Titanic Post

A very good friend, who I have often mentioned in this venue, just posted an article on her blog commenting on the American media’s ability to ignore millions of people all over the world starving to death. They do this by concentrating on other goings on such as Iraq. Today I conducted an informal, unscientific and subjective survey of CBS and NBC’s Sunday afternoon news broadcast. Here are my findings:

I timed both network’s use of their alloted time. Twelve of the thirty minutes were used for advertising and eighteen minutes for actual “news.” They also had almost identical content. I wondered if they all had a meeting this morning and decided to do the same thing or maybe they got their programming from the same source. (The New York Times perhaps?)

Both led off their programs with the same topic: Study Finds Airport Security Lacking. It seems that there is not enough of it and we should be afraid of terrorists infiltrating the airports and airplanes. The solution is to hire more security people at the gates. No mention of cargo, mail, or aircraft service precautions. Maybe the Security Company has a convincing lobbyist?

Second up was the news from Iraq. Good news! American troops found arms cache (no, not the WMDs.) Iraqi troops complete training and are expected to do well against insurgents. Sadam Hussein to stand trial in Iraqi court. No casualties mentioned. It’s really going well!

Then the question of Bush being a “lame duck,” president because of his low approval ratings. This was neatly side-stepped by showing that the second terms of Reagan and Clinton were similarly “not lame.” Bush said everything’s ok! That is as deep as it got. NBC went smoothly into our relations with China and their reluctance to fuss with North Korea on our behalf. Also that Venezuela was not behaving itself and that Dubya was workin’ on it. By the end of this segment, I had forgotten all about the “lame duck.”

Next up was the story of the young high school grad in Aruba who disappeared. They have arrested two men–no sign of the girl. Nowhere are we safe! NBC plugs their news reporting in ad.

After the commercials, a warning to watch out for identity theft. Shred all your documents! Be afraid!

Michael Jackson’s lawyer and the DA fling arrows at one another. Jury still out. With any luck they will have a hung jury and they can do it all over again! This will be great news!

The sports segment dealt with the French Open and the Spanish Dude won. I don’t think they had an American there, so it wasn’t very interesting.

Have you noticed that the last segment is always something warm and uplifting? Today was no exception. The fine folks at Belmont Park have put money together for a child care center for the children of the horse care workers. They start work too early for the normal day care facilities and the horse owners couldn’t stand to see the little Mexican children wandering around the stables so early in the morning without supervision. What else could they do?

NBC closed the news with a reminder that the Belmont Stakes will be broadcast on NBC the following Sunday.

In other news, not CBS or NBC, Amnesty International accuses US of operating a worldwide system of secret jails where inmates are tortured and killed. People in Congo, Uganda, and the Sudan are still being murdered or are dying of starvation. The death toll in Iraq of American troops dying in combat is approaching 1700, the new Iraqi government estimates 12,000 Iraqi civilians have died. The Iraqi Red Cross is estimating up to 100,000 dead. Here more factories are closing (GM in New Jersey) and millions here are still living in poverty, millions more without healthcare. Some members of the Supreme Court wants to revert to the Constitution in Exile. That refers to the state of the Constitution in about 1935 (look it up, if you think I’m kidding.)

Our media is defined more by its omissions than about what it says. Our media is owned by huge corporations (seven or eight of them) and they do not want anything said that might be bad for business. The owners are the same people who profit from war and the enormous consumption of energy. I don’t think they are liberal!