An Example Of Everything That Is Wrong With Cable News (Wednesday's Second Hour)
Since the coverage was so redundant and absent of news, I did some stuff around the house at the beginning of the hour and didn't get back to the tv until about 15 minutes in. The transcript shows that I missed nothing. This review will begin with a live interview with Jim Tilmon, aviation analyst. He tells us everything Lidle and the instructor might have had to deal with and he reinterates he doesn't want to speculate. However, since they don't know anything he's pretty much forced to do just that. Unless he and Anderson want to discuss what happened on last week's Lost or something.
We then break to watch the live NTSB news conference. I hate watching live news conferences on 360, but I understand that the 24 hour networks are pretty much the place for them to be shown. I just mostly find them boring is all. Unless of course it's a press conference where David Gregory is smacking down Scott McClellan. Because those were awesome. Ah, the good old days. Tony Snow just isn't the same. After the conference we've got more of the analyst. Anderson speculates it was pilot error, but Tilmon keeps him in line about the speculating. Bad Anderson. Following this there is a Randi Kaye rerun.
Transitioning now to an interview with Barry Zito, friend and former teammate of Lidle. Anderson asks, "Does it seem real to you?" Oh, man. Of all people Anderson should know that's a dumb question and this guy shouldn't be being interviewed right now. The problem here is that, really, what is Anderson going to ask? He's set himself up in a situation where he has no choice but to ask those kind of questions. This is why when something like this happens they should just report the facts, leave the family and friends alone, and avoid speculation! Is that too much to ask? Yeah, I know, I know.
Suddenly Anderson informs us they have video from the Coast Guard that might show the crash. Oh joy. That's something everyone needs to see. Good Lord. Luckily, thankfully, you can see a fireball, but not the plane crashing. We've been spared from seeing that video over and over again. This will of course make things more difficult for investigators though. After watching the video of the fireball we go back to our analyst and he sort of infers it might not have been an accident. Duuude. What happened to not speculating?
The last 10 minutes of the show tonight is when we get to the actual real news...and I missed it. This is not my fault, people. Jon Stewart was on Letterman and I had to flip back and forth so I wouldn't miss him. I don't make the schedule. Anyway, I actually did want to hear the news about the 650,000 dead Iraqi civilians, so I went to the transcript. Jamie McIntyre brings us the piece and the number comes from a new Lancet study. These are not confirmed dead, but rather an estimate based on surveys given to Iraqis. Obviously the Pentagon doesn't think it's credible. Jamie doesn't mention this, but this is not the first Lancet study on the matter. Basically the same study was done I believe in late 2004 before the Fallujah seige and it was found that 100,000 had died. If you didn't hear this it's because there was virtually no mainstream media coverage of the study. Don't you love how they cover this stuff now after public opinion has turned against the war? Where were you guys before? Anyway, the number seems high to me, but not out of the realm of possibility. It's horrible whatever number it turns out to be.
We finish the night with Erica giving us some more actual news. I guess one plus to this crappy coverage is we get to hear Anderson say Manhatten, ahem, Mahadden, a lot. I'm not mocking you Anderson, really. Okay I am. But I only mock because I love. And we're out.
We then break to watch the live NTSB news conference. I hate watching live news conferences on 360, but I understand that the 24 hour networks are pretty much the place for them to be shown. I just mostly find them boring is all. Unless of course it's a press conference where David Gregory is smacking down Scott McClellan. Because those were awesome. Ah, the good old days. Tony Snow just isn't the same. After the conference we've got more of the analyst. Anderson speculates it was pilot error, but Tilmon keeps him in line about the speculating. Bad Anderson. Following this there is a Randi Kaye rerun.
Transitioning now to an interview with Barry Zito, friend and former teammate of Lidle. Anderson asks, "Does it seem real to you?" Oh, man. Of all people Anderson should know that's a dumb question and this guy shouldn't be being interviewed right now. The problem here is that, really, what is Anderson going to ask? He's set himself up in a situation where he has no choice but to ask those kind of questions. This is why when something like this happens they should just report the facts, leave the family and friends alone, and avoid speculation! Is that too much to ask? Yeah, I know, I know.
Suddenly Anderson informs us they have video from the Coast Guard that might show the crash. Oh joy. That's something everyone needs to see. Good Lord. Luckily, thankfully, you can see a fireball, but not the plane crashing. We've been spared from seeing that video over and over again. This will of course make things more difficult for investigators though. After watching the video of the fireball we go back to our analyst and he sort of infers it might not have been an accident. Duuude. What happened to not speculating?
The last 10 minutes of the show tonight is when we get to the actual real news...and I missed it. This is not my fault, people. Jon Stewart was on Letterman and I had to flip back and forth so I wouldn't miss him. I don't make the schedule. Anyway, I actually did want to hear the news about the 650,000 dead Iraqi civilians, so I went to the transcript. Jamie McIntyre brings us the piece and the number comes from a new Lancet study. These are not confirmed dead, but rather an estimate based on surveys given to Iraqis. Obviously the Pentagon doesn't think it's credible. Jamie doesn't mention this, but this is not the first Lancet study on the matter. Basically the same study was done I believe in late 2004 before the Fallujah seige and it was found that 100,000 had died. If you didn't hear this it's because there was virtually no mainstream media coverage of the study. Don't you love how they cover this stuff now after public opinion has turned against the war? Where were you guys before? Anyway, the number seems high to me, but not out of the realm of possibility. It's horrible whatever number it turns out to be.
We finish the night with Erica giving us some more actual news. I guess one plus to this crappy coverage is we get to hear Anderson say Manhatten, ahem, Mahadden, a lot. I'm not mocking you Anderson, really. Okay I am. But I only mock because I love. And we're out.
posted by eliza at 9:13 PM
4 Comments:
The Hadden in Manhadden.
It's so cute.
Didn't watch this hour but I heard Anderson made some comment about not believing the civilian death study. Do you remember that, Eliza?
Mediabistro says Larry & Anderson beat Fox last night. Oh well. I guess there will be more of the same.
I didn't see anything like that in the transcript. It was a Jamie McIntyre piece.
That figures that they got great ratings for that horrible coverage. Yet when they do good coverage of Africa, ratings go down. Ahh!!! People drive me nuts.
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