General Forums

[Corbijn]

I'm just going to re-post this from my blog. It was titled something that annoyed me today.

CNN. And more specifically, Wolf Blitzer and his stupid fucking situation room. While a moderately entertaining concept originally, when everything is done in the "situation room" it becomes....well, just a room. Next time there's a disaster, he's going to need a "Dire Situation Room" because the old situation room just won't have enough oomph. And maybe later a "No Really, This Is A Very Serious And Dire Situation Room." There's a reason the President has a Situation Room as opposed to the Oval Office. The Oval Office is, well, his office...the equivalent of Wolf's boring set. Then he has a Situation Room, and he doesn't just hang out there every day. Well, Dubya might, but normally POTUS only uses the Situation Room for dire situations. You know, war and stuff.

Godamnit, I'm ranting.

The point of all this, is I'm annoyed at CNN. Not for Wolf Blitzer or his stupid "Situation Room," but because of their assinine coverage of this collpased bridge thing.

I think we all agree that this collapsed bridge in MN is tragedy of some degree. My sympathies to those hurt or killed by it, and their families...that's a pretty shitty way to go or to lose someone. But CNN's coverage of this is just so....I don't even know the word for it....it just annoyed the shit out of me. So let me describe it.

Wolf is sitting you know where, and the screen behind him as four squares. I think it was Cincinnati, Podunk Florida, NYC, and SF. He intros the show by re-hashing the story which most assuredly had been hashed out umpteen thousans times during the previous 24 hours, and then comes....you know what is coming....the graphic of doom. America in Disrepair?

That's right folks, a bridge collapsed....and now our entire national infrastructure is in total disrepair. Brdiges across the country are collapsing, poor children are falling into sinkholes on our freeways, electric lines are snapping and electrocuting family pets, it's total chaos people....our infrastructure is falling apart before our very eyes. By tomorrow morning, be shocked if you have electricity, water, or any roads to drive on because apparently it's all falling apart. Two days ago we were good, but now...won't someone think about the children!?!?

So now that Wolf has worked his paranoid housewife audience(who else is watching TV at 3pm CST? I just happened to catch this at lunch.) into a frenzy of fear, it's time to make it more personal. So on the screen pops up a guy from Cincinnati. He tells us that Cincinnati apparently has some three dozen bridges going in and out of downtown, and apparently they could collapse at any moment...as evidenced by Minneapolis.

Next, they go to the guy in Podunk, Florida. He tells us that the state transportation board has taken a hardline stance, with the director ordering every bridge be inspected within the week under more stringent guidelines. And that Florida too has tons of bridges, , and they too could collapse at any moment. As if the idiots living in a fucking HURRICANE ZONE should be that much more concerned about their bridges collapsing. They thumb their nose at hurricanes, but collapsing bridges? That's gone too far!

Next comes the editorial/informational section where Wolf tells us how there are thousands of bridges in America, and that they're all poorly maintained with rare inspection and that the government needs to do something about it. Forget the fact that congress is actually debating something of merit for the first time since the election (the changes to FISA and wiretapping laws), lets bog them down with creating an even more inefficient federal bureaucracy that also inspects bridges. Although truth be told, congress has proven itself far better at creating bureaucracy than actually debating bills of merit, but I digress.
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Matt
http://www.myspace.com/lifewithoutamicrowave

[Corbijn]

So next, Wolf goes to NYC, and a correspondant at the Queensboro bridge. It, he tells us, was built in 1909! It's almost 100 years old!!! Wow, that's so old....it might just......collapse! The talking head explains that they do almost daily maintenance on the bridge, but even that may not be enough because of rusting steel and high winds. Forget the fact that there are 500 year old stone bridges in Europe that are still functional, we need to worry about this less than 100 year old steel bridge which was brilliantly engineered and is inspected constantly. It could go at any moment.

There we go, Wolf has now managed to scare all the paranoid housewives in NYC....that's a big new audience. Cincinnati wasn't much, Florida was big on account of all the olds that live there (the other group watching TV at 3pm), and now he's managed to panic that number one media market in the US. So where do he go next?

To San Francisco! And now he tells us how the Golden Gate bridge could also go. Which is genius because it doubles as a national monument....everyone can relate to the Golden Gate bridge! And it could collapse? This is a travesty! Then of course he makes a cursory mention of how terrorists could also attack the bridges...because no alarmist media broadcast would be complete without a mention of terrorism.

The point of all this is, it was just disgusting. I'm sure the other news channels ran this same crap, I just happened to be watching CNN because it was on at the restaurant in which I was eating. It was nothing but pandering to the fears of the apparently moronic through sensationalist coverage of the subtext of an actual story. And for a second I got scared as I thought of all these scared people suddenly picking up their phones and calling their congressmen.....until I realized at four o'clock they'd be watching Oprah, Ellen, or re-runs of Matlock and they'd forget all about this.
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Matt
http://www.myspace.com/lifewithoutamicrowave

[RBPierce]

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[Ailionora]

Crap, I think I just agreed with Corb...

My favorite part was an hour into the "coverage" when we had already established that the bridge stood approximately 60 feet above the river, which is approximately 4-7 feet deep and Fox (yeah, I know everyone hates Fox) was sharing air time with as many local "on the scene" reporters as they could get a signal too. One frantic radio correspondent described the scene, his voice breaking, wondering how it must have felt to be in a car, driving home from work and suddenly falling HUNDREDS OF FEET through the air..."

Yaknow, people make mistakes, people get excited and freaked out and caught up in the story... but you cannot tell me these reporters did not know they would have FIVE freaking DAYS to talk about this - Take a freaking breath before you say STUPID stuff. It's a tragedy all by itself, you dont have to "perform" to drive home the point. We get it.

Side note Corb - guess where most of those doomed bridges are? I have 6 bridges within a mile of my house =) Our entire state infrastructure is built 18+ feet off the ground. Apparently I have something new to be afraid of living in "the Bayou City" eh?
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[Powad]

golden gate bridge isnt goingto fall from disrepair, thats for sure. any and every public bridge in california is routinely inspected for earthquake preparedness and every single one has been retrofitted to withstand strong earthquakes. but hey, a bridge fell 4000 miles away, so i guess it means my bridge is old and rickety too
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Currently reading: The Wanderer's Tale (Book 1: The Annals of Lindormyn) by David Bilsborough

And: Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way by Bruce Campbell

[Soni]

the bridges in our parts of texas aren't in any danger because they don't face the harsh conditions like the bridges up north.

plus, we don't throw salt on them in winter, we throw sand on them- salt corrodes the rebar inside the concrete, sand doesn't.


You have to go 50 miles outside of Houston to find a bridge that's even half as old as the one in Minnesota (the Trinity River bridge), and it's being replaced right now...
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[Gavina]

Scariest bridge I ever drove across? Huey P Long bridge in New Orleans. Plus, we were lost so we went across it twice. OMFG I was sure we were dead.

Nice rant Corb. A few points:
1. We already have a federal bureaucracy to inspect bridges. It does a bang-up job, huh? Actually, it does an excellent job, it's just that Congress and the state legislatures tend to ignore the reports. Typical

2. Most of the stone bridges in Europe have weight restrictions that would prohibt the kind of traffic we have across most US bridges. And most of the major river crossings in Europe have steel bridges now. (Ok that's mainly because the Alies and the Germans had a "Who can blow up more bridges today" contest 60 years ago.)

3. The 24 hour news cycle lends itself to idiocy faster than anything I've ever seen. It's why I can't stand FOX news most days and CNN makes me want to vomit. I tend to forget MSNBC exists.. because they suck that bad. You get snippets of really good news and reporting followed by HOURS of re-hash and Paris Hilton. If it's Fox you get a good car chase once a day. Blegh. I flipped on "Headline News" the other day just so I could try to catch the sports scores. OMFG, it's like the MTV of the news business. It no longer has just headlines repeated every 30 minutes in distinct sections. Instead of headlines, Dr. Gupta was on there giving some in depth interview about the Preisdent's colon. AHHHHHHHHHHHH
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Gavina Andraste
If Fred Thompson had been at Thermopylae, the movie would have been called 1. Ron Paul wouldn't have been there at all.

[olorin]

I seem to remember making fun of the Situation Room when it first started here. It has to be the most retarded concept for a news set/segment ever. The best part is watching Blitzer stand there like an idiot for hours at a time. You know he's thinking, "WTF I knew I should have gotten a chair. The real Situation Room has chairs, lots of them!"
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"These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." -SCOTUS- Holy Trinity Church v. U.S. 1892

[Ailionora]

LA LA LA Soni.. i cant hear you.. I WILL BE AFRAID!!! The tv told me too!!!(OK fine, I guess it would be paranoid to be worried about my bayou bridges collapsing when the only extra traffic crossing them is foottraffic on it's way to the day labor camp on the other side...)
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[Rosaria]

Great rant, agree with you entirely.
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[Chayse]

Damn, I agree 100% too.
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Hangin's too good for 'em! BURNIN'S too good for 'em! They should be ripped into itsy-bitsy little pieces and BURIED ALIVE!

[Galadren]

I agree with Corb's rant 99.9%

And I'm about to perform a minor hijacking:

Minor point of contention: stop the shit about Hurricane zones. No matter how much you might like us to we can't abandon the Southeastern US (including East Texas) because it may experience severe weather. Just like we can't abandon Cali because of Earthquakes, the North bcause of severe blizzards, the east because rivers may overflow, and Washington because a volcano may erupt and wipe everything out. Shit happens.
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"Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty, and a hatred of servitude." -Julius Caesar, Gallic Wars

Never to broke for a steak and a margarita.
-Me

Currently reading: The New World by Michael A. Stackpole

[RBPierce]

Response to the hijack:

People living in hurricane zones and blizzard prone areas are substantitely different from people living in flood plains and along fault lines. I can't stand it when people live in flood plains, and then expect to be granted federal and state handouts when their home gets destroyed... every decade or so. No problem with them living there, but they don't deserve compensation for when the inevitable disaster hits.

It.
Is.
Inevitable.

I would REALLY like to impose a one time limit on use of the Federal Flood Insurance program for people living in flood zones, and forbid it for people who newly build in a flood zone. You inherit a house and can't afford to move? Fine, I understand that... but if your house gets destroyed, take the money and MOVE. If you build in a flood plain, knowing it is prone to flooding, caveat emptor- no insurance for you. Ultimately, there should be NO federal flood insurance for anyone living in a flood plain.

End Response.
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[Balor Gafdan]

Scariest Bridge?

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

1996 Dodge Dakota P/u Truck with 33" mickey thompsons
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[Gavina]

[Lady Solinal]

The thing that annoyed me/pissed me off the most was the fucking reporters talking to fucking little kids from the fucking bus and asking them questions like, "So, were you terrified?" "Did you think you were going to die?" Fuck me! So, the kids aren't traumatized enough, eh? Have to fucking go there with them if they hadn't already themselves?

Elie
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[RBPierce]

[Corbijn]

Other than listening to the Goricle (for which I have no opinion as of now), I'm letting RBP say what I mean here.

In this isntance, hes a tad more diplomatic than i.
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Matt
http://www.myspace.com/lifewithoutamicrowave

[Gavina]