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I realise this is a horrendous tragic event which is also likely to have some unpleasant implications other that the unfortunate people who have suffered directly.
But I think we need to keep things in perspective, things like this are happening pretty much DAILY in Iraq, for example today 30 people died from car bombs and hundreds were injured. So I think some moderation of shock and awe in in order. The media is a divisive hate machine. I can imagine the news is going to be covering this story non stop for the next few weeks, to what end? To fill people with fear, suspicion and hatred.
You're right that perspective is required.
But 'divisive hate machine'? Unfashionable as it is to acknowledge it, hacks are people too. And while intellectually it's logical and reasonable and right to argue that deaths in the west shouldn't be worth more than deaths in further flung countries, your typical Anglo Saxon domestic journalist is going to relate much more readily to a pretty 29 year old bar manager who had a leg blown off and bled to death on a Boston sidewalk than to some nameless people in a village in the Pakistani tribal areas who were blown to bits by a missile launched from a drone. It's not right, but it is human. People relate quicker to what they know. And back when I first idealistically decided I wanted to be a journalist, it was because I wanted to help people relate more readily to things they wouldn't otherwise know or understand. Not everyone in the profession feels the same way, just like not everyone in the world feels the same way. The people out on the net calling for Muslim countries to be razed in response aren't people I relate to very much, and I hope the media doesn't give them too much air. But the point is that we're not some monolithic machine, far from it. There's no fucking conspiracy. Just people. Being human.
Anyway. Spare a thought for the people in Boston who lost limbs - judging from the photos I've seen, lots lost lower extremities to the blast - when you're out on your bike. And yeah, spare a thought for those living in fear, whether in countries we've fucked up or ones that have fucked themselves up. But spare a thought for the people who put themselves in danger to tell you about those fucked up places too.
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Unbelievable.
If I met that guy, he'd be sorry.
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Because sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
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you guys following this at all?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10002469/Boston-Marathon-bombs-live.html
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Not even satire:
Majority of Americans not informed enough to stereotype Chechens
And the internet gets it wrong:
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you guys following this at all?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10002469/Boston-Marathon-bombs-live.html
check the news thread from Friday
it went wild in there for a bit -
Not even satire:
Majority of Americans not informed enough to stereotype Chechens
Actually not satire:
Statement of the Ambassador of the Czech Republic on the Boston terrorist attack
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I desperately wish this was satire:
I find these people more terrifying than terrorists.
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Unfashionable as it is to acknowledge it, hacks are people too. And while intellectually it's logical and reasonable and right to argue that deaths in the west shouldn't be worth more than deaths in further flung countries, your typical Anglo Saxon domestic journalist is going to relate much more readily to a pretty 29 year old bar manager who had a leg blown off and bled to death on a Boston sidewalk than to some nameless people in a village in the Pakistani tribal areas who were blown to bits by a missile launched from a drone. It's not right, but it is human. People relate quicker to what they know. And back when I first idealistically decided I wanted to be a journalist, it was because I wanted to help people relate more readily to things they wouldn't otherwise know or understand. Not everyone in the profession feels the same way, just like not everyone in the world feels the same way.
What a weak, sycophantic excuse. If you spend 3+ years in a Western university (as these journo's do) you've had ample chance to expand your horizons and scope of empathy to include a broader spectrum of your fellow human beings than just white young professionals.
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What a weak, sycophantic excuse. If you spend 3+ years in a Western university (as these journo's do) you've had ample chance to expand your horizons and scope of empathy to include a broader spectrum of your fellow human beings than just white young professionals.
No, university largely consists of hanging out with roughly the same cohort that you'll probably end up working with, in most professions - it's not some magical place where you see the world in microcosm, far from it. And I didn't say that journalists didn't relate to a broader swathe of humanity - many do, clearly - but I did say that they related more easily to things they found more familiar. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's a far more accurate explanation of why the media obsesses over things like this than claiming that there's some conspiracy to make everyone hate, which there isn't.
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Was the whole thing staged.......a set up? I
PROOF! Boston Marathon Bombing is Staged Terror Attack - YouTube
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About
Bomb in Boston
Posted by
@Multi_Grooves
The nypost is full of shit.
They're the only ones reporting a death-toll anywhere near that high.