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America's news networks are...

  • Thread starter Rube Dali the DodoHorse
  • Start date

R

Rube Dali the DodoHorse

Guest
...asleep at the wheel. Here we have a situation in Washington State where a bridge has fallen into a river, and what are Fox News and MSNBC doing at this moment? Airing reruns of the evening political slug fests(I mean, talk shows). At least CNN had the nerve to break from tornado damage coverage on AC360 to at least mention it. They're doing post-Jodi Arias penalty recaps right now.

God, I hate American news networks, I wish we had BBC World on DirecTV, rather than their redheaded stepchild of a network, BBC America.
 
It was also mentioned during On the Record on FOX News Channel about 10:43 ET.
 
America's news networks talk too much about WASHINGTON, DC AND NEW YORK!!!

Anyway, KOMO, KING, KIRO all in wall-to-wall coverage. Unk number of people and cars in the river now. JEERS to Q13 Fox - hearing Gordon Ramsey yelling censored F-bombs and S-bombs is *more* important to them than a big bridge collapse with unknown injuries and cars in the water. OF COURSE.

-crainbebo
 
I hate to point this out, but how does a bridge falling into a river in Washington State affect the rest of the country? Why is this national news? Sure it makes great pictures, especially if they have video of cars falling into the river. When that bridge collapsed in Minneapolis a couple years ago, it was great TV for a few hours. But if they don't have the video, and it's already dark there, what's the point? They'll have video for morning drive when people can see it and say, "Oh the humanity!"

America's news networks are all about the video. I remember a few weeks ago when the fertilizer plant exploded in West, Texas, they ran the same video over and over all night. A live wide shot of the nursing home, and occasional inserts from the collapsed apartment house. And people wondered why that story didn't really capture the country the way the Boston Marathon explosions did. Dull video. It's all about the video. If the local TV stations got it, then it's news.
 
TheBigA said:
I hate to point this out, but how does a bridge falling into a river in Washington State affect the rest of the country? Why is this national news? Sure it makes great pictures, especially if they have video of cars falling into the river. When that bridge collapsed in Minneapolis a couple years ago, it was great TV for a few hours. But if they don't have the video, and it's already dark there, what's the point? They'll have video for morning drive when people can see it and say, "Oh the humanity!"

America's news networks are all about the video. I remember a few weeks ago when the fertilizer plant exploded in West, Texas, they ran the same video over and over all night. A live wide shot of the nursing home, and occasional inserts from the collapsed apartment house. And people wondered why that story didn't really capture the country the way the Boston Marathon explosions did. Dull video. It's all about the video. If the local TV stations got it, then it's news.
Click to expand...
It's actually not that dark here in the Seattle area right now.
 
TheBigA said:
I hate to point this out, but how does a bridge falling into a river in Washington State affect the rest of the country? Why is this national news?
Click to expand...

OK, then why was the rescue of those three young ladies in Cleveland national news? Or the tornado in Oklahoma? Or Treyvon Martin's murder in Florida? None of those things affect the rest of the country, but they're still national news. The reason it's getting only a blip nationally is because it's not happening in the Eastern or Central time zones. The western half of the country, other than California, apparently is irrelevant to the national media.

Fortunately, there has been no loss of life so far. The water doesn't look deep (2-3 feet?), and the bridge is not high above the water. I'm watching KING-TV's coverage as I write this, and I don't know the area, so I'm going by what I see.
 
It's about 60-70 miles N of Seattle. Mount Vernon is the nearest town and has about 20K people. Bellingham and the Canadian Border is about an hour away or so. The bridge was built in 1954, but however KIRO-7 is saying that there *MIGHT* be one person that did not make it. It is extremely tentative at this time.

-crainbebo
 
I think fatalities make it national news. From what I'm reading, this is an hour or more away from Seattle. Had it been much closer, they would have video, and it would be non-stop pictures. But the key thing is the video. I have to say just the still photo I've seen is pretty interesting for a minute. But yes, the water appears to be shallow, and it doesn't appear to be as disasterous as the one where nine died during rush hour in Minneapolis.
 
UPDATE - KIRO has reported that the DOT, etc. believes that there were NO fatalities.

I'm glad it wasn't I-90 collapsing again!

-crainbebo
 
Also, there was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake somewhere in northern California a short while ago, and none of the news networks, even their respective websites are reporting it as breaking news.

