What’s newsworthy: A crash or svaing the lives of millions of people?
Despite having worked 21 years as a reporter I will never understand the St. Louis news media.
The crash of a single-engine plane in Callaway County Sept. 22 that resulted in the death of an Alaska man was reported on every local television news station, several area radio stations and in the Post Dispatch.
At the same time National Guard officials and civilian agencies from eight states were in St. Louis preparing an emergency response plan in the event of a catastrophic earthquake along the New Madrid Fault.
According to Dr. David Rogers, a professor of geological engineering at the Missouri University of Science & Technology, an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 or greater along the fault “would result in economic damage that could take 10 years to recover from.”
The result of the New Madrid Seismic Zone Workshop, sponsored by the Missouri National Guard, was the development of a coordinated plan to fill any gaps in the response capability of states within the seismic zone and fill those gaps with National Guard resources from other states. In event of a large-scale earthquake within the New Madrid Seismic Zone this plan would directly affect the lives of millions of people.
And while virtually every St. Louis news outlet was invited to cover the Guard-sponsored workshop not one reporter bothered to show up.
Evidently, the crash of a small plane outside the St. Louis television viewing area – outside the St. Louis radio listening area – that did not involve anyone from Missouri, was more news worthy than a coordinated effort by local volunteer citizen soldiers to save the lives and protect the property of millions of people in eight states.
Bill Phelan
St. Louis County
Bill,
–You can’t put all blame on the media. The viewers’ interests are only on the quick 10 second bites that entail blood, violence, or sexual innuendo.
–The emergency response program is suited better to PBS, or some other less popular but more focused outlet.
Actually, I have NO problem with the reporting. You are talking about a “What if” scenario compared to what really happened. My question to you is, why does it not matter that the plane inhabitants were from Missouri?
Bill,
Probably because a plane crash in current times is more newsworthy than a what if. Get a grip, dude!!!
I’m sure much of the media’s ambivalence is the result of Iben Browning.
Let me tell you the story of Chicken Little or maybe the Boy Who Cried Wolf.
This isn’t just in St. Louis. This is how news is in the entire country. Twenty-one years and you still don’t understand? THAT is a shocker!
I would say that the story was extremely newsworthy. Glad to have read else where that the workshop is being planned annually.
“Earthquake workshop gives states a chance to plan for New Madrid disaster
By: Bill Phelan/Missouri National Guard Public Affairs
Posted: Saturday, September 26, 2009 7:15 pm
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Sept. 25, 2009) — More than 200 National Guard officials and representatives of civilian agencies from eight states attended the New Madrid Seismic Zone Workshop sponsored this week by the Missouri National Guard.”
“Overall, Danner was impressed with results of the workshop which will become an annual event.”
Here’s a link to the story:
http://www.pulaskicountydaily.com/news.php?viewStory=1214
I seem to remember Chicken Little running around screaming that the sky is falling when an acorn fell on his/her head.