Making the news scarier than necessary

Posted on May 25, 2003 by Gene

I just saw an item on ABC News that really annoyed me. Surprising, eh?
Carol Simpson introduced the piece by saying that cruise ship passengers in Miami had been herded off the ship after an explosion that killed three crew and injured dozens more. Naturally, you know what the first thought is on hearing about an explosion.
She then threw it to Steve Osunsami, who then detailed the evacuation of passengers, the number of dead, and a description of the explosion from a passenger. It wasn’t until more than halfway through the story that he finally let us know that it was an accident — a boiler that exploded.
In my opinion, this vital piece of information should have been in the headline. Carol should have said “after a BOILER EXPLOSION.” But leaving out that one word makes the whole thing sound much more urgent and important, and keeps you riveted to ABC News. Those little anchor intros are nothing more than promos for small little packaged dramas (or comedies) masquerading as news. And when it’s on local news, they only give you part one of the drama, and then tease the airing of part two later in the next newscast.
There is no news anymore. Just entertainment and manipulation.
Annoyance number 2: near the end of the piece, a passenger for the next cruise, now cancelled, was interviewed. Her assessment of the situation, where people were killed only a few hours ago? “I took vacation time and drove 28 hours to get here and now I have no place to stay,” and complained about the cruise company. What a freaking selfish, asshole, litigious society we live in. I’m sure she’s already talking about suing the cruise company for the ruin of her vacation plans.
Bitch.