A few metacomments about the earthquake and the media

[Duer 157099]

I took a break from DU to go watch CNN for awhile to see what they're saying about this quake.

First thing I noticed was that they showed, briefly, the press conference with Lucy Jones of USGS (or is it Caltech?), but they kept cutting away because they had to talk about something stupid or show commercials, and then they'd come back and some silly anchor woman was trying to repeat what Jones had just said, only she had no credibility whatsoever so why the hell don't they just leave the press conference footage on, rather than showing a poorly digested version of it?

God I hate the MSM.

Then this Don Lemon fellow brings somebody on (like the dingbat mentioned above) or someone else who is showing images or whatever, but Don interrupts them after a minute or so (Does Don ahve ADHD? I swear he must by that behavior!) so that he can recap what he just told us 5 minutes ago and then show us some more commercials... ad nauseum

But, what I really wanted to mention: Lucy Jones, in discussing the quake and, based on the questions she was being asked, is trying to delicately address the issue of whether we should be preparing for another, big/bigger one in the near future, as in, is this quake predictive of something coming? She's trying not to panic everybody (I hope) but she eloquently makes the comment that "When there are earthquakes, there are going to be more earthquakes" and then says "There's a 5% chance that there will be a larger quake in the next few days" (or something close to that) and I thought: "WTF? Why not report on the other half of that equation, which is that there's a 95% chance that it WON'T happen???"

Am I way off on wondering about that?

OTOH, it got me thinking about whether there actually *might* be other events triggered, which maybe I should take note of...

[wtmusic]

1. Earthquakes not happening is not news.

When she reports there's a 5% chance of an earthquake happening in the next few days, she's assuming that most people can do the math. Which may be a generous assumption, but scientists don't really care about second-guessing the psychology of their listeners.

If you live in earthquake country, be prepared. Then turn off the TV, and live life.

[Goat or Panic]

2. I saw that too

Unedited. She said that by now we're down to about a 3% chance. I thought she downplayed the possibility pretty well.

[Duer 157099]

3. I posted some more thoughts about this in another thread:

too lazy to retype it here, lol

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8088301&mesg_id=8088709

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Here is the other comment to keep perspective

they had ONE person killed in Mexicali confirmed. Watch the media breathlessly tell us how that proves we have better infrastructure...

Realize the Northride quake was actually LESS strong, and there were more people killed... and MORE people were killed.

They were also WISHING for pancakes of buildings.

[XemaSab]

14. Witness the killer tsunami that took out Hawaii last month

:P

[msongs]

5. press conf in FULL on radio every interesting for us so cal ppl nt

[Ian David]

6. She made the mistake of momentarily stepping out of frame.

She's supposed to have a hologram she can beam-in, and be able to summon 3-D Google Earth maps with a wave of her hand.

But I bet she could beat Wolf Blitzer at Jeopardy.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x373667

[Duer 157099]

9. LOL good point

Lemon freaked the hell out when she moved off camera to go to her computer "OMFG!! The viewers! Who will think of the viewers!

[marybourg]

7. Saw CNN in gym tonite for 35 min w/o sound. Didn't see 1 thing I hadn't

seen hours earlier on DU and other internet sites. Can't believe people actually pay to have this come into their homes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Here is the other addition to your meta thread

It took me a while but I found ONE Mexican station in Tijuana doing like news and shit. I also found out that the local Mexicali stations were off air, and off net...

Here is what CNN is not telling you, from listening to Civil Defense in Mexicali

2 dead
50 wounded
7.9 structural fires
2 structural failures
Hospitals are damaged but still running
Classes are canceled for tomorrow
Work is not
Convoys are leaving from Tijuana
The road that was closed is now open (rumorosa)
Oh and communications are overloaded
Power is being slowly re-established
Water mains have broken, crews are working.
First priority is life, later goes property.

Like amazing what you can learn when you actually like listen to ACTUAL news.

[ThoughtCriminal]

10. I was really more interested in finding out what was happening

in towns closer to the epicenter. Didn't care that much about swinging light fixtures in L.A. or water sloshing out of pools in Orange County. Is Mexicali that cut off from U.S. media?

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Actually the main roads leading to it were closed for a good part of the day

due to land slides and other damage, not to fear, Mexican Rescue teams, including heavy digging and rescue dogs are on their way from Tijuana.

I am also betting the Airports (Mexicali for sure, and Tijuana) were closed for a while and no, there are no flights from San Diego or points North to Mexicali... it is a tiny airport actually which is surprising for a capital city (Capital of the state)

The US also closed vehicular traffic, and so did the Mexican side and for good reasons. Due to damage to the road infrastructure you do not want more vehicles than you already have (The only exception are the Emergency Vehicles going back and forth in Mutual Aid Missions)

Now the local NBC station made it to Calexico, so I am betting they will be finding a way across by tomorrow, to scoop everybody, but not until tomorrow.

[Ghost Dog]

15. It is US media, and US mentality, that is cut off

from the world.

[Liberty Belle]

11. We have lots of coverage here: www.EastCountyMagazine.org.

Been shaking all afternoon here...some aftershocks were centered in San Diego's East County and in Imperial County. Major damage in Mexicali and a lot of damage in El Centro, some minor damage in SD County too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. When 80% of the buildings in Calexico were red tagged

that is not lots of damage, that is major damage.

:-)

Red Tag, not safe for humans to enter the structure.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/274454/

[Liberty Belle]

16. Where does it say 80% of buildings were red-tagged? I don't see in the AP story;

did they remove it or is that from another source?

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. MSNBC covered that

as well as my lovely local channel seven.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. What Lucy wants.

Dr Jones wants you to prepare. The shaking stopped, you are alive, now stop wasting time, we can not predict what comes next, but we can prepare for the possibilities as much as possible. The Great CA Shakeout is an ongoing Quake preparedness program, which as a former Californian I see as very valuable and potentially life saving. Go to http://www.shakeout.org/
and read up, learn up, gear up.