Gah!

[annuin]

Sometimes news sites really suck.

CNN's main page news remains about the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis, which, with a currently projected death toll of 60,000 people is not surprising. However, under their "More News" header is a link to CNN affiliate Sports Illustrated's article "Swimsuit model survives tsunami". Because yeah, that's just so important in comparison.

Giving it a quick look over, yeah, it's sad her boyfriend is still missing, but the fact that that story warrants a front page mention on CNN is ridiculous. They had a similarly ridiculous story article on CNN the other day too, about some interior decorator who occasionally appears on Oprah fucking Winfrey, who also happened to be in Thailand. Once again, it's sad his friend is missing, but that all kind of pales in comparison to the complete carnage that's been inflicted, wiping out entire villages and towns at a time. But maybe a semi-famous person's face on top of a story helps make it more... real?

Some people's priorities are completely screwy.

Comments

[silverthoughts.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I love U2 and all but all the fansites didn't mention tsunami at all. But that's fine with me since it would be off topic to their site and all. But seeing as U2 is a supporter of Oxfam, it would still be relevant enough to make a mention to fans about this? But no which was still fine with me since I don't run their site or anything and I'm sure they had their own reasons. But.....some Irish newspaper wrote like one sentence saying that Adam Clayton was in Thailand and he's safe, suddenly all the major U2 fansites have messages of "go donate to the tsunami tragedy". Good grief. I think it would have been better if they just continued to ignore it on their sites.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Well, I look at it this way: most people need a personal hook in to be able to care deeply about a huge tragedy because the sheer size is overwhelming. If people know who these individuals are, it personalises what happened to some degree, and it stops it just being something that happened way over there to a bunch of those other people, and that's a good thing. If it gets anyone to give to the relief fund or do something practical to help, it's worth it. It's precisely the same reason why NGOs try to get celebrity sponsors - yes, we know they exist, but it's not until someone we recognise fronts them that we really take notice. Humans are built to care more about one person they recognise that a million they don't; wasn't it Stalin who said, "One death is murder, a million is a statistic"?

[passercul.livejournal.com]

Yeah...


But it shouldn't work that way. :(

[passercul.livejournal.com]

Front page? ergh.

You might have a point there though. I figure it must be harder (for most) to empathize with the situation unless there was apparently someone of the same breed who could speak for them.

I can't help but wonder how much we were spared down here, because Sumatra took the hit for us.