Back to the BP issue

[Scanner]

Read this interesting article today:

BP oil spill: Mississippi governor says press coverage is more damaging than slick - Telegraph

Anyway, it makes me think that this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion and how BP could misdirect that the economic damage, while unfortunate, could be partially caused by the media.

Case in point - I see a lot of similarities to the NJ beaches closing in 1989. I was actually one of the lifeguards who was ordered to keep bathers out of the water due to fecal coliform counts being high. So. . .the media blasted it all over how dirty NJ beaches were. . .oh my gosh, they had to be closed!!!. . .what they didn't tell you was for a NJ beach to shut down the fecal coliform count had to be 800 or less. . .right across the bay where swimmers fled to swim in Delaware. . .the standard was 1200 or less!!! The beaches could have been theoretically (and probably were) dirtier.

Anyway, the media would have you believe FL and Louisiana are knee-deep in oil with the images of wildlife.

Makes me rethink investing in them, that once they can get a second pipe in there and stop the flow (or slow it to a trickle). . .lawyers will deflect the damage in a few years.

This is one reason I don't like to get my news exclusively from American networks - everything is too sensationalized and we all know Fox runs everything through an "anti-Obama" filter.

[disneysteve]

For sure, the media is renowned for blowing things out of proportion. That certainly isn't news. If they aired a report that said, "Some oil is leaking but it really isn't affecting anything" nobody would pay any attention. Sensationalism gets ratings. Especially since the advent of 24-hour news stations like CNN, the need to hold viewers' attention is bigger than ever.

How big is the actual impact of the oil spill? I have no idea. Is the media actually making the situation worse with their endless coverage? I have no doubt about that. Just this morning on GMA, they were showing empty beaches and interviewing shop keepers who are seeing virtually no customers during what traditionally is one of the busiest weeks of the year. How much of that is actually due to the oil and how much is due to the media scaring people away?

[Scanner]

It's funny how testy people are.

I can recall when I was lifeguarding in NJ, we would get the shoobies come down and ask if that black stuff on their feet was oil. I can't blame them for asking - it was like a sticky black tarry stuff.

We would yank their chains a bit and say, "Yeah, but it's only a little. We got it under control."

It was black silt that I assumed the clam boats stirred up and it washed ashore. It was a constant presence. I'm sure the clamming had an environmental impact too. . .I don't mean to minimize what's been done in specific areas but geez, you know - the ocean is a big place.

Of course everyone thinks a beach should like a Travel Agent photo, where it's all doctored up.

[Snodog]

No doubt the media has made an already bad situation worse. Like Steve said its what they do. Its gotten to the point that I had to tune it out because its just so darn depressing. It is a pretty big deal though IMO.

[GREENBACK]

Yes the media will do anything to keep you tuned in. I watched the interview with Tiger Woods the other night where they are still asking about his philandering lifestyle. My first thought was "who the hell cares about that anymore".

[disneysteve]

Yes the media will do anything to keep you tuned in. I watched the interview with Tiger Woods the other night where they are still asking about his philandering lifestyle. My first thought was "who the hell cares about that anymore".

My question is always who even really cared about it in the first place.

I will never comprehend why people are the least bit interested in the personal lives of people they don't know. And I'm not only referring to celebrities but even regular folks in the news. For example, do you remember the Scott Peterson trial a few years ago. Here was a guy who wasn't anyone special. He killed his wife who wasn't anyone special. And it became a huge national news story, covered endlessly on the cable news channels and gossip shows. People magazine even did a special issue on "celebrity trials" and Peterson was one of the people featured. The next week, several readers wrote in to point out that Peterson wasn't a celebrity at all.

Another example happens regularly when I turn on our local TV news, not the national coverage. "Our top story is a school bus accident. Several students are injured and an investigation is under way." Of course, that catches my attention. Then they proceed with the rest of the story and it turns out the accident happened in Nebraska. Well, I live in New Jersey. Why would I care? And why is that the top story on the LOCAL news. Surely, something of much greater local interest occurred that day.

[Scanner]

I think the fascination with Scott Peterson was, to be blunt and non-PC, was here was a good looking, all American white boy (and I am white so give me a little latitude) who up and viciously murdered his wife for a trivial reason.

It was almost like OJ Simpson but in reverse.

It wasn't like it was a hispanic man or a black man in the slums of an urban city, living in stressful conditions and/or a bad upbringing with lack of morals that would drive a man to do this. (not that that is excusable either but at least it's comprehensible).

The motive was just plain puzzling and unexplainable and incomprehensible to most with Scott Peterson.

But I didn't watch the thing either. . .I think though (my in laws and my stb-x followed it) that was the psychology of that cult that followed the trial.

I can remember hearing about OJ and thinking, "Oh, no. . .not the kindly OJ. I just can't beleive it. He's the kindly simpleton in Naked Gun. Everyone loves OJ!!!." And then the trial morphed into a media circus with it becoming about I don't know. . .some payback for bad race relations with blacks cheering on Oprah upon his aquittal.

Not the finest moment in our nation's history.