of the current emergency. Well, since they did thought that our security was less important than the latest in Gary Condit, I think that before I go along in limiting our freedoms, that we should also demand a better and more independent national broadcasting service, one that concentrates in hard hitting news that benefits the public, and not just infotainment.
Holy moses did you hear those people cussing! CBS ran footage on the second tower coming down as soon as it happened. Now, I don’t really blame them for this but DAMN the cussing got annoying.
Endless re-rackings of, “Fing Jesus," until they were able to get the tape in and doctor out the cuss words. Over and over…"Fing Jesus” 
“Fing Jesus" "Fing Jesus” (You get the picture…)
Finally, after they dot thing thing done all you had to listen to was the woman SHREAKING “Oh my god.”
Granted, I listen to this radio station on my alarm clock mainly b/c it propels me out of bad faster than anything. But still… Today a lengthy letter read aloud by a DJ from someone (a listener?) who chastizes anyone who hasn’t yet realized that this is World War III. And it will be a very long war. Only this time the enemy isn’t another superpower. This time it will be a war between the enlightened nations of the West and the “muslim and Third World” countries who resent our influence over them. And so on…
The worst I personally saw was on Fox, on Tuesday night. To talk about a military response, they put on evil convicted criminal traitor Ollie North. How low can they sink? Why would they dredge up crud like this? I knew Fox was right-wing, but DAMN! I immediately changed the channel.
What do you expect? This happened in New York. New Yorkers curse if the light is red, you expect them not to when this happens?
Erek
No, I think “horrific” means something that is horrifying.
What really kills me is the poor quality of the information they are disseminating. They have reporters on the street repeating every rumor every passerby tells them. Such and such a building is unstable and falling down, who knows if it’s true?
On top of that, it appears they don’t have a staff to check out basic facts. When they reported that bldg 5 was unstable, the local channel couldn’t even tell us how big the building is, they had to wait to interview the management company. They should have had all that statistical info day one of this event.
Heck, I STILL don’t know how many people are normally in the WTC on a daily basis. I’ve heard numbers from 10,000 to 50,000. If they were doing a puff piece on the WTC, I’m sure they would trot out some figure for that.
LIke I said, I’m starting to doubt the celebration footage.
I thought the news coverage was very good, actually. Certainly a few rumors got reported, but from what I saw the reporters were careful to say that nothing was certain and that reports were sketchy.
Considering how nearly all the news people covered the most recent presidential election, I thought things had improved significantly.
FTR, I was watching CNN and ABC mostly, and just a little bit of CBS and NBC.
So turn the sound down and watch the video- no problem with thousands of people dying, just so you don’t have to hear cussing, right? JDM
One of the greatest howlers i heard wasn’t directly related to the coverage of the attacks and the destruction. It was on Tuesday night, and one of the media talking heads (i think it was Peter Jennings on ABC, but i’m not 100% sure) was describing the events as “another Pearl Harbor”. Well, we could debate that for a while, but that wasn’t what shocked me so much. His next words were:
HELLO? I seem to remember a few stories about some minor events like Hitler invading Poland, France etc., the Battle of Britain, desert war in North Africa, and plenty of other stuff that happened before Pearl Harbor.
I listened and waited for him to qualify his statement by saying “…for the United States”, but it never happened.
Historical ignorance on a grand scale.
Re: Swearing
Oh, come the f#$@ on. The world is pretty much looking like it’s ending around you and, what, you expect people to should things like “oh fudge! heavens to betsy, a plane crashed into the world trade center. my word, how disasterous.” And what JDM said.
As for the people jumping to their deaths and photos being published… My friends, you can call it sensationalism if you want, but you cannot deny what has happened. Don’t bitch about the media publishing it…bitch at the terrorists who made it happen. This is history, and this must be remembered in history. If we have pictures and proper coverage, we can make sure people don’t deny what has happened, or claim that it was exaggerated, etc. There is one photojournalist that I know of who was near the WTC when it collapsed. The last report from him was he called his wife and said, “Don’t worry, I’m with the firemen.” And we know how what happened to the firemen. He was not there to make blood money; he was not there because he was a sicko getting off on another person’s tragedy. He was there doing his job - recording history, and he probably died doing it. And read MGibson’s comment as well.
