Fake-Fat Sunny Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 I will mark this OT even though it is somewhat football related as it was initially prompted by several hyperventilating reports yesterday of the Superdome roof peeling off, its effects on the football season and more importantly the potential that the thousands of refugees in this escape of last resort were in danger. The problem is that the news media makes its big bucks and inidividual reporters make their names and reps from reporting disasters and getting eyeballs to tune in. I find this factor particularly vexing given the great utility of the Internet to almost instantly report to thousands and all across the world and our country this information as facts. I find with the initial Superdome fears and reports turned out in my mind to be overblown (I can see where they sorta legitimately came from as the film I saw last night of pieces of the Superdome roof falling in were quite dramatic but fortunately no one got smooshed). Its tough because now reports of levees breaking and pretty massive flooding in NO are coming through. They appear to be at least somewhat legit as NO's Mayor is on record reporting a disaster which seems almost bliblical in propotions for that City. However, while certainly dozens are dead, the reports of ongoing rescues seemed to be the result more of a few dramatic pictures in the media which were stunning of helicopter rescues and while there are hundreds of rescues needed in LA and MS. most probably require floating a board over to someone who then dog paddles to safety rather than the dramatic helicopter efforts the articles say or at least imply. In the end, I guess it is mostly going to take judicious reading and believing a diminishing amount of what one sees on TV and even less of what one reads. The same I want info NOW drive that creates distribution of false data is created by the I want INFO now demand from readers like myself. Its tough for me to demand perfect accuracy and also demand speed at the same time. However, this problem is unfortunately self correcting as the problem is I am believing less and less of what I read on the Internet (and I believed little to start) without some type of outside confirmation. Clearly falsehoods can spring up on the Internet and then unfortunately confirm themself as the rumor gets repeated again quickly on the Net butressed by a media desperate to be first even if by milliseconds. The New is neat because it is a free-market of ideas without restriction, but there does need to be some accountability and blame assigned or assessment of accuracy or it simply devolves to being a high tech rumor engine.
Thailog80 Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 422669[/snapback] Put El Blowhardo on ignore like I have him.
Johnny Coli Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone." Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you've got to get mad. You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!" So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
rockpile Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you've got to get mad. You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!" So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!" 422681[/snapback] Gee, that would make a good plot for a network movie.
Dr. Fong Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 I get where you're coming from with this. Given how the media blows so much out of proportion it's sometimes hard to know when to stop being jaded and when a legitimate emergency has arisen. In Virginia Beach we get hurricanes on a fairly regular basis and when I compare what I see outside my window with what is reported in the national media it rarely equates. I truly hope that things in New Orleans aren't as bad as we are being led to believe. It's just a shame that you can't even count on the news to give you an idea since they so often make mountains out of mole hills.
Johnny Coli Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 Gee, that would make a good plot for a network movie. 422740[/snapback] Wondered when someone would recognize it. American Rhetoric has the mp3...Howard Beale I've posted the link before. FFS's post reminded me of it.
Cugalabanza Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 Wondered when someone would recognize it. American Rhetoric has the mp3...Howard Beale I've posted the link before. FFS's post reminded me of it. 422773[/snapback] I've always loved that speach. Thanks for posting the audio--I think I'll make it my outgoing answering machine message.
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