Racism in the reporting of the tidal wave tragedy?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

I have the feeling that if 40,000 white people had been killed, the reporting of this would be more than just five minutes before sports and weather. My station reported "20,000 dead including 1 chicagoan" 1 Chicagoan?? Who cares! Another reporter compared it to September 11. How egocentric is that? This tragedy is beyond anything I've ever seen in my entire life. I can't comprehend the scope. It seems so wrong that it shares a headline with "Super Sales 70% off".

[Pithy Cherub]

1. The first piece of evidence was the initial lack of TV coverage

for something that impacts the planet we all share. Next media malfunction was the pictures of the tourists from western nations predominantly displayed next to the tens of thousands of others whose homes and lives were reduced to rubble. Then today, the focus on whether a Tsunami could hit the US... This is a worldwide tragedy and The US media is covering it in a style that befits their (demonstrates a lack of diversity in the production and editorial roles) very narrow base of knowledge of the world. Entirely expected and utterly disappointing.

[msgadget]

2. Perhaps that's what it takes for the media to judge a tragedy

worth covering in depth. If celebrities and wealthy tourists had been in Haiti and the Sudan perhaps the world would see enough to be more outraged and sympathetic.

[Robeson]

3. Would you expect anything different?

...These nations are not part of the Western European/American Ol' Boys Club. And who does our "media" work for? Obviously, that Ol' Boys Club. Welcome to the world, in which we live...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

4. No, but to see the machine in all its glory is still disgusting.

[Robeson]

5. No doubt. And we ARE seeing it in all its glory...

[Chovexani]

7. Disgusting isn't it?

Well they were just brown people and not even Christians. </sarcasm>

Thankfully, our local coverage of the tragedy has been a lot more balanced, due to the very large South Asian community we have here in NYC and also in New Jersey. There has been a lot of focus on connecting people with loved ones and how the South Asian community here in the Tri-State area has been fundraising, etc. I donated some money to a local Buddhist temple in Queens due to a report on the local news about local fundraising efforts.

It's been a breath of fresh air compared to the relentless focus CNN/M$RNC/Faux has placed on blonde haired blue eyed tourists from Sweden. Yes, their stories are important and what they went through was also horrific but over 100,000 Indonesians alone died--whole villages were just washed away into the sea--and no one seems to care about that.

[Swamp Rat]

6. Yep.

Racism could very well affect the agenda of the media Moguls.

Rawanda... where? Who? What?

[FrenchieCat]

8. Darfur?

Dar for what?....most don't even know....

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. There was a white yuppy-ish couple being interviewed.

Apparently the hotel where they were staying (which was fine by the way) couldn't sell them water anymore a few days after the tsunami hit. The horror.

This is still not getting anywhere near the coverage that September 11 got. By my reasoning, the media has an equation of 1 white person = 100 brown people.