Not to be callous, but why does the media spend so much time

[MUAD_DIB]

on three lost climbers when US troops and Iraqi civilians are getting killed on a daily basis?

I mean no disrespect to the families of the climbers or those who climb, but is the media so wont to distract the American viewer from the really bad that is going down that they will beat any story into the ground that isn't about Bush's failed war?

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Your question holds the answer

US troops and Iraqi civilians are getting killed on a daily basis. Therefore, anything and everything that can provide a distraction from the abysmal failures of the misadministration and it's media shills must be blown out of proportion until it can provide a suitable distraction.

[BOSSHOG]

2. There is the

journalistic "follow the story to the end" angle. They started the story and can't stop reporting on it now. The media also realizes that this will be a relatively short event, just right for the short attention span viewership. Besides "conservatives" get so tired of hearing about all the messy stuff in Iraq they are responsible for.

[Pool Hall Ace]

3. I agree. I try to watch as little corporate news as possible, but

my husband had CNN on, and I must have heard an Avogadro's number of times that one body had been found in a snow cave, the body had not been identified, and the National Guard would continue to search for the missing climbers.

Okay, got it. Can we move on to some other news now?

Oh, and I'm in the Triangle area, and the Duke Lacrosse rape case is back in the news. Why can't this case be tried in a court of law? I don't know why it is so news-worthy. Rape is unfortunately not exactly rare.

[LiberalEsto]

4. Distraction nt

[Bluebear]

5. They wanted their "Christmas Miracle"

Don't you think?

Now, I feel terrible for the climbers and am not mad that they got coverage because they are "rich and white" like the other thread, but I do think the media was hoping for the "miracle" aspect. Who knows, maybe after Kim so very recently they were hoping for a better ending.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. In this case it's partly the visuals. Look at the shots they're getting of

the snow covered mountain tops, rescue helicopters hovering against backdrops of blue skies, orange sunsets. The eternal drama of man against nature.

People eat that shit up.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. If people wanted to watch

24-hour coverage of the Iraq war, then a network would provide it.

The climber story is a traditional human-interest story, the kind that has ALWAYS been covered by the media, especially in the age of live television. People care about these kinds of real-life dramas, as evidenced by the amount of discussion here an elsewhere.

[Junkdrawer]

8. A message from the media.

In order to convince you that the Iraqi Study Group was the only solution to the "Iraq Problem", we had to briefly cover Iraq and admit it was a "problem". We deeply apologize for disturbing your slumber.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program of providing absurd amounts of coverage to the run-of-the-mill human tragedies.

[NashVegas]

9. Simple Story + Emotional Impact

There are 15 angles to the Iraq story and no easy solution, no easy speculation on outcome.

There are two angles to the Hikers story (save them / screw the idiots), an easy-to-comprehend solution and it can only end in one of two ways.