Serving Melodrama With A Side of Give Me A Fucking Break!

[anissaannalise]

Let me just start off by saying that I do think it's sad that 12 of the 13 miners in West Virginia perished before they could be rescued. And I'm willing to admit it's a tragedy. For their families. For their community. And possibly even for the state of West Virginia.

I was watching ABC World News last night & there was Lizzie Vargas doing her anchor desk thing. This makes me weep for the resurrection of Peter Jennings anyway, but that's only my minor point. Lizzie says that later in the evening there will be a special airing on ABC about the mining accident but she termed it "An American Tragedy" (which she'd done earlier in the broadcast) & then the logo for the show is up & there it is again. WTF?!

First of all, it was 12 people. Who did a highly dangerous job. Maybe they didn't get hazard pay, but they should have. Second, in the annals of history the following may legitimately be listed as "tragic" for the U.S.:

Pearl Harbor, September 11 & maybe even Hurricane Katrina.

Note massive death & destruction experienced in each case. These were events so over-arcing that not only did they capture the attention of those in the United States but also those around the world.

This brings me to my next point. I have deep disdain for the usage of "American Tragedy" because it furthers our completely egoist outlook on the world. We are the United States of America. Only. Surely Canada is still part of North America. And last I checked, Latin & South Americas still exist. Surely they do not feel this experience was a tragedy. It's just one more example of our assumption that the damned world revolves around us and everyone else can just go to hell.

And here's the last thing, a day or two before the WV mining story, there was a very similar happening in China. More than 13 people were trapped and they were working tirelessly to figure out how to get to them. Ironic how that story dispersed into the cosmic ether when the WV story broke. But maybe it's just me.

Comments

[anissaannalise.livejournal.com]

Well it's not, but thanks for trying. :) And you do make a good point about the media pimping the drama thing. It's just so insincere and self-serving that it makes me go almost insane. At best, it's news as chat and at the very worst it's pornographic & salacious. And I expect, ya' know, journalism to be above that, because what I really need is facts. ;)