Too much plane crash coverage on the cable channels?

[azmouse]

Just wondering what DU thinks about the endless cable news coverage of the plane crash in Texas.

How many times can they say the same things over and over and over?
How much time was spent on speculating about whether the plane was stolen (it wasn't)?
The nonstop blathering about debris on the road, about his house being on fire, about nothing at all really just so they can keep talking?

Couldn't they just update their viewing public when something actually happens, when they find out something new?

Is this something the whole country needs to be worried about or are important things going on in the world that they could talk about instead? Are we still at war? Is the economy still in trouble? Are people homeless, hungry?

[xultar]

1. no

[kestrel91316]

2. My internet has slowed to a crawl the past hour, can't get CNN videos to load.

It's insane.

It's a SUICIDE, people, not the end of the world.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Well, it's a bit more than suicide.

[cdsilv]

8. My daugher attends school in Austin....

...Texas School for the Deaf. I've just seen what I could over the intertubes - here and some other sites, no video. Looks like it was far enough away from her that she's not in the debris field.

I'd really like to see this described as what it was. An angry, frustrated man at the end of his rope, bailing out as best he could. Not justified, just suicide with collateral damage.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Collateral damage?

Wow.

[kestrel91316]

12. That's the exact term for it. No need to get offended.

[Blue-Jay]

4. Well, it kind of IS big news.

Plus, it only happened a little while ago.

[azmouse]

11. It didn't used to be this way.

News was reported when something actually happened.

My point is why do they need to keep reporting on a story when nothing new is happening and when they don't know anything new?

[Codeine]

27. Because people tune in at different times.

24 hour news is not designed for continuous viewing -- people tune in and out at different times at their convenience to hear what's going on.

[hlthe2b]

5. Well, I am admittedly very interested to hear from the wife, daugter,

ex-wife.. and any friends who may come forward.

[azmouse]

13. And that can be shown when or if they are interviewed.

Til then why do they need to focus on one story when they don't know anything new?

[hlthe2b]

18. Don't ask me... I don't even have cable nor a tv

( only a tv tuner on my computer monitor)

[kestrel91316]

14. I thought the family was burned to death in the fire. That's what some DUer said.

You mean it was FALSE??????

Wow. Imagine that.

[hlthe2b]

17. Reportedly they escaped the fire.

But, we are now seeing lots of similar disinformation and crazy posts lately....Hmmm

[kestrel91316]

19. If CNN weren't completely jammed and frozen I'd get my news from there and blow off DU

altogether on this matter. I prefer to hear official confirmations of facts by AUTHORITIES, and not made-up BS.

[hlthe2b]

20. Well.. MSM has produced some conflicting reports--early on

at least from their websites... (re: ownership of the plane, as one example), so I'm not sure how authoritative the info might be even there...

[jobycom]

6. Well, it's a big story here in northwest Austin, that's for sure.

Remember people are tuning in for the first time all the time, so they are going over and over the information again so people know what's happened. You ever tune into the news in the middle of a story and try to catch up? Very annoying. So they repeat it frequently.

I am surprised how big the story is everywhere else. In the end, it seems like a low casualty plane crash, but I guess it struck a chord.

[Ron Green]

7. How can you have too much plane crash coverage?

Unless there's a missing blonde.

[MineralMan]

10. I can't imagine that this story would not take over the entire

news industry today. It's the story du jour, and will continue to dominate the news for a few days.

It's to be expected.

[azmouse]

15. My question is why should it be this way?

Nothing new is being said, and way too much speculation is being spewed.

[MineralMan]

16. Well, it's not really what it should be, but what it is.

They do this with every big story. They must keep talking, even if they have nothing much to say. Dead air is not an option, so they just keep talking, saying whatever they can think of to say. It's not news...it's continuous commentary.

It will never change. What I do is not watch it except once a day. Then, I generally get the distillation of what has happened, without the sourceless speculation.

[azmouse]

24. I've been watching the story with some fascination

just to see how little of real news value is said.
I don't often have the news on during the day but I put it on just to have something to listen to while I ate lunch. This plane crash story was the only thing being shown.

Makes me wonder what Walter Cronkite or David Brinkley would have to say about news days like this....

[robdogbucky]

21. This event has caused me to think about

just how easy it appears to fly a plane, any plane, into a building.

Does anyone else wonder that desperate persons, whether they have a beef with our government or our government's policies, could so easily do what was done today? I am not sitting here getting panicky about what if, I am sitting here thinking if this is this easy, how come more terrorists have not already done it?

Why is it apparently so easy to get on a plane in Amsterdam with, albeit crude, potential explosives in one's underwear, and so easy for a kid to fly a plane into a highrise in Florida, for a disgruntled taxpayer to fly his little plane into an office building in a fury about his tax beefs?

And why haven't the alleged minions of the alleged terror groups attributed by official reports with the 9/11 attack, not taken advantage all these years to perpetrate more, or more massive, more deadly attacks using such methods? It would appear that if a kid can do it, if a disgruntled taxpayer can do it, if a deranged rich kid from Nigeria can get on a plane with a potential bomb in his skivvies (still not clear on that incident), then all these alleged terror groups could easily have done so if they had wished.

Could it be there really aren't minions of terrorists with the intent to do so? Surely they could have done so without much difficulty. Could it be we are just lucky that they haven't? I have a feeling that TPTB will take that tact and most likely exploit this to clamp down on civilian aviation, which by all accounts is huge in this country. Man, we get one guy with a faulty explosive in his shoe and now we all have to take our shoes off at airports. One guy can't get his undies to explode and we will now all undergo body scans and select randoms will also have powder residue analysis as well as the now extant selective frisking, et al. Reminds me of the Keystone Cops.

Why did 50 years of a cold war with real ICBMs pointed at each other 24/7, with potential Dr. Strangeloves on both sides rattling sabres, not bring about such vigilance and paranoia? Just remember, 9/11 was the best thing that happened for the Repugnant Ones since the Russians got the bomb. All they needed, in their own words (see PNAC), was another Pearl Harbor.

Anyone else think these thoughts?



Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky

[Whisp]

22. its always like this. balloon boy, anna nicole, MJ, Hudson River ...

its like they can't chew gum and walk at the same time. like time stands still for everything else but what they glom onto.

really poor showing for 'jounalism' but theyre not really journalists to begin with (talking CNN here).

[ginnyinWI]

23. you meant they are running it non-stop?

Quelle Suprise.

:boring:

I'm sure if there is any real information to be reported, I'll hear it on NPR at the top of the hour. Endless speculation I can well do without.

[DrDan]

25. it is news - i don't see it as blathering

why so critical? If you are tired of it, just turn off the TV for a while.

[azmouse]

28. How awful of me to want them to have some journalistic standards

and not speculate for hours about a story when they could do some investigation before reporting....

[DrDan]

29. well - when you have cameras focussed on it . . .

there probably is a bit to keep an eye on

[spanone]

26. it's what they do. they wait for the next tragedy then assign the 'shit of the month' to it