Saturday, September 03, 2005
"There was a house in New Orleans..."
... they called it the Rising Sun...
Think it's not appropriate to make smart headlines about the Katrina disaster in southern U.S.? Well I be damned if Fox News hasn't snuffed the most terrible pun-title for one of their web-segments on the net. In a story covering the shipping of thousands of New Orleans citizens to the Astrodome in Houston, Fox News has the somewhat bad taste of calling this rescue operation "Texas Holds 'Em". Aaaah... witty journalists... what's a few thousand dead people to you when you can make funny puns with your colleagues round the water cooler?
But in Europe the times are definetely not a-changing. Swedish Aftonbladet has a top story in today's issue about the Katrina disaster. Their angle? All the dead people? The relief efforts who are brought in too late? The total lack of law and order? Nope. No such luck. The TOP STORY in the leading Swedish paper is that Michael Moore has lashed out against Bush on his blog, blaming the whole Bush administration for the disaster. Looking at news from both CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC it is hard to even find anything similar to this news capture. Sure, there's lots of photage of people that are angry, desperate and cry out for help. There are a few stories on how poorly the relief efforts are being carried out. But to blame Bush for the disaster? No U.S. station comes even close. There are far too many more substantial stories to be told.
In Europe on the other hand, nothing can be of as great importance as when Michael Moore is outraged - no matter how delusional his outrage is.
Think it's not appropriate to make smart headlines about the Katrina disaster in southern U.S.? Well I be damned if Fox News hasn't snuffed the most terrible pun-title for one of their web-segments on the net. In a story covering the shipping of thousands of New Orleans citizens to the Astrodome in Houston, Fox News has the somewhat bad taste of calling this rescue operation "Texas Holds 'Em". Aaaah... witty journalists... what's a few thousand dead people to you when you can make funny puns with your colleagues round the water cooler?
But in Europe the times are definetely not a-changing. Swedish Aftonbladet has a top story in today's issue about the Katrina disaster. Their angle? All the dead people? The relief efforts who are brought in too late? The total lack of law and order? Nope. No such luck. The TOP STORY in the leading Swedish paper is that Michael Moore has lashed out against Bush on his blog, blaming the whole Bush administration for the disaster. Looking at news from both CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC it is hard to even find anything similar to this news capture. Sure, there's lots of photage of people that are angry, desperate and cry out for help. There are a few stories on how poorly the relief efforts are being carried out. But to blame Bush for the disaster? No U.S. station comes even close. There are far too many more substantial stories to be told.
In Europe on the other hand, nothing can be of as great importance as when Michael Moore is outraged - no matter how delusional his outrage is.
