shameful news media

[roxybisquaint]

I've largely given up cable news over the past few years and relied more on reading news online. Now I remember why. Once reporters get on the scene, they do everything they can to make themselves part of the story. I don't care about how Anderson Cooper or Shepherd Smith feel about the devastation in Japan. I care about how the people in Japan are doing.

The most offensive thing I saw was a reporter on location who'd met a tsunami survivor that had a relative in the US. Cut to... a reporter in the US who was with the relative. A call was made and both ends of the call were filmed by a camera crew. So you find a survivor who has no way to contact a relative to tell them they're alive and instead of just handing them a phone, you set up a fucking photo op?! I don't remember what network that was because I've been flipping around so much, but I was horrified.

In related news, I really hope the problems at the Fukushima plant don't ruin my dreams of more nuclear power in the US. The peaceful atom is good!

Comments

Filler, between attempts to steal your money?

[tackdriver56.livejournal.com]

One of our PBS stations was relaying NHK (Japanese network) this morning. The Japanese reporter was interviewing a New Zealand journalist who was in Japan comparing the damage in Japan to what Christchurch experienced last month. NHK coverage has been decent, talking about a doctor who lost his practice and his home, and is working non-stop to help survivors (lots of old people with diabetes and high blood pressure, who lost all their meds to the tsunami).

On another station, I did see a reporter using his phone to leave a message for a US relative of a survivor, which I thought was decent of him. I can't imagine being able to take a phone back from a survivor, once you loaned it to them to make a call. But photo op at both ends? Is that just despicable theater, or what? If it's not a reenactment, it means they made people wait to talk to each other, until the crews could get there. Ick.