Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, etc all blew it!!!

[Devastatin Dave]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines

Well the media clowns completely blew the coverage of the hurricanes. Yes, bad things did happen, but the death, chaos, rapes, etc were nothing close to what the media said it was. In fact I was watching Fox a few days after Katrina hit and he was holding a small black baby, Geraldo was all crying and screaming that babies were starving to death and other BS. Well it turns out it was mostly all BS. So what do you guys think, is it possible to get actual NEWS anywhere, or is it all sensationalized editorial crap?

[Don Corleone]

Dave, what is the job of the media?

It is to sell advertising time.

How do they do this?

They sensationalize news to the point you cannot turn away. This boosts their ratings and allows them to charge a premium for their advertising time.

If you want honesty in media coverage, look for media outlets that market themselves specificially for their accuracy (think McNeil/Lehrer News Hour, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc). This is not to say these sources are 'unbiased'. All three are certainly quite biased. But there's really two independent varaiables at play here... how editorially slanted is the outlet, and how accurate is their news.

Example: I seriously doubt that the Masskeega, Idaho (pop. 250) Ladies Sewing Guild's newsletter has a pro-Democrat or pro-Republican slant to it. But how accurate would you expect the coverage of the Niger famine to be?

Bias and accuracy are not the same thing at all.

[drone]

I was going to unleash a rant on corporate news and the wonderful job the FCC has done consolidating the media into the hands of a few powerful companies, but what would be the point? Freedom of the press (and the corresponding responsibility) does not mix well when it is tied to a corporation's bottom line.

[solypsist]

the bulk of these "rumors" came from blogs, both in and outside of New Orleans. i saw a lot of them with stuff like, "just heard there was a sniper outside of the hospital," and then of course there was no substantiating evidence or even mention of the vaguest source of where the blogger "heard" this info from. so of course the cable news outlets, already notorious for not having any accountability to facts, were spending a lot of time feeding off of even less accountable sources.

[Red Harvest]

The media focused on the "criminal" aspect far too much. They are always out to sell the sensational. There was a huge crisis, but it had to do with lack of medical care, water, food, and evacuation. (That was reported by the way.)

The ironic part is that the more conservative types were playing up the lawlessness as a way of condemning the poor inner city types and local officials etc. I guess we can put much of that BS to rest now--those "welfare state" comments.

Amusing side note:
While Rita was blowing its hardest in Houston, there were some clowns about two streets over setting off aerial fireworks throughout. It was rather surreal and it made it more difficult to hear exploding transformers (they make a distinctive sound.)

[Proletariat]

The ironic part is that the more conservative types were playing up the lawlessness as a way of condemning the poor inner city types and local officials etc. I guess we can put much of that BS to rest now--those "welfare state" comments.

Right, very different to the more liberal types who were playing up the chaos as a way of condemning the Fed and their blatant racism.

[Don Corleone]

Remember the accounts of the (financially) poor African Americans roaming the city, forced to subsist on a diet of deceased human flesh? Remember the piles of corpses at the superdome & convention center? Turns out 6 people total expired there, 4 of natural causes, one who was shot and one committed suicide by jumping off the upper deck of the seating. All 6 corpses were found intact (not a bite mark to be found among them). Things that make you go hmmm.....

And Red, God love you man... I don't know who's more consistent, you or Navaros. You spent weeks talking about how all these stories were evidence of how Bush hates poor people, and now, you turn around and claim they're all evidence of Conservatives fascination with the criminal element.... only you amigo. P.S. Very, very glad to hear you weathered the storm well.

[Duke Malcolm]

Dave, what is the job of the media?

It is to sell advertising time.

Not for the BBC. It merely has to justify its existence and right to the Licence Fee...

As far as I know, the BBC did not do things like that. It is alleged to have taken an anti-american slant on reporting, but I don't know and haven't seen it.

[Don Corleone]

Aah, but doesn't the beeb now compete with SkyNews, which DOES run it's profit margin by sensationalism? To keep viewership, don't they need to engage in much the same tactics?