Breaking Story du Jour
Today, we woke up to a foiled terror plot. Yesterday, we woke up to the Lieberman-Lamont election results. Last week, we woke up to the Israel-Lebanon conflict. And the week before that, we focused, for a microsecond, on what was happening in Iraq. Unless, of course, a tractor-trailer was being chased by 20 police cars, or a baby had fallen down a hole, or miners were trapped deep below the earth. There is barely a second that CNN doesn’t have the words Breaking Story scrolling on the bottom of the screen these days. Once in a great while, they change to Developing Story to ensure we don’t lose the excitement of a ‘real’ Breaking Story.
Could we possibly get a balance? Today, watching CNN interview everyone who might ever have known anything about terrorists plots – and lots who don’t know more than I do – and asking them the same questions over and over, one would think that conflicts in the Middle East have been completely resolved. Even though the Breaking Story was breaking all day yesterday - not a mention today. I guess Middle East conflicts passed their headline ‘shelf life’.
I am so sick of being shocked and awed. Could we get some balanced coverage? Could we get some real debate? Could we get some real experts? Could we get some real analysis? But, please, most of all, balance.
Or, try listening to BBC news for a change.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
Comments
I have a great idea...lets, blindfold, gag, and handcuff ALL passengers before they board an airplane. Wouldn't that solve a lot of our problems, and then we could focus on protecting what are surely REALLY going to be our next victims of terrorists...the food chain, our water suppy, our power grid, the Internet, etc. Then again, why worry about those things? Let's just shut them down completely and that way we won't have to worry about them.
Posted by: geof | August 11, 2006 8:22 AM
Here is a question I haven't heard answered yet....what about women (oh and to be fair and balanced, men too I suppose) with gel breast implants. Are they banned from flying now?
And what about all the Dr. Scholl's "I am Gellin" shoe insole consumers...do they have to stay at home now too?
And what is to prevent somebody from keeping such a small amount a potential explosive liquid they appear to be banning from carrying-on in some body cavity that isn't ordinarily searched? Are we going to start body cavity searches now like we do with prisoner before boarding a plane?
Where does it all end?
Posted by: geof | August 12, 2006 9:15 PM
Yes, we could all watch the BBC and see why Freedom is wrong, terrorists are misunderstood and get news on the Middle East as phony as a Reuters photo.
Remember, even paranoids have enemies--I could list terrorist attacks going back 20 years and you will be a pattern. We need to realize it is not profiling if it is true. It is time for truth not rhetoic and stop the terrorists by common sense, not political correctness.
Steve Frank
Posted by: Steve Frank | August 13, 2006 8:44 AM