CNN Hits Pay Dirt: AC to the Rescue!
Good News for CNN!
After days of abject non-cooperation, some of the poorest, most desperate. most God-foresaken people on earth start fighting over candles right in front of the cameras. Can you imagine such barbaric lawlessness.
Whoopee!
But have no worry. Anderson Cooper comes to the rescue!
Not only does he save an “American businessman” who clearly wanted the candles so he could sell them (instead of the looters selling them), AC also saves a bloodied little boy.
Actually, AC really didn’t do very much. He did what any decent human would do. I give him credit for that much. But then, cameras rolling, he tells the bleeding, battered little boy he is now “OK” and then, according to his blog, hands him over to a stranger and “hopes he’s OK.” No time to stop the show and make the sure kid gets any significant help.
This is what we mean by “disaster porn.”
P.S. What we really need to do is airlift a joint AIG/Goldman-Sachs team into Haiti so they can show those primitive, violent young men much more sophisticated manners of mass looting. Wielding sticks and throwing bricks is just SOOOO Third World.
P.P.S. Here are some questions that occur to me that it would be nice to have answered by some of these hero journalists:
– Five days after this catastrophe just exactly WHO has boxes of candles still for sale rather than having given them away?
– What sort of business is “Tony” the American businessman in?
– Where did he get the AK-47′s?
– What’s the deal with foreign shop owners privately arming the Haitian police?
– Are the comments underneath AC’s blog for real? Who are these folks that write such treacle?
January 18th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
“hands him over to a stranger and ‘hopes he’s OK.’”
The irony is that AC could have done the right thing AND looked like a real mensch to his viewers, sheparding the kid to certain safety and following up periodically on his new “charge.” Anderson needs to watch more episodes of “Steven Seagal: Lawman” to up his game.
January 19th, 2010 at 7:23 am
I see that the Red Cross is in the planning stage of bringing 45,000 Haitians to central Florida. Is that part of the Democrats’ strategy to tip that state in their favor? Wouldn’t New Orleans be a better place to settle them? There are plenty of vacant houses and the Haitians know how to get through hurricanes. I guess it’s too late to send them to Massachusetts for today’s vote.
Why doesn’t Cuba take the Haitians, to go along with what someone else suggested? We could let them stay in Guantanamo, but Obama said that he would empty that place by last year.
January 20th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Woody – you completely and totally lost it over at Celeste’s. I’m shocked that even a moron and weasel such as yourself would come off as badly. Great job. No one has any doubts about either your inability to defend your childish “economic theories” or the fact that your last gasp is to sink into bigotry and insanity.
The Ultimate Troll !!! You deserve an award.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:36 am
I am simply concerned that the media never really can see the whole story so the bits they see have to be sensationalized to make good TV. I find the BBC is more accurate and although I think AC has good intentions, all of CNN should be more objective.
I find it hard to figure out how the governer of PA can fly in and rescue certain orphans while other orphans and parents in the US and Canada have to wait for due diligence. CNN should investighate how politics can play such a big role when the only real concern should be ALL the kids and people of Haiti.
AC would be better served as would the people if the real story were being told and the real questions were being asked. I think CNN likes to take a lot of credit, even Larry King had folks on TV begging for help. We cannot forget that this has affected millions of very poor people as well as some tourists. But all feel the same pain, have the same loss, and are in the same dispare.
January 20th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
CNN’s coverage was so marred by self-glorifying, gratuitous and racist insensitivity on the part of Anderson Cooper (and some Larry King) that I have vowed, out of horror and disgust, never to watch Anderson Cooper again. I have turned thankfully to “Democracy Now” news instead.
And a CNN telethon to benefit the Red Cross??? Puh-lease! I know persons who worked for Red Cross (RC) when its actual aid to people in need was less than 13% of the vast millions they collect with EVERY disaster. RC built itself a brand, spanking new $500,000 building in New Orleans in association with the after Hurricane Katrina flood tragedy!
January 20th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Remember that AC doesn’t know where Indiana is (wonder what else his education missed).
Actually, AC has fantastic bladder control…..he’s got his place out there at the airport–and he can venture out to cover the troubles and make it back in time to comb his hair and…..
Give me the BBC for overall far less “breathless” coverage.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
That wasn’t blood on the boys face, it was hot sauce from the market someone through on him to burn his face and eyes
January 20th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Look beyond AC’s image and the Haiti he is reporting is real. Bewilderment, illness, injury… sheets as a roof, barefeet, rubble, blood, smoke, death, little children, aimlessness and undernorishment, look over his left or right shoulder that is the story…I think it is tough to be an honest journalist trying to tell an honest story. He and Dr. Gupta are telling a story few want to hear, understand, or act upon.
Haiti is for sale to the lowest bidder. And from my perspective, the poorest “worldwide” response to a natural disaster in my 68 years! This reporting is as far from “disaster porn” as I am from believing the moon in green cheese! Go for it CNN, Cooper, and Gupta.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:48 am
thaks reg, people like woody and that deep hated view is what is really missing this world and this nation up, yes i think the news will exploit this so i don’t watch as much, no this is not time for insensitivty,
January 21st, 2010 at 4:26 am
The disaster in Haiti needs to be reported and after having watched this disaster unfold from the very beginning I have grown annoyed with the American media using this tragedy for self-glorification. Every story being told has included some reporter injecting him/herself into the story. I am usually a fan of CNN, but sadly even they have gone overboard. Anderson Cooper has built a reputation as being this hero-reporter to the rescue and he would be damned if this tragedy be the exception. I want to hear the stories of the Haitian people and the rescue workers and the families holding out hope. I hate how less than 48 hours after this earthquake Katie Couric and the other media elite used distorted images of themselves assisting victims to promote their newscasts and respective networks. The Haitian people have been exploited enough. Hey Anderson, just simply “keeping em honest,” right?
January 21st, 2010 at 4:44 am
In all fairness, there has been some excellent reporting as well. Lester Holt of NBC News and Harry Smith are fine examples of television journalists reporting the story of the Haitian disaster. Meanwhile, Soledad O’brien, Jenna Wolfe, Jason Carroll and Anderson Cooper are too concerned with shocking images and sensationalizing this most tragic event. Soledad becoming emotional, how scripted. She is always trying to be in the story. Does anyone remember how she and Roland Martin were in such support of Rev. Jeremiah Wright until that blew up in their faces. Or Katie Couric telling the little boy to hold her hand, remember Columbine, she did the same thing then and that became one of her most memorable moments. I should also point out that the Canadian journalists have been incredible without the hype…David Commons, Paul Hunter, Tom (CTV) Susie Ormison, Danielle Hamadjhan and the Global News folks have been stellar.