• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

MSNBC Crash Coverage

N

nuzguy

Good live video and feeds from MSNBC via CBC on the Toronto plane crash today. It was, however, rather disappointing to hear and see Dan Abrams bemoaning the fact that the airline spokesman was "too low key" in his responses to media questions concerning the incident. Abrams maintained words to the effect that the crash was a major event, yet the spokesman wasn't generating enough excitement about it, that he rather "blandly" answered questions posed to him by reporters.

Abrams at the moment had the former NTSB head on camera and tried to get him stirred up about the no-frills response the airline and others were offering up. He told Mr. Abrams the spokesman was being pelted with many questions he wasn't technically quaified to answer and so was tendering responses that erred on the side of caution.

It ought to be an exciting story enough that 308 people walked away from the crash, but Abrams seems to want to hear from somebody who is willing to go into panic mode and proclaim the sky is falling and that airliners are really dangerous these days. One would think Abrams would know the difference, but then again, maybe not.
 
> Good live video and feeds from MSNBC via CBC on the Toronto
> plane crash today. It was, however, rather disappointing to
> hear and see Dan Abrams bemoaning the fact that the airline
> spokesman was "too low key" in his responses to media
> questions concerning the incident. Abrams maintained words
> to the effect that the crash was a major event, yet the
> spokesman wasn't generating enough excitement about it, that
> he rather "blandly" answered questions posed to him by
> reporters.
>
> Abrams at the moment had the former NTSB head on camera and
> tried to get him stirred up about the no-frills response the
> airline and others were offering up. He told Mr. Abrams the
> spokesman was being pelted with many questions he wasn't
> technically quaified to answer and so was tendering
> responses that erred on the side of caution.
>
> It ought to be an exciting story enough that 308 people
> walked away from the crash, but Abrams seems to want to hear
> from somebody who is willing to go into panic mode and
> proclaim the sky is falling and that airliners are really
> dangerous these days. One would think Abrams would know the
> difference, but then again, maybe not.
>

Off topic on Abrams....I would think the MTO (Ministry of Transportation/Ontario) caught the live footage of the plane crashing since they have cameras placed all over the 401. I haven't been successful to find such footage. If such footage exists, does anyone know where it could be found?

TS
 
> > Good live video and feeds from MSNBC via CBC on the
> Toronto
> > plane crash today. It was, however, rather disappointing
> to
> > hear and see Dan Abrams bemoaning the fact that the
> airline
> > spokesman was "too low key" in his responses to media
> > questions concerning the incident. Abrams maintained
> words
> > to the effect that the crash was a major event, yet the
> > spokesman wasn't generating enough excitement about it,
> that
> > he rather "blandly" answered questions posed to him by
> > reporters.
> >
> > Abrams at the moment had the former NTSB head on camera
> and
> > tried to get him stirred up about the no-frills response
> the
> > airline and others were offering up. He told Mr. Abrams
> the
> > spokesman was being pelted with many questions he wasn't
> > technically quaified to answer and so was tendering
> > responses that erred on the side of caution.
> >
> > It ought to be an exciting story enough that 308 people
> > walked away from the crash, but Abrams seems to want to
> hear
> > from somebody who is willing to go into panic mode and
> > proclaim the sky is falling and that airliners are really
> > dangerous these days. One would think Abrams would know
> the
> > difference, but then again, maybe not.
> >
>
> Off topic on Abrams....I would think the MTO (Ministry of
> Transportation/Ontario) caught the live footage of the plane
> crashing since they have cameras placed all over the 401. I
> haven't been successful to find such footage. If such
> footage exists, does anyone know where it could be found?
>
> TS
>
Interesting point--hadn't thought about that as an additional source of video on the crash. Good thought. Although even if located, Abrams would probably comment on the footage as not being "exciting" enough.
 
> It ought to be an exciting story enough that 308 people
> walked away from the crash, but Abrams seems to want to hear
> from somebody who is willing to go into panic mode and
> proclaim the sky is falling and that airliners are really
> dangerous these days. One would think Abrams would know the
> difference, but then again, maybe not.

Dan Abrams made himself doing OJ coverage for Court TV. The man does tabloid too much as it is. MSNBC's coverage was, as usual, lightweight. When will these blowdried airheads realize that nobody cares what they think. The story is the news, not what they might think of it.

The always-constipated Wolf Blitzer did marginally better. CNN definitely had a good mix of phoned-in reports, including an amazing eyewitness, two passengers (who also turned up on many other outlets), and various other experts, and if it weren't for Blitzer, it would have been 100%.

Instead, we get the man who speaks in VOA Special English (slow) who takes forever to ask questions, switch to press conferences or other network reports, etc. If you have breaking news, go to the press conference or what have you and don't spend 30 seconds introducing it!

Blitzer also spent a lot of time massaging the story with loaded questions about whether the airline crew was heroic or not. Well, maybe, but that's hardly Blitzer's job to push people towards that view, and it may turn out that pilot error caused the problem in the first place.

Fox News loves this kind of story, but only long enough not to interrupt the missing white women coverage they have dwelled on all summer. But they're not alone - Larry King devoted yet another hour to it, pushing viewers one more inch towards the story achieving Jon Benet "Who cares if she's dead and who cares who did it" Ramsey status. After the "blonde hair on the beach" breaking story, I stopped caring.

