That's funny, I didn't think Armageddon was spelled "Katrina"
The Bible laid it out pretty clean. Location is everything.
Don't build your house in a stupid spot.
Likewise, don't build a city below sea level on a coastline known for horrifically-powerful hurricane.
I'm not trying to be insensitive to the plight of all those down there. I'm just saying the decision to put a major city there, lo those many years ago, was not a great idea.
But I'm not here to rant about meteorology or geography or any of that.
Where disaster is, there are journalists, in the thick of it. Getting knocked over by hurricane-force winds, wading in waist deep water and taking photos.
And then the trouble starts.
A photo appearing on Yahoo's news Web pages showing a black man with a plastic tub loaded with beer, including a bottle tucked in his back pocket. The caption reads that he is looting. Another photo appearing on Yahoo, this one from Agence France-Presse/Getty Images shows white people with bread and sodas and bears the description that they are "finding" the items.
As a a photographer, in addition to being a writer, I can see how this happened.
The black man in the photos is obviously making off with a non-necessity. The photographer who took the picture, Dave Martin, saw the man enter that business and make off with the goods. Beer will not help you survive the greatest national disaster this country has faced since 9-11. The white people are making off with essentials (except the sodas, unless there was no bottled water), and the photographer, Chris Graythen, vehemently defended his caption, saying these people got things that were floating away from the rubble of a store, and not stealing out of it.
I think it would have been better if the photographer had made the shot wider so that people could get a sense that these folks had not, in fact, breaking into a business and stealing. The man with the beer has no such defense. Have fun with the Heinekins. It's simply the chance that these two photos would appear the same day. Whoops.
Now, if it's happening like this blogger showed, then it is pure, simple negligence on the part of the news organizations and photographers and all else involved. If it's looting in one picture where it doesn't clearly show where they got it, it's looting in another.
---
Another issue has me applauding and blasting the media in the New Orleans area.
A radio station broadcast the mayor of New Orleans blasting the federal government for the lack of help. That's a positive way in which the media gets out the message from truly concerned public officials that help is needed.
Then CNN, my news station of choice (what, you were expecting Fox News?), went and pissed away air time showing President Bush hugging two victims of this tragedy.
WHO CARES?
Skip to the part where the President gets to the heart of the matter and promises the aid or whatnot. The president hugging people is NOT news.
There's so much more out there to discuss, and I'm just one man. This is a horrific tragedy and stories will pour in, both of tragedy, villainy and horror and others of wonder, joy and miracles. Let's wait and see.
- The Unrepentant Journalist
Don't build your house in a stupid spot.
Likewise, don't build a city below sea level on a coastline known for horrifically-powerful hurricane.
I'm not trying to be insensitive to the plight of all those down there. I'm just saying the decision to put a major city there, lo those many years ago, was not a great idea.
But I'm not here to rant about meteorology or geography or any of that.
Where disaster is, there are journalists, in the thick of it. Getting knocked over by hurricane-force winds, wading in waist deep water and taking photos.
And then the trouble starts.
A photo appearing on Yahoo's news Web pages showing a black man with a plastic tub loaded with beer, including a bottle tucked in his back pocket. The caption reads that he is looting. Another photo appearing on Yahoo, this one from Agence France-Presse/Getty Images shows white people with bread and sodas and bears the description that they are "finding" the items.
As a a photographer, in addition to being a writer, I can see how this happened.
The black man in the photos is obviously making off with a non-necessity. The photographer who took the picture, Dave Martin, saw the man enter that business and make off with the goods. Beer will not help you survive the greatest national disaster this country has faced since 9-11. The white people are making off with essentials (except the sodas, unless there was no bottled water), and the photographer, Chris Graythen, vehemently defended his caption, saying these people got things that were floating away from the rubble of a store, and not stealing out of it.
I think it would have been better if the photographer had made the shot wider so that people could get a sense that these folks had not, in fact, breaking into a business and stealing. The man with the beer has no such defense. Have fun with the Heinekins. It's simply the chance that these two photos would appear the same day. Whoops.
Now, if it's happening like this blogger showed, then it is pure, simple negligence on the part of the news organizations and photographers and all else involved. If it's looting in one picture where it doesn't clearly show where they got it, it's looting in another.
---
Another issue has me applauding and blasting the media in the New Orleans area.
A radio station broadcast the mayor of New Orleans blasting the federal government for the lack of help. That's a positive way in which the media gets out the message from truly concerned public officials that help is needed.
Then CNN, my news station of choice (what, you were expecting Fox News?), went and pissed away air time showing President Bush hugging two victims of this tragedy.
WHO CARES?
Skip to the part where the President gets to the heart of the matter and promises the aid or whatnot. The president hugging people is NOT news.
There's so much more out there to discuss, and I'm just one man. This is a horrific tragedy and stories will pour in, both of tragedy, villainy and horror and others of wonder, joy and miracles. Let's wait and see.
- The Unrepentant Journalist
posted by The Unrepentant Journalist at 8:37 PM
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