Where are their minds?

[ciphergoth]

All TV channels have been interrupted to show some people playing the bagpipes.

I don't remember this coverage for the anniversary of the Turkish earthquakes, in which 10,000 people died.

Comments

[ex-pipistre.livejournal.com]

but they were presumably turkish, not american and therefore not important. i'm glad i don't have a tv. and why bagpipes?

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

Indeed, my love. Apparently there was a tidal wave in China three days ago which received minimal media coverage, not to mention the thousands who die needlessly in Africa *every fucking day*. I made several phone calls during the proposed minute of silence. And what the flying fuck have bagpipes got to do with it.?! Of course the WTC deaths were tragic, but why are American lives so much more valuable than anyone else's?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[barking-watcher.livejournal.com]

The people in my office have just realized that they've missed the official minutes silence that was supposed to be observed at 13:46 and have just voted as to whether we should hold a different one. I voted by leaving the room.

[nisaba.livejournal.com]

They weren't American, duh!

More seriously, the earthquake was a natural disaster, Sept 11th was the very deliberate cold-hearted attempt to murder at least 20,000 people, succeeding with thousands of them... not to say that the media hasn't gone overboard (they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't, after all...), but I do feel some form of tribute is justified, at least on this first anniversary.

What I would like to see more a much more balance view of affairs, for example, coverage of the damage America has done to Afghanistan since then. Wishful thinking, I know.

[juudes.livejournal.com]

I don't remember this coverage for the anniversary of the Turkish earthquakes, in which 10,000 people died.

Well for one thing, it didn't happen live on TV which, as any fule know, is the only proof that anything happens at all nowadays. (And not even then - cf. the Gulf War missile attacks). All we get are a few shots of the aftermath of a disaster on the news - a few foreign people looking a bit miserable - rather than wall-to-wall coverage from a well-known location, with people dying who are actually wearing suits, and therefore represent the civilised world.

tv

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I was reluctant to turn on the telly this morning but what came on was a very adorable baby elephant. Now children's progamming is over I think I'll leave the telly off for the rest of the week and wait for the sunday paper for some slightly less partisan and gory coverage of what's happening now. They might even mention that tidal wave in China...

[zotz]

Do you remember, twenty years or so ago, on Not The Nine O'Clock News, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson (IIRC) reading the news?

(Roughly:)

Seventy people have died in a train crash in India, but it doesn't matter because that's a long way away and we don't know any of them. Thirteen people have been injured in a bus crash in France, but their English wasn't very good. An airliner has crashed in South Africa. The victims were, in order of importance, two Americans, four South Africans, two Australians and a German."

That should be put back on the TV tonight.

Also, I should make it my business to get hold of the whole run.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

I put it to some of my more jingoistic American acquaintances that :

a) George Bush The First has not yet been brought to court for his role in setting up al Queda
b) The US government had tolerated US corporations such as MacDonalds funding the IRA for decades
c) The US government had funded al Queda when they were attacking the Russians
d) The US government continues to fund terrorists in South America

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

Or the 42,000 Americans killed by cars last year (according to the NHTSA).

Or the 1100 Americans killed every day by cigarettes (according to the CDC).

Or the 5,400 Iraqi children killed every month, year after year, as a result of US sanctions on Iraq blocking food and medical supplies.