Media LOVES Disaster!

Okay . . . did anybody else see The Today Show the other morning (can't remember when . . . I think Fri. morning) . . . they were covering the "floods" in the northeast. They were showing a woman frantically paddling a canoe, like she was fighting for her life . . . talking about how horrible the conditions were . . . after a few seconds of their mindless babble, a few national guardsmen WALKED BY the cameras, in front of the woman . . . the water wasn't even over their boots.

After seeing that and thinking back to the ENDLESS coverage of the hurricanes, I'm thinking, do they actually miss having a disaster to cover?

I hate the media more and more every day. How can they get away with fabricating a story, just to get a few viewers? I KNOW there have been problems with flooding in the NE . . . but come on!

That's funny, I'm sorry I missed it.

I couldn't agree with you more Christa. I can hardly stand to watch the news anymore just for this reason. It's turned into a theatrical drama more than just standard information to keep us up to date on latest happenings. Being a little older than most here at PT, I remember back to the newscasts of years ago. They were simply reporting the news and nothing else. Today, most reporters thrive on other people's misery and hardship. They figure, the more graphic and personal they can get, the more people will tune in to their station. It's turned into a drama stage with actors as players. It's so sad to think that so many of those people, that are exposed on national television, could probably have gone the rest of their lives without seeing that horrible incident they had to endure. Not to mention that everybody and their brothers and sisters watched it too. I am personally sick and tired of the media reporting stories and embellishing many details before knowing all the facts. How do they get away with this all the time? How do they avoid lawsuits? I just wish someone could stop it before it goes any further. I'm ecstatic that you mentioned this because it's something that needed to be addressed a long time ago.
Terry

I've been watching the "forecast" for Tropical Storm Wilma this morning.

I just wanna see . . . if it doesn't make landfall on the Gulf Coast as a Category 5 . . .

They'll all be so disappointed.

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a woman frantically paddling a canoe, like she was fighting for her life . . . talking about how horrible the conditions were . . . after a few seconds of their mindless babble, a few national guardsmen WALKED BY the cameras, in front of the woman . . . the water wasn't even over their boots.

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Haha, thats pretty funny. It makes me wonder what else they embellish to keep people tuned in. :rolleyes:

Is it the news media or are the media giving us what we want....

I agree that the media (especially tv) go for the extreme, the gruesome. But that is what sells. When there is an auto accident.....people gather round to gawk.

And it isn't anything new. When I was 10 my older sister was in a horrible auto accident. There was a photo in the newspaper the next day. There she is...15 years old....on a stretcher....covered in blood from a head injury and in terrible pain from a broken back and pelvis...and there is a woman standing over her looking at her. With her is a little girl with long blonde pig tails...also looking at her. Paramedics are there. There is no reason for that woman and child to be there -- except to "see".

And as there are more and more choices in televised news...they need to give the viewers whatever will keep them coming back to watch. So which is the horse and which is the cart?

The media has been having a field day today!

Fox reports a dam in MA is in danger of breaking beause of the rain. They have been watching it all morning. UNITL there was a press converence and the experts said the dam was in no worse shape than it was yesterday. The reporters kept asking the "experts" if they were sure.

In Baltimore, there were terrorists threats against two tunnels. The reporters were concerned about the traffic being backed up because the tunnels were closed. HELLO!!! Be concerned because people might be killed if this turned out to be real; not because there is a lot of traffic.

Now, something I'm sure we will all hear more about in the days to come than we could ever want to: Tropical Storm Wilma is now a Hurricane. Oh, they don't know if it's even going to come to the US but I think they will be sooo disappointed if it doesn't. They are already sure it won't effect the oil refineries in the gulf. I can just hear sobbing from all the price gougers who have been hitting us with higher prices. They can't use Wilma as an excuse to hit us further. I'm sure they will find some other reason though. :(

I thought of another story that got BLOWN WAY OUT THERE!

Remember that plane a few weeks ago . . . the landing gear got stuck and they had to fly around for hours before they could try to land . . . and then, according to every news channel, it was going to be a horrible incident, a terrible crash!!!

I was watching one of the news channels and they had this guy on that was desperately trying to tell everyone that it would be fine . . . there was no way that it would cause any deaths or anything . . . that the pilot was awesome and this wasn't the first time this had happened . . . the news anchors didn't seem to want to hear that!

And then it landed . . . PERFECTLY! No incident at all.

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Originally Posted by momoffuzzyfaces

Now, something I'm sure we will all hear more about in the days to come than we could ever want to: Tropical Storm Wilma is now a Hurricane. Oh, they don't know if it's even going to come to the US but I think they will be sooo disappointed if it doesn't. They are already sure it won't effect the oil refineries in the gulf. I can just hear sobbing from all the price gougers who have been hitting us with higher prices. They can't use Wilma as an excuse to hit us further. I'm sure they will find some other reason though. :(

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Do you think that the media and the oil industry are in this together? If they make ALL of these hurricanes into serious disasters, we'd have to understand the gas price hikes, right?

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Originally Posted by christa

I thought of another story that got BLOWN WAY OUT THERE!

Remember that plane a few weeks ago . . . the landing gear got stuck and they had to fly around for hours before they could try to land . . . and then, according to every news channel, it was going to be a horrible incident, a terrible crash!!!



And then it landed . . . PERFECTLY! No incident at all.

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Ahem,

You left out that the plane circled the place where most stupid stories get started........Los Angeles, Cah Lee Fuh Nee Ah... ;)

I raced home that day.......I wanted to see the sparks, not the accident, as the tires ground down to the rims....

Kinda like a NASCAR race. :eek: :rolleyes: :cool:

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Originally Posted by RICHARD

I raced home that day.......I wanted to see the sparks, not the accident, as the tires ground down to the rims....

Kinda like a NASCAR race. :eek: :rolleyes: :cool:

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That was kinda neat! That pilot was GOOD! He not only landed it without sending it up into flames . . . that front wheel was dead center of the runway!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

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Originally Posted by christa

I've been watching the "forecast" for Tropical Storm Wilma this morning.

I just wanna see . . . if it doesn't make landfall on the Gulf Coast as a Category 5 . . .

They'll all be so disappointed.

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I surely won't! She's supposed to be heading my way. :eek:

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Originally Posted by Kfamr

I surely won't! She's supposed to be heading my way. :eek:

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Well, I hope & pray that for you & Florida, it won't be as bad as they're already making it out to be.

I want to make clear, I'm not trying to make light of the hurricanes or any disasters . . . it just kills me that these news networks thrive on this stuff.

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Originally Posted by christa

Do you think that the media and the oil industry are in this together? If they make ALL of these hurricanes into serious disasters, we'd have to understand the gas price hikes, right?

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Wouldn't surprised me in the least if some of the media companies owned stock in the oil companies. :eek: :D

Case in point?

The Holloway/Aruba Mystery.

Every night of the week it's Beth Holloway Twitty on the tube..
When the networks left Aruba for Hurricane Katrina, BHT broke her promise to
"Stay in Aruba until I find out what happened to Natalie..."

It's a small wonder that she got no cooperation from the Aruban authorities.

The media made a HUGE stink about this gal's disappearance...they followed the mom all over the island....that just bred the contempt the locals had for this woman and her daughter.

Hey, Natalie is missing, but chose to ignore the guy that got his arse tossed overboard on his honeymoon??

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The most troubling part about all the murders and disaster stories is that the media chooses the most photogenic, good looking people to profile and should you happen to be poor, ugly or ?????

FORGET IT!

So.....why do you watch these programs if they offend you? Why don't you turn off the tv?

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Originally Posted by jackie

Haha, thats pretty funny. It makes me wonder what else they embellish to keep people tuned in. :rolleyes:

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^ Just for the record, I was agreeing that the media loves disaster. :mad:

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Originally Posted by Edwina's Secretary

So.....why do you watch these programs if they offend you? Why don't you turn off the tv?

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You sort of don't have a choice if you watch the evening news. That is all that is covered really. Just the BAD news. Surely something good must be going on somewhere in the world. No wonder there are so many anti-depression, anti-anxiety drugs on the market. In fact, that is another whole subject. How in the world did we get to the point where a good third of the commercials are about drugs that we all supposedly need to take to cope with whatever ails us? Hubby often comments that some of the side effects of these drugs sound like they are worse than the disease they are trying to help. OK I'm done. :p

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Originally Posted by Edwina's Secretary

So.....why do you watch these programs if they offend you? Why don't you turn off the tv?

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Because I get free cable, the West Wing sucks and "The Prez is a woman" is fiction. :confused:

Actually I love the History Channel, The Hysterical Channel (Comedy Central),
The Hysterics Channel (Lifetime) the Hysterectomy Channel (Discovery Channel) and the His and Hers Channel (Home and Garden TV)

;)

All the reasons on this thread are why I rarely, rarely watch tv. I've never seen the woman you are talking about...and still I manage to keep fairly up-to-date on the news.

But Pam.... I am with you all the way on the drug commercials. And who is paying for those commercials? You and I every day in our rapidly increasing medical/drug insurance.

And I have never really understood why Dorothy Hamill was advertising Vioxx...if I took Vioxx would it make me skate like her??? SO..."ask your doctor if Vioxx is right for you!" "Hey doc...I want to skate like Dorothy Hamill. Give me Vioxx!"

I had someone in a class once who works for the company that makes a diabetes testing devise. When they began having a tv ad with a musician their sales went thorugh the roof. People went to the doctor and said..."Give me what he is using."

I believe the drug companies have their tenacles as deeply into our government as the oil companies.

That's why I get two newspapers and two news magazines. My little (very little) boycott. And I can read the news I want....and ignore the rest.

Sara it is scary that we are in agreement on some things. :eek: :D Seriously, I agree with you 100% about the drug companies. I always had to laugh at the denture commercials in the past where 30-somethings would be in the ads for denture adhesives and now the 30-somethings are doing arthritis commercials. I'm not saying that people in their 30's don't suffer from arthritis or have dentures but once again we see youth being pushed to sell things that, for the most part, they have no use for. Next they will be showing cleavage in these commercials! :D

I too watch very little TV. I watch 1/2 hr. of my local news and then I used to watch Peter Jennings. :( My TV is usually on TLC, HGTV or Animal Planet. I have never ever watched a reality show. Now you know just how strange I am! :p :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Edwina's Secretary

And I have never really understood why Dorothy Hamill was advertising Vioxx...if I took Vioxx would it make me skate like her??? SO..."ask your doctor if Vioxx is right for you!" "Hey doc...I want to skate like Dorothy Hamill. Give me Vioxx!"

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You won't be able to skate like Dorothy, But you'll be able to box like Tonya. :eek: :confused:

When y'all watch the old Tee Wee, look out for the law offices of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.

If you have breathed, worked or lived in the past 35 years you can file a law suit.

Think about this, the drug, car, and tobacco industries are being torn down because of the scuzzy lawyers who love to go after the HUGE settlements.

Nothing ticks me off more that a moron who smokes for 300 years, dies, and the A-hole family sues and gets a 380 million dollar settlement......

Same thing with drugs. You get a person who has a fractured appendix and goes in for treatment. the bandaid they splint the appendix with has latex in it and gives the patient a rash.


IT'S A LAWSUIT.......

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The bleeding, ringing of the ears and diarrhea and double vision that happen while taking this drug may be side effects.....hey, I just wanted to get rid of a hangnail! :rolleyes:

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Again, it's the microwave generation (A pill to take care of everything!) that wants everything fixed, working or connected in 30 seconds.

And, when that fails, everyone wants to sue. win the lotto or steal.

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Pam,

A little T&A from the FDA would be OK!!!

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Sara it is scary that we are in agreement on some things.

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Don't worry Pam, it was a full moon yesterday!... :D :) :D And I can proudly say I have never seen a reality show either.

My husband is recovering from shoulder surgery so when he has a bad night....I have a bad night. I had alot of time to ponder the original point of this thread....

What is "the news?"

The Smith family had a nice evening yesterday. Becky brought home a report card with all "B"s and Johnnie got a gold star on his book report. All thought the pot roast was delicious.

A meteorite crashed through the roof of the Smythe family home last night. Mr & Mrs Smythe and their daughter Becca have been rescued from the ruin but the search continues for little Jonny.

The reason fairy tells end at "and they lived happily ever after" is because "happily ever after" isn't very interesting. Nice, but not interesting.

There is a quote....something about all happy families are alike but unhappy families are all unique....

I agree that increased competition in news sources (and some that I question are truely news shows) has lead to alot of hyp and drama. But I still raise they question...are they giving the viewers what the viewers want?

Watching the reports from hurricane Wilma, it amazes me how much the news media hypes things. DISCLAIMER: I KNOW IT'S A DANGEROUS STORM

That having been said, I wonder what the modern media would do with a storm the likes of the 1938 huuricane that hit the east coast? It flooded much of southern New England, including flooding Providence RI with up to 15 feet of water. Top recorded winds were over 180 MPH, caused by the storm's strength and forward velocity of 70 MPH.

They hype Wilma as the "strongest storm ever recorded", yet fail to inform people that they only count storms of the last 100 years because they don't trust older instrument readings. Sailors in the 17th and 18th century record waves that were over the tops of the masts of their ships, but those aren't accurate because the sailors were known to exaggerate. Some storms in that era destroyed entire fleets, but the records don't count.

If you're going to make a claim that given historical data is quesitonable, at least give the disclaimer that the storm data is only considered accurate since______ the same prominence as your 200 point headline.