Friday, September 12, 2008

No News is Good News?

So glad Ginger's family has weathered Gustav and come back to us online. Sure felt for what she said about the lack of coverage of the damage in Houma, Baton Rouge et al. As another lady pointed out, even the Katrina coverage consistently reported on New Orleans at the expenses of large damaged areas elsewhere like.. a LOT of Missippi. When Isabel damaged our area, it was the same thing. People saw a lot of damage here. One little city was wiped off the map, but you would never have known it was serious in my state based on the national news others reported to me. When I came back after two weeks, few seemed to understand what we'd just been through, and how much there was to fix.

and - yes- we're praying here for all those facing Hurricane Ike's wrath now.

About the tv national news coverage. Some of the weather coverage for the last storms seems to have improved. Its good to hear of some intended reform in the regular news too, like losing Oberman & Mathews at NBC, as their excessive bias (and political focus) was evident to everyone, but it hasn't gone far enough. There is still the problem of privileged areas of coverage (anything happens to the chosen 'darlings,' the media screams all day) versus the 'regular' stories. To give some examples:: Lately there was a huge explosion at a plant near a major city & college campus in West Virginia, national tv news barely mentioned it! There were earthquakes in Vancouver Island & central Canada & concerns the whole line was getting active. No reports here. There were train derailments, other explosions, & some were suspicious. There's all kind of stuff going on and all we can get on CNN/MSNBC those days is some celebrity flap (who on Earth is that anyway you keep going on about?), unfair attacks on Palin (not exactly getting the breaks they expected for Hillary - though she seems to be a real nice lady), endless coverage of the one little missing girl (probably deceased) and skimpy coverage of the hurricane damage (after it passed New Orleans). Let's not wait for the Glenn Beck hour to cover the most critical stories, okay? He can't get it all in in that time either, especially with all the soliloquizing he feels is necessary. (I won't say I don't know why he feels that way, even when I don't agree with him, but it does cut into news time.) Oil refinery damage is a real story, but so is INFRASTRUCTURE, so is HALF MILLION AFFECTED IN RURAL COUNTIES. Caylee's story is sad, but so was the story of the 4 yr old locally who was found dead in her own apartment. It surprises me that our state's political scandals of councilmen & supervisors hasn't gotten a mention. The N.C. coastal county flap got five minutes... Okay, you're the big news, you can't cover every tragedy. Fine, so FOCUS on big news stories! Local news does local news! Let Hollyweird do its own promotions! Worry about the affect on whole REGIONS - not just the cities you like! Tell us how the power grid is doing. Tell us what Missippi bridges are still affected by that flood this spring. Tell us what roads are affected by what is going on now. Tell us once in awhile how rural people are coping weeks/months after damaging tornadoes, hurricanes, firestorms etc - you know - all those areas outside LA, NY, & New Orleans. Stick to political stories that matter, and otherwise work on the biggest stories that affect the most people! There's too much spin going on still. The national news media has gotten a very strange idea of what is important enough to talk about. Right now you do better combing through Drudge Report , Lucianne, WN, BBC, Worldnet, Fox Online, Breitbart, AP Breaking, & even Wikipedia!

okay...got that back out of my system. Its what I get for watching so much hurricane coverage. ;)

As for the candidates - I am not pleased with the choice of Sen. Biden from Delaware. Sure he's the guy that helped Delaware's economy. Doesn't everybody know how? Don't they remember how many corporations & banks & bankcards companies are headquartered in that tiny province? That's how everyone knows Delaware! Biden would NOT be my choice to remember the little cardholder guy. Wasn't inclined to believe the citizenship flap, but Obama making plans to change the Prez seal isn't a good sign, even though he says its just for the campaign. I'm told that you usually do that only when changing a form of govt. Yes? No?

So that leaves McCain (or Barr) - now- I would still have preferred Huckabee, but I gotta admit, Palin is looking pretty good to me, family issues and all. So she's not a SAHM - few ladies are these days. She does support the right to life for even the littlest of little guys - and gals, even when it could cost her and her family. That shows some integrity. Then too McCain did a cool thing in trying to move the whole convention when he knew Hurricane Gustav was coming. Saw his various attempts reported online & though they wouldn't cancel, the Republicans did cut it down & cut it down to let the 'government' party focus on helping people during the crisis. That was very responsible of him..and them.

3 comments:

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

You've included some of my favorite news links and a few new ones for me to explore. I think, the more I hear about media bias, I'm glad not to have TV and get my news via other sources. LOL

Paula said...

I've been watching storm coverage as well--we have a lot of family in Texas. Some have lost electricity but everyone is fine.
The whole media coverage/bias thing bothers me as well--my husband quipped the other day that instead of State-run media we have media who try to run the State!

Salar37_Shushan said...

Paula, I think your husband is right!