News Service Histrionics During Crisis - Good or Bad?

[Kirkhill]

CNN has been running in the background here with report after report of troubles.

I can understand on scene reporters, even those that don't hyperventilate as a matter of course, getting wrapped up in the story, feeling hot hungry and tired, worn out and upset.   Feeling just like the people around them.

I can even see them serving a purpose or two. The add eyes-on and they maintain a sense of urgency.   By acting as advocates they may also absorb and deflect some of the anger and fear felt by those waiting to hear about loved ones or just wanting to hear when they can go home.   By acting as advocates this may even serve to dilute and deflect civil disorder - no need to riot the government is being pushed.

I am having difficulty with two other things.   The propensity for anchors in nice, airconditioned, cushy studios to start "emoting" and brow-beating officials (change anchor, reinterview same official, reask same questions, repeat ad nauseam).   The lack of reporting about the problems that relief forces are facing to get aid into the communities.   Highways that have floated away, runways that are undermined, railways washed away, bridges gone, land flooded, roads plugged with cars, trees, powerlines, sick and injured, idiots with firearms, idiots on drugs, desperate people.....

Where are the embedded reporters working with those people trying to get aid in?  

Does it serve the situation to constantly harp on how bad it is and how little has been done?

Should more time be spent on demonstrating what IS being done? What IS being accomplished?   Wouldn't that tend to give people more sense of hope and encouragement and tend to make them less desparate and more co-operative?

People died.   Yes.

Many more people are dying and will die. Yes

But even under these circumstances reasonably healthy people can hang on for a few hours more, or even start making their own way out of town.   If they can brave the streets to go shopping for a new pair of shoes surely they can contemplate walking out to higher ground.  

New Orleans is not that big and the tidal surge crested only a few miles inland.  

How about suggesting a little bit of recourse to self-sufficiency?

I don't know what I am talking about. I am rambling and I guess a bit frustrated.   I am tired about hearing how bad things are and how much worse they can get (One anchor seems to open every interview with "What are you frightened of?").

I would be more interested in hearing about what has been done already and what needs to be done.

I just feel that the entire media needs to "suck back and reload".  

And that doesn't even include those that want to see the current administration in the US twist, or those that can barely control their glee at the world's only Super-Power struggling.

Its not uplifting - on any level.

 

[The_Falcon]

I completely agree, enough with the doom and gloom stuff, and the same questions "Why hasn't stuff gotten there?""When is it going to get there".  They are making it seem like the emergency services are lolly-gaggying there way there and don't give two-shits about what is happening.  Those should be reporting about the problems the military is facing in sending its resources to the area, the logistics of sending over 20,000 troops plus equipment to areas where the infrastructure is non-existant would be a nightmare.  This morning I watched one CNN reporter incesantly question, nitpick, interupt, and harrass the governor of Louisanna, about why troops aren't there right now, why is it taking so long, did you even ask for troops, when did you ask for them etc.  The poor woman looked like she hadn't slept in days, thought today was thursday, and generally had had enough of this line of questioning.  You could see she was trying her damndest not to tell this little prick to eff off.  John Stewart is right CNN is joke.

 

[Armymedic]

They are all looking for the scandal, the story, the one big one...

They are doing thier job, unfortunately.

I feel for the reporters inside, they are there on the ground. Its those at the new conferences, cozy in thier hotels with thier expense account, that are just being idiots. Like Hatchet Man, I think they are being unfair asking questions...for now, just report the facts, ask the scandal questions later.

 

[George Wallace]

In times of emergency, the victims often don't see the efforts being put into their aid.  Their focus is on their immediate situation, and nothing on a larger scale.  Yes there are problems, but I am sure they will be overcome.  Some, however, do show lack of leadership, discipline or ethics.  Take this news cast for instance:

http://www.zippyvideos.com/8911023771013466/countdown-looting-in-walmart/

 

[paracowboy]

carrion-feeders and parasites. The media are never to be trusted, believed, or fed.

 

[NavComm]

CNN has been running in the background here with report after report of troubles.


But even under these circumstances reasonably healthy people can hang on for a few hours more, or even start making their own way out of town.  If they can brave the streets to go shopping for a new pair of shoes surely they can contemplate walking out to higher ground. 

New Orleans is not that big and the tidal surge crested only a few miles inland. 

How about suggesting a little bit of recourse to self-sufficiency?

I think you're dead on here! I was wondering the same thing. Recalling the tsunami coverage I remember seeing whole villages of survivors walking miles and miles to safety.

