Wed, 04 Jan 2006 18:13:10
The West Virgina mining disaster
In case you’ve been under a rock or ignoring the news for the last few days...let me summarize this for you:
Explosion in a West Virgina coal mine leads to workers being trapped. Rescue attempt ensues.
Late last night, the men were reached. Word spread like wildfire that only one of the men died and the families were folmed dancing and celebrating.
Three hours later it was confirmed that only one man survived, and the families were told. Media people, Anderson Cooper in particular, lashed out at the company for not correcting the media’s mistake of telling the world that everyone save one made it out.
Caught up? If not, feel free to dig around at Malkin’s for backstory and round-ups of the media’s unbelievably fucked-up handling of this story.
Now...Someone posted to TotalFark that Geraldo, the anti-journalist, was at that moment hosting a 30 minutes special that, among other things, played the footage of the families of the dead miners celebrating when they thought most had made it out alive. Why? What purpose does that serve? You can discuss the fact that the media blew it (again) without playing that footage over and over. You could wait 30 days to do this “hard-hitting” story. You could just shut the fuck up and not do the useless piece of shit “story” to begin with.
Not Geraldo. He’s in there unearthing every morsel of human suffering from this story, playing off the tragedy and tears and serving it up to the unwashed masses like he was Shakespeare and the world was his personal Globe Theatre.
In the comments to the TotalFark thread (no link, you have to be a paid member) someone posed this question:
Considering all of Geraldo’s fark ups, why is he still employed in journalism?
Here’s my answer:
Because we all know him by his first name. Some idiots think that has value, and apparently it does to some extent, because he and his face fur get on TV and some farking idiots must watch...he at least shows up in ratings.
No one cares about journalism anymore. Fake but accurate, Gore wins Florida, no, Bush, no, Gore...they’re dead, they’re alive...it’s a miracle! No, wait they’re dead. Al Capone’s vault will be amazing, imagine all the secrets...like this empty bottle and all this dirt. QUICK! NEWS ALERT! ANOTHER WHITE GIRL RAN AWAY FROM HER RICH, OVERBEARING PARENTS! TAP WATER IS KILLING YOUR CHILDREN...SEE HOW YOU CAN PROTECT YOUR BABIES FROM A VIOLENT DEATH. More at 11.
Hate the state of TV news? Stop watching it. Hate Wal-Mart? Stop shopping there. Hate Microsoft? Stop buying Windows and Office. Hate Republicans or whatever milquetoast lamb the Democrats will sacrifice in ‘08? Vote for another party. Hate cable? Buy a dish.
*UPDATE*
Wizbang has a nice list of the media outlets that got it right versus who screwed the pooch.
Posted by JimK at 06:13 PM on January 04, 2006
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Categories: News, Natural Disaster, The Fourth Estate
Tags:
Technorati: West Virginia coal mine International Coal Group
Comments:
#2 Posted by Janna 
on 01/05 at 04:44 PM -
I just feel bad for the familes that for that brief time span thought they were going to be able to see thier loved ones again only to find out that it was not true. It was heartbreaking to watch.
my heart goes out to them. Mining is a dangerous job but still...you never want to see this sort of thing happen.
And geraldo can suck my left tit...I REFUSE to watch any of his dribble!
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Back to the Media: Why and how is it that so many people trust the media? I don't understand it, especially after this 'incident'. This was an outrage and frankly, someone needs to get fired. The media, by taking that role, commit themselves to a oat...
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#1 Posted by davidst
on 01/04 at 08:58 PM -
“Hate Republicans or whatever milquetoast lamb the Democrats will sacrifice in ‘08? Vote for another party.”
I am voting strictly Libertarian for the foreseeable future. I officially joined the party yesterday and gave a small donation (first political party I’ve ever joined). I’ll probably regret it when the spam starts arriving.