shakran

Now that you're agreeing with the rant, let's hear some suggestions from you as to what we can do?

How is the guy reporting outside of the superdome supposed to get people off roofs? He doesn't have a helicopter. And the news choppers that are down there 1) don't have winches on them, so they can't pull anyone off a roof, and 2) generally can't carry more than 3 people. Dunno if you noticed but the army and coast guard choppers that are down there are BIG damn helicopters. They've got 12-passenger Bell 212's and coast guard versions of the Blackhawk. News choppers are almost always small. Nothing bigger than a Jet Ranger. Counting the pilot and the guy running the nonexistant winch, we have room left for 1 guy - the guy that goes down on the end of the nonexistant winch to secure the victim in the rescue harness. That leaves no room for the victim.

So now that we've established the news choppers can't do anything, please tell me how exactly we as the media are supposed to get anyone off of a roof?

And elsewhere in the city, what are we to do? I'm a TV news photographer. I've spent years learning how to tell stories in a visual medium. None of my continuing education in this field has included fixing broken gas lines, pumping water out of a city, performing arial rescues, or clearing the dangerous snakes out of the water.

News operations aren't set up as rescue operations. Even if we want to (and believe me, every time we cover a disaster we want to help) we do not have the ability to help. If we do have the ability to help, and if that help isn't already coming from somewhere else, we will help.


I'm REALLY tired of newscrews being portrayed as heartless jackasses who delight in human misery. It's simply not true, and in my experience most of the people who run around saying that are just jumping on the popular "I hate this group of people because other people do" bandwagon.

It's just like lawyers. Everyone LOVES to rag on attorneys until they find themselves needing one. Then suddenly they're crawling to the lawyer's door begging him to solve their legal problems.

And before we get too worked up railing on the media, let's remember that it was the media that got the hurricane warnings out so that towns knew to evacuate. It is the media that is telling the rest of the country what is happening down there, which is having the direct result of rallying communities nationwide to donate time, effort, and money to help the victims of this storm.

When I cover a hurricane, I figure I can either drown trying to help one guy off a roof (as though he'd come with me when I told him we'd have to swim for it), or I can do my job, get the story out, and let the rest of the country see what's happening and what is needed, so that they can decide what to give to help recover from the disaster.

Oh and by the way, FYI the CBS chopper, while it can't pull people off the roof, is dropping bottled water down to the people while they wait on the roof for the rescue choppers to get to them. So yes, the heartless media is doing what they can to directly help out.