Post #9,358
9/16/01 9:43:37 AM
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What's worse
because now they're on the kick of "human interest" stories....and quite franky that type of reporting makes me want to puke. You know what leads me to projectile vomiting? It's the "How are the children coping" stories. Retch. I don't care. Children are resiliant and know and understand more than most of these gushing brain-dead media talking heads seem to realize. Yes, they are shocked, very likely frightened that something like that could happen to them. Turn off the television set, explain that some bad men did a very bad thing, and send them outside to play baseball or football. End of story. "Grief counsellors" - sheesh, we got by without that abomination after Pearl Harbor. Rest in peace, Jeremy, Mark, and whoever else who helped overpower the hijackers on Flight 93.
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Post #9,365
9/16/01 11:13:06 AM
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Last night...
ABC ran a segment about some people who could only express themselves through their music...and the took the opportunity to run photos over top of these guys playing violin (one) and trumpet (the other). It had ZERO news value.
Also, Jane P tried like hell to get the wife of one of the Pittsburgh passengers to break down by asking STUPID, INANE and quite frankly uncalled for questions to her. Her husband will likely be awarded a Congressional Medal and Jane wants the woman to cry...thats all...and she tried to make it happen. ..bitch.
Sorry...that kind of shit pisses me off. I've taken to watching the French news for the moment. I love the net.
You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! Laurie Anderson
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #9,378
9/16/01 3:24:40 PM
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Yes, we are the World Standard for converting pathos to
bathos. Every time - though after the JFK assassination, television's Finest Hours, perhaps ever (?)
They *all* just plain..
Shut. Up.
(whenever some factoid was found - and that, only occasionally - it was preceded by a virtual, 'apology for speaking'!)
Really, this is no exaggeration. That mood lasted from Black Friday through the State funeral on Monday.. and some time after. My little Sony 5" BW TV was on all that time. Only television could 'deal with' such events. And some of the video and comments were simply epic poetry, our best modern equivalent of an exhausted Greek runner, measuring words for the effort to breathe - expressing to a town - the tragedy up the road.
Peter Jennings I deem to have shown the most class, uninterruptedly, of those I've sampled. Perhaps because he is Canadian AND intelligent? Or maybe, just 'class'.
Some of the younger wannabes in too-shiny suits and power-ties, were prone to speaking like a .commer ie Full of Selves and.. forgetting they were using that &*$)&*$ Broadcast Oracle voice-style.. :[
FOX was simply, FOX. Cheap, loud and inane (though not always).
Oh well..
A.
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Post #9,384
9/16/01 4:46:51 PM
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The news from NPR
I've been on a virtually nonstop NPR-plus-web diet since Tuesday. Once exception when I headed to a bar to actually catch some TV videos.
I cannot praise NPR highly enough. They haven't been the fastest to break news, though they've lagged the major nets by only a few minutes in most cases. The sheer tastefulness of the coverage in virtually all cases is what's floored me though. No pounding theme music (interlude themes have been a mellow, somber, classical piece, which I want to look up). No leading-question, prompt-a-response tearjerker interviews (though there've been tearful, and tear-inducing, moments). Very little leading rhetoric, with very minor exceptions. Dan Schorr can't stand the Clinton administration, and it shows. Bob Edwards has expressed a bit of personal concern just over the sheer chaos, closest to losing composure I've ever heard him. Terry Gross has been the closest we've come to a Jane Pauley (pure bitch, sorry Jane), though it's more her incessent digging at the personal angle. My own favorite Terry Gross moment was her interview with Joan Walters some years back. Terry was asking about Joan's cosmetic surgery, with a mildly pejorative bent. Joan, bless her, says "honey, I'm getting bored already". Best "shut up and get over it, Terry" I've ever heard.
I gave up watching the major networks years ago. 20/20, Dateline, and 24 Hours in particular are dreck. I've missed any coverage by Dan, Tom, and Peter, though I wouldn't mind catching up. One illuminating experience is to go back to the [link|http://www.npr.org/|NPR website], and listen to the [link|http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20010911.me.18.ram|inital coverage] ([link|http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20010911.me.19.ram|second segment]) of the news, as it broke, starting with Bob Edwards's interruption of the [link|http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=9%2F11%2F2001&PrgID=3|scheduled Morning Edition broadcast].