I wondered to myself if this isn't just more of our North American complacency and trust that the government will always save us from poverty, destitution, lawlessness.

I feel deeply for the people who have been caught in the wake of this hurricane and who have lost family and friends. Yet, I can't believe that the survivors don't instinctively get themselves the hell out of there even if they have to walk until their feet are raw and too bloody to take another step.

 

[DBA]

Seems to me the mayor is a ranting loon and the news is just keying off that. The slow response seems a large part due to poor planning and incompetence of the city itself. They have the people that live in the area, already have or should have areas of responsibility for during an emergency and can do a detailed assessment of the situation to pass on to outside resources. Once an assessment is done planning can start and priorities set. Then the action from outside resources start. Would like to see just what type of disaster plan they had developed for a hurricane and if it included planning for the levees being breached etc. Seems currently they want outside people to do everything and are all pissed they were waiting for an assessment of the situation and requests for assistance before going into action.

 

[S McKee]

In times of crisis I find the media tends to color the "big picture" by focusing on, and sensationalizing isolated incidents. This is not to say that things aren't bad in New Orleans, however I think the media is being irresponsible in not reporting that it does take time for the relief/rescue effort to kick in. Even Bill Clinton is sticking up for President Bush and the government's response to the hurricane. What exacerbates the situation is our western "instant gratification" mind set.

 

[The_Falcon]

What exacerbates the situation is our western "instant gratification" mind set.

So true, everyone seems to think that as soon as the order is given those 20,000-40,000 troops will just magically show up instantly.  They don't seem to grasp the concept that those trucks which are now arriving, aren't bloody transformers they don't load themselves with all the relief supplies.  Someone should "embed" reporters with troops at Camp Shelby, so they can see and report first hand what is happening, that they aren't taking their for shits and giggles, but loading stores, figuring who is going where with what to ensure that they are attacked and ripped by the bandits roaming the streets etc.  But it won't happen.  The longer they keep this up, all the better to make the President look incompitent, especially with the continuing commentary that there would be a problem getting troops there if they weren't all in Iraq.  This is the lowest form of "journalism" if you can even call it that.  I stopped watching a few hours ago, I can't take it anymore, I keep getting the urge to reach into my tv and throttle the lot of them.

 

[Chimo]

IMHO, the biggest delay in response to the crisis is the multilaying of governments in the US. If you think back to the Red River flood in 1996, things were not much better, save the loss of life and devastation of the cities. Confusion reigned supreme in the initial stages until the governments and military could figure out the scope of the problem and start to apply solutions, This does unfortunately take time.

The media should be embedded with the levels of government at the get-go so accurate details of the "ramping up" can be reported properly. Unless that happens you get what you see on CNN and Fox now, rehashing of the obvious. I am in no way understating the devastation and loss of life.

Rest assured that once the US Army big green machine gets moving, it will respond with almost unlimited resources. It takes time to call in personnel, muster  stores and equipment, move it from point A to point B, tie in with emergency services and bring the expertise to bear.

A more valid question, in my opinion is...What are you doing as an individual to assist those who's lives have been devastated? 

 

[Brad Sallows]

Remember (maybe you won't; it was forgettable) the movie "The Chase" starring one of the Sheen clones?  The only redeeming part of the picture was the over-the-top "breathless" media coverage within the film.  (Well, that plus Flea and Anthony and the truck spilling cadavers on the freeway...)  The more they overdo it, the sooner they will be tuned out and irrelevant.  Go media, go!

 

[Kirkhill]

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/002595.html
http://www.zippyvideos.com/8911023771013466/countdown-looting-in-walmart

 

[jmacleod]

CNN have a lot of resources, very expensive to operate and maintain, but they have a variety of
newspeople whose journalist training and expertise is simply not there; there are no Peter Jennings
with CNN, and their standards are directed to a mass, semi literate audience, which is what their
marketing guru's tell them to concentrate on, but don't confuse them (oop's "time for a break, don't
go way!") It is difficult to take a TV news report seriously or reflectively, when within seconds of
reporting some horrible, sense defying incident, complete with body parts and assorted mayhem,
CNN cuts to sell something, usually something designed for the bathroom, back porch or crotch.
But CNN has problem. Media Marketing Magazines report daily or weekly earned revenue streams
for the big US Networks. Most are in trouble as their viewing audience declines. and advertising
revenues drop, mostly because of the growth of the CD driven home theatre, and CNN is in the
overall, in decline. Most North American viewers watch movies, that they buy or rent. Hard news
networks are not what they are when Ted Turner created Turner News Network - he sold his
idea and operations, which became after some blood letting, CNN. As far as their political perspectives
are concerned, their owners/management-marketing people are small "l" liberals, who for some
reason which escapes me are not fans of George W. Bush, former fighter pilot, now living in
Washington DC - they also utilize the talents of Christine Amapour, known to US Troops as "Ms
Death". And of course, most of their reporting is breathless, emenating vital concern for at least
a minute of two. MacLeod

