Helicopter pilot dies in Iraq, but the news is all about Anna Nicole Smith collapsing

[MADem]

and a diapered astronaut. I just don't get it. Where the fuck are our national priorities?


http://www.townonline.com/swampscott/homepage/8998946985578856446

Harris, 27, a Marine Corps captain, was killed Wednesday while piloting her CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter about 20 northwest of Baghdad.

“She was a great kid,” said Swampscott town veterans agent Jim Schultz. “This was her third tour. She was scheduled to come home next week.”

The crash — which killed five Marines and two sailors — remains under investigation by the Pentagon, with conflicting reports over what caused the aircraft to go down. Military officials told the Associated Press that mechanical problems caused the crash, while Iraqi officials say an insurgent anti-aircraft missile struck the helicopter. A terrorist group in Iraq claimed responsibility...Swampscott hosted a “Welcome Home” party for Harris last summer and she kept in regular contact with folks back home, Schultz said.

“The Police Department sent her a care package, and she just sent one back,”....He said in exchange for the baby wipes, soap, lip balm and regular essentials desert-stationed Marines request, Harris returned the favor by sending the Police Department a package with her squadron’s T-shirts, a flag that flew over a post in Iraq, and squadron patches. The package arrived about a week and a half ago, said Schultz, who is also a Police Department detective....

[laruemtt]

1. the media has officially jumped the shark. n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. National priorities? Watching TV - 24, Lost, American Idol, game shows -

probably watching the colonic informercials, buying stuff - treating the Iraq War like it is an optional video game.

We have become hideous under this administration (though we were heading that way anyway)

[edbermac]

3. Anna Nicole collapsed? Those implants explode or something?

[MADem]

4. She might be dead.

They were doing CPR on her, and she was intubated.

I feel sorry for her, but damn. Certainly she is a celebrity, and this is news. But damn--couldn't the media spare thirty seconds for Captain Jennifer Harris in the hourly news cycle? Even fifteen seconds?

[roguevalley]

8. its not her fault and comments about implants and crap are crap.

she's the saddest damned person and she didn't ask for this. and she has a baby that will be tossed around like a football. there is nothing funny about this. I am not commenting about your comment, MADEM, but others I've seen. Somehow, her pain and suffering are funny. I agree its not deserving of constant coverage but the comments about her some are making are beneath this board in my opinion.

[MADem]

11. Yep, that kid is the 21st Century Gloria Vanderbilt.

I always did feel sorry for her, she is, or was, indeed a tragic figure. I find the comments cruel as well, even more so since she has indeed died.

[edbermac]

13. Not making fun of her death.

I thought she pulled some phony faint during the court hearing on her daughter's paternity. Didn't realize she had died. This post just said that she collapsed, which I translated as fainting.

[fooj]

5. Third tour.

:grr:

[MADem]

6. Reached at home last night, her father Raymond Harris declined to comment.

He must be...in AGONY.

It's just dreadful.

[Benhurst]

7. To be fair to our corporate news media, as grotesque as it is,

news is something out of the ordinary.

How much attention have the over 700,000 Iraqis murdered for the Bush Crime Family and the neocons received in the American press?

Another American killed in the Middle East? Get used to it. If Mad King George is not stopped by Congress, this is just the beginning -- and hardly news.

Some day the killing Bush instigated in Iraq will come to an end. Now THAT will be news.

[MADem]

12. I understand what you are saying. What makes me sad is that as a nation, we accept that this is not

'real' news. Poor Anna Nicole is news, this young lady is not.

Who would have thought, post-Vietnam, that we'd ever get to the point once again where we as a nation, said "Oh well, too bad, another one" when a 27 year old dies in a police action/war?

That's the saddest thing of all, how callous we are.

[onenote]

9. thus it ever was

Don't know how old you are, but do you think its really that different now than, say, 35 years ago? Sure, with 24 hour news channels, there is more coverage of everything, including gossip and celebrity news.

But in 1970, Americans were dying in Vietnam at an even greater rate than they are dying today in Iraq. But the national news didn't cover every death. And when Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died, I guarantee that got more attention in the national news (albeit nowhere near the attention a comparable entertainment figure's death would receive today) than any individual Vietnam casualty did at the time, or indeed at any other time during the year.

[MADem]

14. I'm old. It's probably the same, but the difference is there were no cable outlets with round the

clock news. Today, they have ALL DAY and around the clock to give a few moments to these stories, but instead, they repeat the same shit over and over and over, rather than giving us news across the wire, even the "less important" stories. To me, that should be the NEXT step in cable broadcasting, genuinely updated news and new stories, all day, every day. But I digress...

The national news was a half hour back then. Cronkite, Huntley-Brinkley. Howard K. Smith. Pick one, that was the extent of your choice, pretty much. They never dealt with names, or more correctly, rarely dealt with names, instead, it was a number. "The Pentagon has reported that 27 soldiers (they usually said soldiers even if they were Marines or Navy, or Air Force--who are not 'soldiers') have died today in Vee-et Nahm...". You might see some footage of shooting, with Dan Rather crouched behind a wall, and maybe a rare interview with a draftee who wanted to stay alive and get home.

The local news wouldn't have images, save maybe a slide of a high school or boot camp picture, they would cover the name, but often gloss over the details as well, because there were so many to report on.

When media figures like Hendrix died, it was reported. And maybe near the top of the hour. But that was it. They didn't have a story a day on it, there wasn't this shitty habit of hauling in talking heads to give their halfassed opinions about what happened, when or why, and they didn't say anything more about it unless there was something really NEW to report.

