(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

Why wasn't I informed the Hallmark Channel is showing a crappy disaster movie with Luke Perry on Monday? HEE. This is going to suck, and I am going to love it. :)

In work-related news, I'm going to throttle Bossman. I now have only three weeks until I leave and they have yet to hire anyone for me to train to do my job. The Town Crier and I have placed bets on when they're going to hire someone for my job -- right now, the day before I leave is winning by a mile. It's not like I really care at this point, but the morbid amusement of what'll happen after I leave keeps making me spontaneously giggle at work. If they don't already think I'm nuts, they will soon enough. :)

Also, if you haven't already heard, thanks to Katrina, we now know from the Associated Press the difference between "looting" and "finding". Nice, AP, reeeeeeeally nice. *glares*

EDIT: Um, ABC, I realize you have to promote your new TV shows and all, but now is a really creepy time for you to be playing that "In the aftermath of a hurricane ..." promo for Invasion.

Comments

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

The finding/looting thing offends me not just because of the idiotic racism thing, but because the freaking editors didn't do their job either.

Reporters are supposed to be OBJECTIVE.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And the use of the term "looting" at a time like this is ridiculous. Where else are these people supposed to get food? It's not looting at a time when the victims of Katrina can't get more food anywhere else due to the flooding.

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

But of course. They're supposed to have scuba gear and just swim to the nearest ATM and Walmart.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Well, see, the thing is, there is actual looting going on.

There are morons going into Wal-Mart and grabbing TVs and Microwaves. Nevermind the city has no power and won't have power for at least a month.

There are idiots grabbing jewelry. Nevermind there is no way to make a transaction in a city without power unless it's cash person to person, and honestly, are you really gonna go buy a Rolex from some dude on the street when your family is homeless and starving?

[nute.livejournal.com]

Where else are these people supposed to get food?

The supermarket. In a place that is NOT NEW ORLEANS because they were supposed to evacuate when the hurricane was coming close. It's not like they didn't see it coming.

[drewbeartx.livejournal.com]

Except, of course, for the people who were unable to leave due to poverty or infirmity. Or the medical and rescue workers who were drafted into staying for the post-hurricane relief efforts. (That happened to the stepfather of one of the people on my flist) Or the people who stayed behind to prevent their homes and/or businesses from being looted. Are art galleries with several thousand pieces supposed to pack up and ship out all of them within a few days?

[nute.livejournal.com]

You know what? Art's replaceable. People who willingly stay behind? Pretty much take the consequences they've accepted.

Medical and relief workers don't have to loot. Why? THEY'RE NOT CRIMINALS. Yes, I sympathize with people who were dumb enough to get into the bad situation - and yes, I consider poverty and unassisted infirmity among those - but if they break the law, they break the law. Not feeling a lot of flexibility there.

[eleigh.livejournal.com]

People who willingly stay behind?

I think the point is they didn't willingly stay behind. At least not all of them. How would you be able to leave if you had no car, no horse, no bike, no mode of transportation and no way to afford a mode of transportation? How would you be able to leave if there is no kind person offering to help you leave out of the goodness of their heart? Sure you might have had help being evacuated to one of the shelters or the Superdome but we saw how well that turned out.

but if they break the law, they break the law. Not feeling a lot of flexibility there.

I think the phrase "kick them while they're down" applies here. No, people shouldn't be taking things like dvds and tvs but how do you get food if all your worldly possessions have now joined the Gulf of Mexico and you couldn't evacuate. Do we just say "oh well you were dumb enough to stay behind so you get to starve sorry about your luck". And if medical and relief workers are looting maybe they do have to. Maybe they weren't able to be prepared for the level of devastation that occured. Hurricaines are unpredictable, no amount of saying "oh this could happen" is going to prepare you.

[nute.livejournal.com]

How would you be able to leave if you had no car, no horse, no bike, no mode of transportation and no way to afford a mode of transportation?