 

[Dirt Digger]

But even under these circumstances reasonably healthy people can hang on for a few hours more, or even start making their own way out of town.   If they can brave the streets to go shopping for a new pair of shoes surely they can contemplate walking out to higher ground.  

New Orleans is not that big and the tidal surge crested only a few miles inland.  

How about suggesting a little bit of recourse to self-sufficiency?

Through all of the coverage, I've been surprised at the number of people that seem to have adopted a "rescue me" attitude...people that will just sit there and do nothing until someone in a position of authority tells them to move.

No mass exodus from the Superdome to higher ground.
No squads of people trying to maintain a level of sanitation around the stadium.
No one even willing to do anything about the ever-popular reporter's story regarding a dead body sitting in a wheelchair out in the sun.

On top of it, weapons are everywhere in a city that already had violent crime problems before Katrina came calling.  I mean, what sense does it make to shoot at a repair team going to fix the levee wall?

I hate to say it, but I'm curious how many of the people that stayed in NO were hard-core drug addicts that are now without their daily dose...and have loaded weapons.

The finger pointing is just a "natural" progression of things. I mean, you have Bush who will get blamed no matter what he does and 24-hour news networks that have to fill the airwaves to keep people watching.

New is becoming like any other business today.  The bottom line no longer seems to be, "truth at any cost"...instead, it's "make money".  Tell viewers the stories they want to here ---> more viewers ---> more advertisers ---> more money.  Theoretically, if news was nothing but the accurate truth, you'd only need one news source.  However, notice that news services are broken down, based on how they lean politically?  Liberals won't pay for conservative view points and Conservatives won't pay for lies.   

 

[edadian]

The media isn't the only group of people asking where the help is. Community leaders are outraged at the Bush admin. Supplies in the stricken area still haven't been released by FEMA. Things could have been brought in faster because the US has one of the biggest civilian and military fleet of transport planes.

Why did take Bush a week to lower the flag on his official residence? ...right the judge died.

People did help themselves to food and water in stores and with getting as far out as possible.

My beef isn't with the media but with media whore politicians like Bush, he can get 3 helicopters for a tour and photo op but can't get money to fix long identified problems with New Orleans' levy system.

 

[TCBF]

How much fixing did Clinton do?  One of the levees that failed was fixed last year.  they are only rated for a Cat 3 storm.

Tom

 

[edadian]

As much as was possible with a Republican slash and burn Senate and Congress.

Army Corp. of Engineers wanted to raise the levies but their budget was cut in Bush's first term.

 

[TCBF]

Sure they did.  But that wasn't about to happen, since only 5 years ago environmentalists halted hurricane protection work in St Charles parrish  because a Great Egret nesting area was found in the leevees path.  So, is anyone going to go up against the Environazis these days? Nope.  "Green Power - Black Death"

Tom

 

[SpruceTree]

TCBF, um, would this link, http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/releases/Egret.HTM describe what you're refering too? As far as I can see, the Engineers' were delayed somewhat as they adapted their plans to protect the Great Egret rookery. I am not sure how you can accurately 'blame' environmentalists for the destruction wrought by Katrina if this is what you are insinuating. If you have better information, please share it with me.

 

[48Highlander]

As much as was possible with a Republican slash and burn Senate and Congress.

Army Corp. of Engineers wanted to raise the levies but their budget was cut in Bush's first term.

It's called prioritizing.  The US federal government has numerous programs and projects to support/maintain, while attempting to keep taxes as low as possible.  Rebuilding levee's in New Orleans would have been fairly low on their list.

Now you explain to me why exactly that should be a federal project?  If the wise people of New Orleans foresaw the comming of the Great Tornado, why didn't the city hike taxes a bit and rebuild their damn levee's?  I'll tell you why, because nobody worried about them, and nobody thought they'd pose a serious problem.  It's only in hindsight that idiots like you like to stand up pointing with both hands at Bush and the Republicans.  Even assuming that they HAD seen it comming, since WHEN is it the federal governments responsibility to take care of every goddamn constructio project in every friggin' town across the entire nation?