Compared to Katrina hitting New Orleans are the people of Nashville a bit to “white” for our government or media to care? (Please, someone of a “correct racial background” stand up and get Nashville some attention and help!)
NewsBusters on Wednesday shared a truly heartbreaking video with its readers dealing with the Nashville flood that so many people in the nation hadn’t heard about due to the media’s focus on the Gulf oil spill and Faisal Shahzad.
News outlets are beginning to try to explain to their patrons why such a devastating event got so over-shadowed.
On Thursday, Newsweek’s Andrew Romano offered his view on why this disaster was a tad swept under the rug.
Unfortunately, I think many people not only aren’t going to buy his explanation, but will likely find it quite offensive:
First, the modern media may be more multifarious than ever, but they’re also remarkably monomaniacal. In a climate where chatter is constant and ubiquitous, newsworthiness now seems to be determined less by what’s most important than by what all those other media outlets are talking about the most. Sheer volume of coverage has become its own qualification for continued coverage. (Witness the Sandra Bullock-Jesse James saga.) In that sense, it’s easy to see why the press can’t seem to focus on more than one or two disasters at the same time. Everyone is talking about BP and Faisal Shahzad 24/7, the “thinking” goes. So there must not be anything else that’s as important to talk about. It’s a horrible feedback loop.
Hmmm. The “Everyone Is Only Covering These Stories So We Must As Well” defense.
Anybody buying that?