I'd be a detriment to society and welcome the disaster as a way to improve my station in life? Really - no one HAS to be that down-and-out, and if you don't have anyone who's willing to help you - well, that kind of says a lot about you, doesn't it?

Hurricaines are unpredictable, no amount of saying "oh this could happen" is going to prepare you.

No, they're VERY predictable. Ever looked at the news? "Hurricane Jeff will make landfall this week" - that means you get the hell out of Jeff's way. If you stick around, well, you kind of see what happens. If you're worried about all your possessions being destroyed - how about not putting them in the path of a frickin' hurricane?

[eleigh.livejournal.com]

God, can I live in your world? Because it seems like the color gray just does not exist.

Hurricaines are predictable but their destruction isn't. If it were then for every single hurricaine there is there would never be any destruction. All the houses would still be standing. There would be no flooding. It'd be fabulous. And as last years hurricains proved they aren't even terribly predictable in where they'll eventually land.

[nute.livejournal.com]

Hurricanes are the most predictable natural disaster out there. They hit the coast. It's the risk you take living in a place that you know from history is vulnerable to hurricanes. Do I think the people of New Orleans deserved this? Of course not. That would be stupid. But really - if you choose to live in an area plagued by disasters, you kind of know you're taking a risk.

[drewbeartx.livejournal.com]

I'd be a detriment to society and welcome the disaster as a way to improve my station in life? Really - no one HAS to be that down-and-out, and if you don't have anyone who's willing to help you - well, that kind of says a lot about you, doesn't it?

Fuck you very much. I work two jobs: one full-time and one part-time and I'm still barely above the poverty line. My POS car is the only one whose monthly payments (loan & insurance) I could afford and BECAUSE it's POS, there's an even chance that it'll be in the shop at least once a month. My only extraneous expenditures over the past 6 months were two, count 'em one-two, movies at the matinee showings and a meal at TGIFriday's.

As for your bullshit about no-one willing to help me: my parents help with my $100/month medication bill, but that's it; they can't really afford to help any more than that even if I would let them. And what if I just COULDN'T get to the people willing to help, hmm? As I already told you, my car's a POS and if it chose the days right before a natural disaster to break down, I'm shit outta luck. And the city I live in has the dubious honor of being the largest in the US to not have a public transit system. Frankly, if there was one, I wouldn't own a car because of the expense. It appears that you're saying that anyone who makes a similar choice is "a detriment to society."

Have YOU ever been poor? Have you ever had to decide which of your utility bills to pay late so you could afford the others? Have you ever lived right on the edge of your credit card limit in order to afford food and gas? No? Then fuck off and die.

[elessar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my mom was all angry about this and I'm like "...so you want these people to starve?"

[strix-an-stones.livejournal.com]

Umm... I know I might get trashed for this but reporters don't write the cutlines/captions under stories. Yes, errors, bias and bigotry in the body of the writing - they own, but the wording under pictures it is a toss up. Depending on the newspaper that provided the picture it was either set by the photography department or the copy editor. Journalists are asked for peripheral information on what is going on, but the words under the picture aren't necessarily theirs.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Either way, it's still not objective journalism.

I'm not trashing you because you're right.

I'm agreeing with you.

The copy writers were wrong, and so are the editors who let it pass like that.

[strix-an-stones.livejournal.com]

*nods* I totally agree. It goes to prove that objectivity and bias aren't merely on the reporter level but higher up. When I was on desk I used to get so pissed that stuff was put into my work by editors and never attributed to them. The story looked like it was all me but wasn't. I blew a fuse on the subject towards the end and they started putting both names on articles. Obviously I wasn't kept around long after that.

Not its not objective, its sickeningly political.

[terpsichoros.livejournal.com]

Notice that the AP only sent out the top two pictures: one of two black people "leaving a store", and one of a black person "looting".

The other two were AFP - Agence France Presse - where the black people were "looting" and the white people "finding".

Don't blame AP for that.