Information from the Mass Media

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While watching the CNN coverage of the latest disaster to hit the world, I've found myself becoming very irritated with what is being presented. They always talk to this expert or that expert. Bush gives his little speech about the federal government giving more support. Victims complain about the slow response for aid. Reporters show the horrible conditions that victims have to cope with. This guy thinks this should have happened, that guy wanted something else to happen. Well, you know what? I don’t care.

I don’t care what some FEMA administrator has to say. I don’t care what the Secretary of Homeland Security has to say. I don’t care what Bush has to say. I don’t care if help should have been there sooner. I don’t care that the engineers say it’ll take 80 days to drain New Orleans. I don’t care that some congressman doesn’t want to rebuild New Orleans. I don’t care that some other guy wanted money to upgrade the levees to prevent this disaster. And at this moment in time, I especially don’t care what the victims have to say.

Well, what do I care about then? I want to know what is happening, not what should have happened. I want straight information about the situation. Nearly everything I’ve seen so far is about someone’s opinion. I don’t care what these guys think right now. I want information so that I can figure out what I think.

Of highest controversy right now is the supposedly slow mobilization of aid. Many are saying that help should have and could have been there faster. What I have yet to see is any solid evidence proving or disproving this notion. I understand that a few days is a long time to way under those conditions. However, I also understand that it takes time to mobilize large armies of rescue workers. Do we have anything to compare this situation to? Have there been any disasters in recent history of this magnitude that would have let us see what was coming and help us prepare for this? How many aid workers have been dispatched to the area? How long does it usually take to mobilize that many people? Were these people even trained for this situation such that they can work in a timely manner? How long ahead of time were they starting to mobilize?

There was some other guy, I believe it was some congressman, who made a stink about Bush cutting back funding to upgrade the levee system in New Orleans. Supposedly, the system in place was only strong enough for a category 3 hurricane. How often does a category 4 hit the area? Does it warrant the extra money needed for the upgrade? If the levees were upgraded, were the buildings strong enough for it? If the city didn’t flood, how much damage would have been done anyway? If this upgrade did happen, might we now be complaining that there’s not enough money to go toward helping the victims?

The information coming out of the media has been predigested. Someone has already analyzed it and formed an opinion. But I don’t care what they have to say right now. I want to form my own opinion before my mind is tainted by someone who may or may not know what they’re talking about. I don’t want to sound unsympathetic, but the victims are the worst place to get information from right now. They’ve been hit by this disaster that has destroyed their lives. Can they really be trusted to make logical, unemotional, unbiased statements?

It seems that this problem with the media has been getting worse. We now have the technology to talk to people live from around the globe. The media has been taking advantage of this to talk to everyone related to the event being covered. But with this, we are straying away from straight facts. Instead of getting a number of how many people have died, we now get a description of the conditions under which “many” people have died.

While I do want to call on the media to change their ways, I feel that my call would go unanswered. So, I would instead like to make a plea to the people listening to the media. Be careful of what you see and hear. What is given to you might not be the whole truth and may not be the truth at all. Don’t believe what someone tells you just because they are an “expert” or because they are there living the situation. Find the answers to whatever questions you may have and don’t simply rely on the questions and answers others have. You need to decide what is happening before you evaluate the opinions of others. If you work the other way around, you might miss the truth in the cloud of tainted facts.