You know what? Yeah the pictures are horrific. But you know what, two friggin’ 767s crashed into the WTC, you ain’t gonna have pictures of roses and bunnies. So please, don’t point the finger at the media. I am sick of hearing it.
And we do have positive pictures coming out of all this. The picture of the American flag being raised in the rubble is almost iconic. We’re here to cover the good and the bad, and generally the media will not publish the more gruesome photos, often to the chagrin of photographers who have risked their lives in war zones to tell the truth. Joe Q. Public doesn’t want to see machetied Tutsis, so we’re not gonna run your photo. We’ll run a photo of a girl with a butterfly on her nose.
Forgive me if I’m a bit emotional.
You will no doubt be pleased to know that the Palestinian Authority agrees with you wholeheartedly. And being the action-oriented people that they are, they have taken active steps to ensure that this sort of media irresponsibility is not repeated.
At what point in the day did this occur? By my calculations, Peter Jennings was on the air for somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 hours on Tuesday, practically nonstop, and I think that he is to be forgiven a few slips of the tongue. Do you really – really – think Peter Jennings doesn’t know when and how WWII started? Really?
This event is unprecedented in modern American history. Have any of you ever been a network anchorperson, or an on-air newsperson of any kind? For the anchors, they’ve got a producer shouting in their earpiece constantly, they’ve got people shoving pieces of paper at them constantly, and they have to read, listen to, and assess all of that information while simultaneously talking, questioning guests and on-site reporters, coordinating what’s going on the air next, etc.
It isn’t an easy job, and adding the trauma of this kind of event doesn’t make it any easier. These people are not allowed to break down and mourn on the air–they have to feed you information and maintain their composure. If they fuck up every now and then, I’m willing to overlook it.
I was waiting for this to happen. I HATE when someone does this. It happened for the OKC bombing, too! It’s so schmaltzy. This is a harsh reality and we don’t need a goddamn radio station trying to package it so it’s easier to take (or to make money, or whatever the reason). Everyone has to get into the act, don’t they? :rolleyes:
My media flub-up story took place very early on, when we were watching the CBS coverage at our office and the second plane had just hit. Eventually some helicopters had started circling the area. When the first one came on the screen, Bryant–OOOh, the Ratings–Gumbel said, “Oh my God, here comes another one!” I yelled, “It’s a helicopter, calm down Bryant!” Jeezus. I detest him. You could almost sense the excitement in his voice.
Well, maybe that last sentence was a cheap shot. I take it back. My emotions are getting the better of me lately. I still detest him, though–that, I won’t take back.
I’m sure he does know when and how the war started, but anyone who really does know that should not even have to think about choosing their words carefully. I also am willing to forgive slips of the tongue; for example, when one of the news anchors, talking over footage from the WTC, actually said “And we’re now looking at scenes from the Pentagon”.
But his reference to Pearl Harbor was a rhetorical device intended to portray the possible long-term significance of Tuesday’s events; he went on to say something about the events of WWII that followed Pearl Harbor. As such, i can’t believe he didn’t know what he was saying. I believe Jennings is originally from Canada, and as such is probably well aware of when the war started, so maybe he was just assuming that most Americans would not find his formulation problematic. I’ve been in the US for over a year now, and have heard quite a few people refer to WWII as going from 1941-1945. When i correct them, they always add “oh, i was talking about for America”. But the fact that the assumption often seems to be that the war only really started in December 1941 indicates, if not ignorance, then at the very least a truncated ense of historical perspective.
And spare me all the tears about how hard life is for some guy who gets a seven-figure income to sit behind a desk and read the autocue five days a week. It’s only at big events like this that these guys become anything more than talking heads. Save your sympathy for people who actually work for a living.
I have been unable to get this link to work (probably due to internet traffic). Can you please post a brief description of the steps taken?