Journalism at its worst

[love_that_reefer]

How come it seems like after every disaster in this country our media completely drops the ball? It happened with 9/11, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and now the horrendous shootings at Virginia Tech. It's a tragedy that this country's media, one of the freest in the world can be so bad.

I am watching the coverage yesterday on all stations but mostly Fox News and MSNBC since they had the most up to date coverage. I watched both and they seem to be sticking to the story up until last night and especially this morning. The papers and news channels started turning this into politics. Both of these stations have different political views according to the mass majority of Americans which I now find to be true but only after Iraq had failed a couple of years ago. Up until then, they were both pretty well-balanced. Then the feuding really began. Today it became a political fight between gun laws and restrictions. Not and what forced this awful man to do such horrible actions but a blame game. The left wingers like NY Times, David Gregory and Rosie O'Donnell (who is crazy and not a true liberal) start going off on gun laws. Then the right wingers like Rush Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity then go after the liberals for trying to politicize this terrible shooting but by doing so start pushing there own agenda. It's absolute hypocriful that they go after people for pushing an agenda when they are doing the exact same thing. On top of that, it is awful that this story has become a political issue instead of reporting the tragedy at hand.

In my opinion, gun laws have to be brought up in situations like this but not politicized. Virginia is known for having laid back policies when it comes to guns. That's all that needed to be said. Maybe a week from now we can have a discussion on gun laws but not when people are still trying to figure out if their sons or daughters were killed or not. People want to know what and why this happened, not Scarborough's or Hannity's views on gun laws!

Like I said earlier, journalism is hitting an all-time low. Where are the Murrow's? Brokaw's? Cronkite's? Where are the unbiased jurnalist who could care less about their corporate masters? More importantly, why does this country's media faulter when disaster strikes?

[HollywoodLeo]

In my opinion, gun laws have to be brought up in situations like this but not politicized.

How, exactly, do you propose doing this?

Gun laws are a political issue.

Or are you pretty much saying people need to come up with a good solution rather than repeating right wing or left wing party lines? Because I agree with you there.

And the political extremes the media has become, on both sides, has become ridiculous.

[love_that_reefer]

They can simply bring up the facts of the gun laws of Virginia and leave the debate for another time but they diverted the story by trying to politicize it. You can have both. If someone wants to debate it, they could simply say "We will leave that for another time". I was watching MSNBC around 3:00pm yesterdayy and one woman did it perfectly. She asked a DEA agent a question by first say "Leaving the politics out of it, how easy is it to get a gun in Virginia?". The discussion went on from there and I learned everything about the gun laws without a political view. That was not the story about four hours after that.

I do agree that we need gun debates without the same old right wing, left wing talking points. But there is a time and place and this is notone of them for that debate.

[HollywoodLeo]

So it's just a timing issue then.

Despite my arguments at the nfl side that it should be ok for us to debate this now, and that it's not disrespecting anyone by doing so, these guys are on the national stage (vice on some random internet message forum) and really should hold back before they start going to town with those types of heated debates.

[love_that_reefer]

Yes, it is a timing thing. We don't have near the information we need to know what's the hell went on yesterday but yet it has already become a heated debate between left and right. Leave that until at least we have more information or at least until the dead are in the ground. I think it is fair for people in the public to voice opinions if we want on forums and such but we have no responsibility to the public.

[realmofotalk]

Of course the issue of Hurricane Katrina turned into politics. It was bound to happen when FEMA dropped the ball, the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana blamed the federal government, the right wing media blamed the citizens of New Orleans, and just about everyone else, most notably, Kanye West, blamed Bush.

[Slyder]

I lost what respect I had left for ABC News. The guy they had there yesterday was down right jerk. He was interviewing this one student and then like 3 or 4 times says something along the lines of what's your thoughts on the university not getting news out about the first shooting? I was irate, that %^* needs to be fired immediately.

*checks the radar for flying pigs*

I agree with LTR on something... who knew???

[love_that_reefer]

Of course the issue of Hurricane Katrina turned into politics. It was bound to happen when FEMA dropped the ball, the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana blamed the federal government, the right wing media blamed the citizens of New Orleans, and just about everyone else, most notably, Kanye West, blamed Bush.

That wasn't really my point. I wasn't saying all those issues turned into politics but that journalism just flat out sucks when it comes to disasters. When it comes to hurricanes, you get these dumbass people asking obvious questions and trying to stand in 120 mph winds and actually not reporting anything but perforimng stunts. There was also the lady pretending to be rowing in a baot when two guys walked in what looked like a foot deep of water. Crazy hit like that. Iraq War, no one asked one tough question! 9/11 brought up the craziest of scenarios and it seemed journalists quit thinking about what just happened. We just drop the ball every time. They treated Ana Nicole's Smith without a hitch though Good journalism is dead!!!

[HollywoodLeo]

There was also the lady pretending to be rowing in a baot when two guys walked in what looked like a foot deep of water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http:...?v=N61CHeVMGsU