[onenote]

16. exactly

24 hour news magnifies everything. There is more coverage, more talking heads, more everything, on all stories, than there was before. And on the local news, I think I've seen more stories profiling the lives, and lost potential, of Iraq war casualties from my area than I ever saw during Vietnam.

[zulchzulu]

10. Hey, it's easier and safer not to embarrass your Master...

Every mainstream media channel has some link to a weapons-making contractor who's making some nice cash on the wars...and since the wars are going badly, why not do a simple story about someone like Anna Nicole Smith or Michael Jackson or some wacked-out astronaut... it's easier to do and makes the bad news go away...

Hmmm...what is Michael Jackson up to anyway????

:sarcasm:

[MADem]

15. They'll save him for another day--the ANS story has even eclipsed Scooter's trial.

The prosecution is resting today, ya?

[Robson]

17. Preoccupation With Celebrities & Crime

It's sad that someone as young as Anna Nicole Smith died. But that should summarize the story.

To the media, you may give us some info about her life and death, but make it reasonably short coverage today. It shouldn't be turned into a major media event. She's a celebrity who was lucky enough to get rich. Ok I sound cruel, but also sick and tired of hearing about these people as though they are Gandhi or someone that contributed immensely to the world.

Each of us should contact all the major networks and tell them we don't want to hear about Anna Nicole Smith beyond tomorrow. They'll saturate us with bs on this until we'll have to scream. We in the USA have this supposed preoccupation with celebrities probably driven by the media, that wastes far too much of the news media time on nothingness.

Instead they should be reporting on those things that make a difference to the country.

[gratuitous]

18. There's an old joke

I'll update the characters for the present day, but it's been around since at least Kennedy's time:

Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George Bush are hatching their plans for the invasion of Iraq. Rove and Cheney are in a lather, talking about all the death and destruction that's coming, as well as the unparalleled opportunity for war profiteering. Bush is sort of half-listening as he tries to get to level 37 on his X-Box game.

After a good, long bit of discussion, Bush finally turns from the game, and says, "You know, fellas, all this talk of war and stuff is great, and it sounds like a great chance for some real theft of Treasury funds. But how is the public going to feel about this?"

Cheney gives Bush a look what would curdle new milk, but Rove just chuckles indulgently. “Sir,” says Rove, “the American people won’t give a hoot about any of it, and I can prove it to you.” Bush looks doubtful, and says, “Okay, prove it to me.” Rove reaches over to the intercom on the Oval Office desk and buzzes Scooter Libby. “Scooter, you got a second?”

Libby shows up and Rove says, “We’re planning a little ramping up of the war on terror, Scooter.” Libby nods. “It looks like it could last a few years, really strip the gears of the military, bust the budget for a decade or more to come.” Libby looks highly skeptical, but says nothing. Rove continues, “We’re looking at a lot of military casualties, and even more civilian casualties.” Libby’s about to say something, but Rove interrupts him. “Oh, and one beautiful blonde will get killed, too.”

“A beautiful blonde?” says Libby. “Who?”

Rove turns to Bush and says, “See? The American people aren’t going to care about any of the rest of that stuff.”

[Auntie Bush]

19. How come the media can only talk about one subject at a time 24/7

WHY can't they spend a few minutes each night discussing the war, politics AND current events or sudden important happenings?

I've asked myself the question for years. Every single station covers the same thing. We the public get inundated in one event an starved for balance.

[Uncle Joe]

21. I believe the is reason is, there are way too many commercials,

they telecast fifteen minutes of news in a 30 minute span and even some of their news is just camouflaged commercials, also the timing of their commercials leaves one to think coordination whether voluntary or not is going on, you can flip one network to another and still get commercials, to me this seems like price fixing. I also believe most if not all the mass corporate media just want Americans to be smart enough to work and buy what they're selling and ignorant enough, not to question the powers that be.

[Uncle Joe]

20. Thanks for the thread MADem

Kicked and recommended

[northofdenali]

22. Because ANS & the diapers sell more papers and advertising.

I posted on 3 separate papers today - about the same thing.

Their readers scoffed.

So much for supporting "the troops".

:cry::cry::mad::cry::cry:

[MADem]

23. I guess you're right. It's a crying shame, though. It's almost as though

we've lost a really big chunk of our humanity and decency under BushCo. People made fun of Clinton for being 'mourner in chief' but at least when we had a tragedy, he 'represented' for us and made us realize the gravity and import of the occasion.

We don't have that anymore. No more solemnity, no more gravitas. Just meanness, snark, meaningless celebrity, and an asshole-in-chief who knows how to stand next to "the littlest firefighter" (that old retired guy who wouldn't meet the height standards in today's fire departments) and bellow threats through a bullhorn. This is the bastard who figeted and wiggled through the Pope's funeral, while his sunglassed wife chit-chatted and laughed. Two words for our leadership: No class. And since they have none, three words: No FUCKING class!

[mzmolly]

24. Such a shame.

:(

[frogcycle]

25. thanks for the thread

i have been thinking much the same, as i scramble to get photos and links to newspaper articles for my website. I posted a comment in GD this morning about the fact that we have already 30 deaths in seven days - on a pace to be the 3d worst month of the war. There was one response, and a hundred or so read it. Meanwhile there were dozens of anna nicole threads started all day long, with hundreds of responses to each, thousands of views.

How about a few DUers join with the Patriot Guard Riders in shielding the families from the westboro "church" scum? Let Anna Nicole rest in peace, and try to give a little peace to the families of the real heros.

And thanks for posting the link, I had not found one for her yet, not a photo. I just saw her name when i got home tonight.


(EDIT: this was supposed to be a response to OP, but, well, i screwed up and don't know how to move it...)