So the President of the US visits a devastated major city, and we get wall-to-wall balloon coverage?

[underpants]

is that how it works?

I was listening to RW talk radio on the way home (no reason why) and even they pre-empted the first hour of Hannity (on tape delay here :eyes: ) to talk about the kid and the balloon.

Apparently all afternoon on TV has been about the balloon family

Boy that really lets you know they have nothing else to do but ignore the recent past.

[anigbrowl]

1. In fairness, balloon boy was a lot more newsworthy

You don't get a story like very often. Obama in NO was also newsworthy, but lacking in drama.

[madokie]

13. one is worthy of tabloid the other of news

[anigbrowl]

14. Yeah, but you don't know which way it'll turn out

Like I said, no particular drama happening in New Orleans...and I found plenty of news material about that to read. In between monitoring the search for Balloon Boy.

[Leopolds Ghost]

19. Wow. No, no drama in Obama visiting NOLA for the first time since Prez

[AllentownJake]

2. No

It means that human beings are easily interested by the drama of a 6 year old boy flying in an uncontrollable flying balloon

[MNDemNY]

3. Don't sweat it, he was only there a couple of hours, anyway.

[spanone]

7. five hours

[MNDemNY]

9. I stand corrected.

That is infinitely longer.:banghead:

[spanone]

10. three more

[MNDemNY]

11. YES, more than DOUBLE my estimate.

:o

[spanone]

16. hehehe

:rofl: :hi:

[Leopolds Ghost]

21. It's not like anyone cares about NOLA anymore. Or Iraq, for that matter.

Face it, most of these johnny-come-lately Dems are a bunch of hypocrites who stopped caring about (e.g.) Iraq when it stopped being Bush's war.

[MNDemNY]

22. gobama?

[Libertas1776]

4. Now if the President

was the one in the runaway balloon...my god can you imagine the coverage. Well, maybe not...at least not from Faux.

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. No, I think FAUX would cover that

At least from the ground, next to the teabaggers shooting at the balloon...

[parasim]

5. Itsa conspeersy, i tell yuz.

Come on, how often do you see live coverage of an out of control garage experiment with supposedly a 6 year old at the helm? That scenario allows the media to go nuts chattering on about weird, wife-swapping families trying to figure out how storms create magnetic fields. The cameras following that homemade weather balloon hearkens back to OJ. Ratings gold!



edit: forgot some words

[Sal Minella]

12. I doant mean to be picky but I think you mispeld "conspeercy."

[nolabear]

6. Look! A bunny!

[Zix]

15. SQUIRREL!

[blogslut]

17. A response from the vaults

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1082030&mesg_id=1082210

Remember that moment from "All the President's Men"? The WP editors were deciding which stories to place where in that day's edition. The Foreign editor (actor John McMartin) mentions a human interest piece on how a series of storms in the Philippines were being blamed on the theft of a statue of Jesus. The other editors laugh and comment on the repetitiousness of 'crazy' articles. The Foreign editor then says:

"Laugh. Laugh, gentlemen. It'll be the only story everyone reads.

Sad as that is, the editor was right. America is one of the few democratic nations in this world where the media is not run by the government. That was intended to be a good thing. Unfortunately the result is that in order to make money, our media sells advertising space and time and subscriptions. US media is not objective and it never was. The Fairness Doctrine once helped to balance the voices politically but the Fairness Doctrine is dead. Regardless, our press and broadcast media have always given plenty of attention to the sensational and they do it because it appeals to the base and that sells soap.

[Leopolds Ghost]

18. According to some people on the thread I posted, it's not important that Obama visit NOLA

It's a purely symbolic gesture, it's more important that he has people working behind the scenes to funnel more money to the corrupt powers that be in Baton Rouge and the City Council, I guess. Like when the council voted unanimously to tear down all of the city's public housing and replace it with housing for the wealthy under a Clinton-era plan of eliminating all government established rental housing.

I was trashed for criticising Obama in light of the AP's revelation that this was his first visit to the devastated city since becoming President. If Bush had kept a similar itinerary -- DU would have been full of presumably false outrage from people who care about NOLA but don't actually think it needs to be at the top of Obama's agenda...

[Kievan Rus]

20. It's nothing new. The MSM treated Jacko's death like it was 9/11 or Katrina