Not surprisingly, as Radio Netherlands discussed recently, the majority of people on Aruba and Bonaire stopped caring too. Maybe it was the annoying mother calling the entire island police force useless, or the ridiculously moronic press corps invasion. More than half of Aruba wants the entire family and the American press deported at this point.
 
> > It ought to be an exciting story enough that 308 people
> > walked away from the crash, but Abrams seems to want to
> hear
> > from somebody who is willing to go into panic mode and
> > proclaim the sky is falling and that airliners are really
> > dangerous these days. One would think Abrams would know
> the
> > difference, but then again, maybe not.
>
> Dan Abrams made himself doing OJ coverage for Court TV. The
> man does tabloid too much as it is. MSNBC's coverage was,
> as usual, lightweight. When will these blowdried airheads
> realize that nobody cares what they think. The story is the
> news, not what they might think of it.
>
> The always-constipated Wolf Blitzer did marginally better.
> CNN definitely had a good mix of phoned-in reports,
> including an amazing eyewitness, two passengers (who also
> turned up on many other outlets), and various other experts,
> and if it weren't for Blitzer, it would have been 100%.
>
> Instead, we get the man who speaks in VOA Special English
> (slow) who takes forever to ask questions, switch to press
> conferences or other network reports, etc. If you have
> breaking news, go to the press conference or what have you
> and don't spend 30 seconds introducing it!
>
> Blitzer also spent a lot of time massaging the story with
> loaded questions about whether the airline crew was heroic
> or not. Well, maybe, but that's hardly Blitzer's job to
> push people towards that view, and it may turn out that
> pilot error caused the problem in the first place.
>
> Fox News loves this kind of story, but only long enough not
> to interrupt the missing white women coverage they have
> dwelled on all summer. But they're not alone - Larry King
> devoted yet another hour to it, pushing viewers one more
> inch towards the story achieving Jon Benet "Who cares if
> she's dead and who cares who did it" Ramsey status. After
> the "blonde hair on the beach" breaking story, I stopped
> caring.
>
> Not surprisingly, as Radio Netherlands discussed recently,
> the majority of people on Aruba and Bonaire stopped caring
> too. Maybe it was the annoying mother calling the entire
> island police force useless, or the ridiculously moronic
> press corps invasion. More than half of Aruba wants the
> entire family and the American press deported at this point.
>
Some well thought out and cogently delivered words you have advanced. The Aruban resident's words to Greta that she and her cohorts should leave Aruba in perpetuity never would have made air had not Fox been able to get tape of Greta making herself the story rather than the network just reporting the facts.

Meantime over at MSNBC, you are wholly correct, that Abrams et al place way too much of their reporting emphasis on their take on a story rather than giving forth a spinless accoun of events.

It's all reminescent of the line in the movie Broadcast News when the John Hurt character wraps up coverage of a breaking story with the words, "In other words, I think we're OK." And to that the boss replies, to himself, "Who gives a s**t what you think?" Words that would fall on the deaf ears of Dan, Greta, and all the rest.

At least Fox has for the moment dropped its "Greta owns the story" hype on Aruba. And as for Abrams and his shoddy display of "disappointment" at the lack of "excitement" following the Toronto crash, perhaps he would have been happier had all aboard the flight been killed rather than all of them walking away. Perhaps Abrams himself will be caught up in a crash sometime and be lucky enough to be among the survivors. One wagers heavily that he would find his escape exciting enough. Walk a mile in their shoes, Mr Abrams.
 
>
> Off topic on Abrams....I would think the MTO (Ministry of
> Transportation/Ontario) caught the live footage of the plane
> crashing since they have cameras placed all over the 401. I
> haven't been successful to find such footage. If such
> footage exists, does anyone know where it could be found?
>
> TS
>
Tony...as of yesterday when I saw it WGRZ TV in Buffalo had some if it in their news on demand section.

http://www.wgrz.com

Hope that helps
 
> It's all reminescent of the line in the movie Broadcast News
> when the John Hurt character wraps up coverage of a breaking
> story with the words, "In other words, I think we're OK."
> And to that the boss replies, to himself, "Who gives a s**t
> what you think?" Words that would fall on the deaf ears of
> Dan, Greta, and all the rest.

Which was actually a ripoff from All the President's Men where Ben Bradlee exclaims, "who the hell cares what you think." Broadcast News is mild compared with the outrageous news we have now. The only thing I haven't seen yet is a prayer circle with the anchors, or maybe some group singing. When it became acceptable to add background music to news reports, the soul of news was sold to Satan.

> At least Fox has for the moment dropped its "Greta owns the
> story" hype on Aruba. And as for Abrams and his shoddy
> display of "disappointment" at the lack of "excitement"
> following the Toronto crash, perhaps he would have been
> happier had all aboard the flight been killed rather than
> all of them walking away.

CNN dumped out of the story rather quickly when they realized they could not do TragedyVision either... so back to the white women!<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by dampier on 08/04/05 03:40 PM.</FONT></P>
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom