Letters to the Editor
-
Iraq coverage...
Heck what it they just covered it period...just watched CNN this morining starting at 11 a.m.; gave up at 11:28 and the carnage in Iraq has not been mentioned. Obviously far more important topics on the go including references to an 'Elvis Bingo' and the 'cold abd flu report!!!
-
Coverage of mine disaster
Here's another perspective, and an equally angry one. If the media, including Salon, covered Appalachia other than just when there's a mine disaster, maybe we wouldn't have any more mine disasters.
-
Except for the journalists killed
To the news organizations the Iraq war is so "yesterday", they are like little honeybees flitting from flower to flower trying to find the best nectar, never finishing the one they started.
That warrantless wiretapping is sliding under the radar into oblivion, is a good example.
-
finally...
finally someone said what has been on my mind all along. WV incident was definitely a tragedy, but seriously, do we need wall to wall 24 hr coverage?
-
Failure in Iraq
Why is there not a journalist in America who will ask the question?
"Mr. President, we all know that during the World War II the United States and its allies defeated both Hitler and Hirohito in less than four years. I'm wondering, is the current inability to catch one man who lives in a cave and is attached to a dialysis machine a demonstration of the complete inadequacy of the American troops, or is fault for their absolute failure in this matter a result of their commander in chief and his leadership?”
-
Who's counting?
12 miners? 11 soldiers?
How about the 1560 who died of cancer in the US yesterday?
How many of them were uninsured?
Maybe Anderson Cooper would like to devote an hour to each of their families.
-
Excessive and Incomplete
The excessive coverage of this story wouldn't be so bad if just once these network clowns wouldn't just mention all of the violations this mine has racked up but would also go on to point out how completely toothless the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has become under the George Bush administration. He's not only reduced it's staff by 170 positions but he's also cut funding and replaced career managers with cronies just as he's done to so many other regulatory agencies that might annoy his big business base and corporate contributors. Anyone remember the 13 workers who died in an Alabama coal mine explosion triggered by a roof collapse in September 2001? The fine ultimately assessed by the MSHA was a measly $3,000 . Some might call a $3,000 fine a slap on the wrist - I'd call it a slap in the face delivered to every miner in America.
-
Yes to Denise Giardana
I can't speak with the moral weight of Denise Giardana. Her books and her activism have certainly earned her the right to shame news outlets for their blinkered coverage of Appalachia, a narrowness that goes back as far as any of us can remember. The Sago Mine Disaster was this week's shark attack, or this week's disappearing white woman, and it would be good if CNN, MSNBC, Fox--and Salon--continued paying some attention rather than rushing off to the next sexy story.
Here's a connection that Salon doesn't mention: Iraq has sucked thousands of kids out of the hollers and off the mountains--better to get shot at than go down into the mines or off to a job in some big city a thousand miles from home; better to get the respect of soldier-worshipping Americans than the snide condescension of a paternalistic nation.
Jessica Lynch was an Appalachian. So, too, were the "recycled hillbillies" who did the dirty work at Abu Ghraib. Despite what Salon seems to think, there is a connection that anyone who cares enough to see can easily work out.
-
Accidents happen and people die
Excellent point, Mr. Grieve.
The WV mining deaths are accidents. There will be lawsuits, and perhaps years of finger-pointing. But they were accidents. The media makes mistakes all the time. I feel sorry for anyone who wants to spend months and a lot of money "investigating" a media brain fart that didn't affect the outcome one way or the other. Sure, there are errors made that are extremely costly, such as Judith Miller's sketchy reporting. This was not among them.
We have a lot of control over our environment. We can get strawberries year-round. On a rainy day, we can go from garage to garage, and never touch a drop of rain. We can make ice in August and eat ice cream in December, in a warm house. An endless, seasonless supply of goods and comforts is available to us, in the modern age. But we can't control everything. Sometimes, people just die. And sometimes, you know them or you're close to them. It's irrational to be made of vulnerable flesh, and yet demand a mortality rate of 0%. No mining company could completely guarantee the safety of workers in the shifting bowels of the earth, any more than a car company could guarantee you'd never be injured in their cars.
Human deaths in Iraq are not accidents. They're murders. Yet available news coverage of them is mechanical and limited. It's one car bomb after another, filmed from the exact same distance, over and over. For all I know, they could be using stock footage that they reverse the images on from time to time.
-
Dozens of deaths
Thanks again, Tim Grieve.
Isn't it time for cits in cyberspace to begin put the War of Iraq into political perspective?
Should we call "Bush's War" instead of the War in Iraq?
Or Bush II War 2?
Maybe someone can ask George Lakoff.
-
What if TV news CONNECTED Iraq to the Sago mine disaster?
Tim Grieve's point is well taken, but he missed an opportunity to connect the dots. Bush, an oilman, pushed for this war to secure Iraq's oil reserves and ignored the safety of those sent to fight. At home, Bush has pushed to increase coal production and coal-fired electric plants despite the lack of safety for miners. In fact, The United Mine Workers union has complained that the federal government has relaxed enforcement of safety standards. The federal agency charged with this task, in typical Bush fashion, has been loaded with coal industry executives. The Sago mine was cited with hundreds of safety violations just over the past year and the miniscule fines were no deterrent from continuing to put these non-union workers in jeopardy. While unions have been widely blamed for obstructing progress and economic development, this story screams that we still need them. Generations of the poor in West Virginia have been exploited for our insatiable demand for cheap energy, just like the poor in inner cities who are recruited and sent to war for the same.