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so im not the only one who has a change of sentiment once things have settled down a bit
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I was pretty much cynical from the outset really.
I am glad the miners are alive, but I'm not about to pour praise upon two guys for doing what anyone would do, try to live. I haven't heard one thing from the people who toiled to free them.
This is a story about two men who happened to be caught in a situation that the media could use. Nothing is more revealing of the complete crassness and stupidity of news media than one of these 'unfolding crises/dramas/situations' that crop up every couple of years. They are perfect little packages that you can document, film, cover 24/7 from all angles and present for consumption, because make no mistake information is emphatically
not what the news is about. The news is about consumption of whatever sensational crap can be dredged up on any given day. We live in a country where the Palestinian Israeli conflict plays a distant second to the cutesy arcana of suburbia where some old lady's cat got caught in a drain. How fortunate for the industry that every now and then you get a news story that is almost a Godsend for this kind of thing, a long drawn out drama afflicting some Joe everymen that you can 'cross live to' every couple of minutes for updates. You can find out what their favourite foods are, and interview teary acquaintances about their rugged Aussie characters, you can have some perfect hair talking head babbling frenetically about how 'things haven't changed but earlier a spokesperson...' in front of ominous flashing lights.
While hundreds upon hundreds are perishing in diamond mines in Central Africa, we're all glued to the screen to watch Rod Young sing the praises of men he doesn't know, and basically talk out of his arse about how Australia is rallying around these poor battlers. The facts of the matter are completely irrelevant, nobody down at the studio really cares that this event is painfully insignificant, what matters is the spectacle, you can't 'cover' the problem of poverty, or 'put a face' on those daily dropping dead from exhaustion in the Congo, though it is infinitely more important, it's just not photogenic. So we have a news media that prioritises what is spectacular and completely unimportant over what ought to actually be of interest, fan-fuckin-tastic.
More Australians get their news from Channel Nine then from any other source...
They should be watching the fucking Simpsons...