Corporate media strikes again

We live in a mountainous area that gets poor tv reception (no great loss) and have no satellite or cable, so we're dependent on broadcast news if we choose to see what's going on in the world. Our best reception station in an NBC affiliate out of Charlotte, NC (WCNC for those keeping score.) Tonight, they made a choice that validates my distrust of corporate media. NBC network broadcasted their evening news from the Katrina area for an hour. Our station decided to pre-empt the second half hour and broadcast a RERUN of the game show Jeopardy. This has me completely pissed off for a couple of reasons.

I think our government has failed miserably in response to this disaster. I am beginning to believe that for some sick reason there is a conscious lack of urgency in getting into those people that are in such desperate straights. There is no excuse for not getting food and water (at the minimum) to places like the convention center in New Orleans. TV news clearly shows the area adjacent to the center is dry; police and media vehicles are able to access the area. If them, then why not trucks? If not trucks, why not airlifted and dropped on the roof tops, or in the open and not flooded areas adjacent to the center. NPR correspondents IN THE BUILDING repeatedly noted the lack of water and food and the horrid conditions. Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff repeatedly refuted those observations, only to later admit they were accurate.

In another lifetime I was in the Navy for a bit. I know a little about how fast you can stage and fly supplies with helicopters, how fast you can call up a crew of 500, load a ship and take out to sea. I know how fast you can be loaded on a helicopter, flown 100 miles, and reeled down to the deck of a tiny little ship bobbing off the coast of Saudi Arabia. I know how fast a ship can be redirected to a hot spot, and how fast it can get there. In short, I have some personal experience in how fast something big can happen, IF someone wants to make the call. I suspect land forces are the same way. So my question is: WHERE IS THE DAMN CALL? And why is it taking so long to be made?

For two days, I've been reading/hearing stories that those people think they are being ignored. I am almost ready to believe them. Anyways, I digress.

I am mad that our local media is trying to divert attention. I am mad that our government is not making every effort to get to those people. I am saddened by the sight of those people, and frightened at the complete civil breakdown. So I donate, and I write. The letter below was sent to the offending station, and its competitors. I'm also posting it here, and on my Salon blog.

We have to speak up, loudly, until someone listens and help is sent, in big, endless doses. If your media outlet is doing similar diversionary tactics, call them on it. Feel free to use any part of this letter, or make up one of your own. Don't ignore it or let it pass: its how we got where we are, and what good is that?

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Sent to WCNC channel 36 in Charlotte NC 7:30 Sept 1

I am infuriated that your station chose to present a RERUN of Jeopardy in lieu of the continuing coverage of the Katrina disaster by NBC network news on Thurs evening, Sept 1. With the lives of thousands at stake, the most important effort a broadcaster can make is to keep the focus front and center and expose it to as many people as possible. Your failure to do so is morally reprehensible, and if not crimnally negligent then an ethical breakdown of great proportion. It reinforces my opinion that the corporate mass media in this country is politically and economically controlled. When so many of our countrymen are in such dire straights, and need their message seen and sent over and over the choice to ignore that need validates their ever-increasing rage. It does appear that those poor people are IN FACT being deliberately ignored.
I am quite certain this complaint will receive no attention and no response. I plan to copy it to your competitors, the Charlotte Observer and various weblogs in hopes that someone will take you to task. Much like the people in the devastated areas, I am a small, unheard voice. But I will try to be heard.
Your programming choice during this national emergency is just another example of how our corporate media fails us daily, in every way. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
We live in a remote mountain area, have no cable or satellite, and are dependent on broadcast news for information. I can't say that your competitors have done any better, as they are not viewable on our mountain. I hope they have.
Your station has failed the public. I wish it would suffer some reprecussions, but I know it will not. This is a tragedy, and will only perpetuate your lack of responsibility and accountability.

Sincerely,

Mark Boyd