Epitomizing NPR coverage actually comes from another story -- the mad cow/BSE epidemic in England earlier this year. There was an interview with a woman, a farmer, in England who was interviewed on All Things Considered. Though the interview questions were largely tasteful, the interviewer (Scott Simon, IIRC) managed to provoke on response that was just heartbreaking. There was a followup a week or two back, again, touching.
I mentioned NPR's overall stand in radio listenership immediately prior to the attacks, I'm again impressed by their class act and informative coverage.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
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Post #9,389
9/16/01 5:22:43 PM
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I heard them a lot too, and agree on all points.
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Post #9,446
9/17/01 12:27:09 PM
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Absolutely true.
When I first turned on the news that morning, I turned on the TV to our local NBC affiliate - which my wife happens to like - and they were reporting a single plane had crashed into the WTC. As I was absorbing this the second plane crashed - and almost immediately they started referring to it as a "terrorist attack" on the United States.
My wife and I left within 30 minutes, and in the car we had NPR on. The change in tone was a relief - the people sounded beside themselves with grief, and seemed reluctant to speak - and the comments were more along the lines of "two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center. There are reports that this is a possible terrorist attack, but we have no confirming reports at this time." Very different from the NBC affiliate's immediate pronunciation of a terrorist attack - despite the eventual proof of what happened, rampant speculation has been known to cause horrible misjudgements of what actions should be taken. I much preferred, and continue to prefer, NPR to the propacrap that has been spewed from the so-called "private" media.
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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Post #9,466
9/17/01 1:47:27 PM
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Of open minds
One airplane, maybe an accident.
Two? And it "just happened" to hit the other tower? I don't have a problem with qualifying talk about terrorism, maybe I'd say "probable terrorism", but to say it's "possible" terrorism is keeping your mind so open your brain is falling out.
Rest in peace, Jeremy, Mark, Thomas, and whoever else who helped overpower the hijackers on Flight 93.
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Post #9,497
9/17/01 3:36:56 PM
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Re: Of open minds
Actually, the message that came through to me was, "We think this was a terrorist attack, but we're saying that it's our personal speculation that this was a terrorist attack. We haven't heard anything from anybody official, and we'll let you know when we do."
As opposed to NBC which was all but declaring this an act of war before Shrub had a chance to speak.
Open mind? Or closed?
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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Post #9,499
9/17/01 3:41:06 PM
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or...
..."We don't have enough intelligence to give an analysis of the news so we'll just wait until we're spoon fed and regurgitate it to you"
Jay O'Connor
"Going places unmapped
to do things unplanned
to people unsuspecting"
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Post #9,453
9/17/01 1:03:17 PM
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NPR just as bad with coat, tie and slippers
They were the first I heard launch into the "It's all America's fault anyway" spin early Wednesday morning.
They manage to avoid the more obvious artifacts of emotional manipulation (like the 'theme music') but their coverage has been pretty poltically slanted when I've bothered to listen and hip deep the the heart-wrenching human interest stuff
OT: Funniest thing I ever heard was about two months ago was listening to the local college public radio station that normally carries NPR. They had one of the head honchos at F.A.I.R. lambasting variou snews organizatrions for slanted, biased reporting based on advertising and others. He made special mention of the biased newscoverage of both NPR and PBS related to who sponsers those programs
Jay O'Connor
"Going places unmapped
to do things unplanned
to people unsuspecting"
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Post #9,513
9/17/01 5:01:41 PM
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Did you imagine there was a 'fairwitness' anywhere, one
capable of matching your own POV perfectly - the Ideal 'news' medium?
A.
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Post #9,517
9/17/01 5:27:29 PM
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No, but...
...I get highly amused when NPR is held up as a good alternative to the rest of the dreck out there when it's just a slightly different flavor of the same dreck
Jay O'Connor
"Going places unmapped
to do things unplanned
to people unsuspecting"
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Post #9,518
9/17/01 5:37:27 PM
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Some folk prefer dancing otters and screens trying to
emulate the worst of web-page design. Others prefer string quartets or silence, or measured prose instead of Announcer voice and slogans. As for those attempting to capture pathos in a recap - ever a daunting task. I doubt you meant that they should not try (?)
Neither will do for all. Personally I prefer BBC when I want a sane summary of an event; if I want to see pix, I can leave TV sound off. Crap shoot..
A.
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