What a shame.......
 
Tiger1983 said:
Also, there was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake somewhere in northern California a short while ago, and none of the news networks, even their respective websites are reporting it as breaking news.
Click to expand...

I'll modify my earlier statement. News outside the Eastern and Central time zones only matters if it happens in metro LA or the Bay area. This earthquake was in a rural area in northeastern California, far away from San Francisco. ::)

Fortunately, there was no serious damage or casualties.
 
but how does a bridge falling into a river in Washington State affect the rest of the country?
Click to expand...

(1) I-5 is a major corridor. This will disrupt commerce.

(2) It's indicative of a serious infrastructure problem. How many other bridges could be on the brink of failure?

(3) Several Americans are potentially hurt. Is it really that difficult to air some of the feed from a local outlet and showcase the story for a bit on national broadcasts?

I could see if something else big was breaking, but it's not.
 
umfan said:
Is it really that difficult to air some of the feed from a local outlet and showcase the story for a bit on national broadcasts?
Click to expand...

For what purpose?

Yes, it's a good feature story on infrastructure. That was one of Obama's campaign issues. You see how much coverage it gets?
 
umfan said:
but how does a bridge falling into a river in Washington State affect the rest of the country?
Click to expand...

(1) I-5 is a major corridor. This will disrupt commerce.

(2) It's indicative of a serious infrastructure problem. How many other bridges could be on the brink of failure?

(3) Several Americans are potentially hurt. Is it really that difficult to air some of the feed from a local outlet and showcase the story for a bit on national broadcasts?

I could see if something else big was breaking, but it's not.
Click to expand...

I-5 is a major corridor. This will disrupt commerce.
The detour is a whopping 4 miles of inconvenience. Exit 227 and re-entry @Exit 229.

It's indicative of a serious infrastructure problem
I agree, though that doesn't seem to warrant the hysterical breaking news format, especially since the collapse was caused by a truck crashing into support beams

Several Americans are potentially hurt.
Three Americans are likely injured in multi-car accidents every hour.
 
Tiger1983 said:
Also, there was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake somewhere in northern California a short while ago, and none of the news networks, even their respective websites are reporting it as breaking news. What a shame.......
Click to expand...

I live in Chico, 90 miles away. Store windows shook for a few seconds. Population near the affected area of Prattville CA: 28. Population of the entire Plumas County: 20,000. Only if the entire town was wiped off the face of the earth would it warrant screeching headlines.

http://www.chicoer.com/breakingnews...e-mdash-moderate-5-7-magnitude-earthquake-was
http://www.redding.com/news/2013/may/23/56-quake-plumas-county/

There's lots of evidence showing East Coast media bias (most especially in the sports world). This is not one of them
 
umfan said:
(2) It's indicative of a serious infrastructure problem. How many other bridges could be on the brink of failure?
Click to expand...

About 10% of all bridges in the USA are rated "structurally deficient". 4% of bridges on major highways receive the same designation.

And there was other breaking news - the Jodi Arias thing was getting coverage on CNN last night.
 
SanDiegoInExile said:
I-5 is a major corridor. This will disrupt commerce.
The detour is a whopping 4 miles of inconvenience. Exit 227 and re-entry @Exit 229.
Click to expand...
On surface streets and bridges, not to mention exit ramps, not intended to handle the level of traffic that'll be using them, especially on Memorial Day Weekend, and even with two longer detours also suggested.
 
In the good old days, when the 24-hour news networks did 24 hours worth of news, they would have at least carried the local stations coverage of breaking news. Nowadays, it's just talk and tabloid.
 
Neil Rattigan said:
In the good old days, when the 24-hour news networks did 24 hours worth of news, they would have at least carried the local stations coverage of breaking news. Nowadays, it's just talk and tabloid.
Click to expand...

According to CNN.com, KING-TV in Seattle had still photographs. No live video from the scene. That was as of midnight ET.
 
TheBigA said:
Neil Rattigan said:
In the good old days, when the 24-hour news networks did 24 hours worth of news, they would have at least carried the local stations coverage of breaking news. Nowadays, it's just talk and tabloid.
Click to expand...

According to CNN.com, KING-TV in Seattle had still photographs. No live video from the scene. That was as of midnight ET.
Click to expand...

??? ??? ???

I was watching live coverage from KING-TV for over an hour last night. They had plenty of video.
 
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