Is it just me, or is this bridge collapse getting proportionately more news coverage than it really should? I understand it’s a tragedy, but we have 5 confirmed deaths, and only 8 more missing people, and yet 2 days later, it’s still getting about 90% of Headline News’ coverage. Have I become inured to death and tragedy, or are they really playing this up to the exclusion of whatever else is going on in the world?
I think it’s sort of a combination of people’s fears combined with the rare yet stunning pictures.
5 dead in a highway accident wouldn’t get as much attention. But a bridge falling into the Mississippi River? The photos are just unbelievable and I think that’s a big part of it, news is very visual these days, and an Interstate bridge in a river provides some shocking images.
I don’t think it’s just about the number of people who’ve died. It’s the unexpected nature of it, the implications for other cities, etc. I don’t want to sound callous here - and I know how bad this sounds - but most people expect a certain amount of death in Iraq right now. They also expect a certain amount of death through car accidents - if this is a normal week, far more people will die from car accidents than from the bridge collapse (see http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/) but that isn’t getting any press.
This is new, and it’s got a sort of randomness that we’re not used to. It’s also the sort of thing that you hear about and immediately go and turn on the news.
So, I’m not surprised by the amount of press it’s getting. I’m not saying that it’s the correct balance, just that it’s around what I expected.
-charles
I think it means that nothing new that is ‘‘worthy of news coverage’’ is going on in the world. Pretty sad.
Thankfully I am out of the country and do not have to watch CNN 24/7, with Anderson Cooper talking non-stop about this accident. I just don’t get it either, why everyone jumps in front of the camera to be heard whenever there is a tragedy.
Today, there were 4 more American deaths in Iraq, almost an afterthought on the news, the same number as killed in Minnesota.
I realize it’s not just about numbers but the sensationalism and everyone clamoring to get on T.V and be heard is sickening. There are people interviewed who say things like “I was on the other bridge and then I heard a bang, and the bridge was gone.” Wow, that is riveting. I also wish people would be more respectful of those family members who lost loved ones. Camera crews are parked in front of their homes and reports can’t wait to ask them questions. All the reports talk non-stop about how “we have to respect those who lost their lives” and then can’t wait to interview their neighbors/friends/dog walker/gardener to ensure they are also told how we have to “respect their privacy.”
If they really want to respect privacy, turn off the cameras.
Finally, we are now going to have politicians promising billions of dollars to check every bridge in America and then the endless debate about spending money in Iraq instead of on bridges, government waste instead of on bridges etc, etc. This will last until their is a train wreck, and it will be repeated with questions about why we don’t spend more on trains and how this tragedy could have been avoided.
The whack-a-mole strategy we engage in over in Iraq to fight insurgents is also done here whenever there is a tragedy. My question is, why don’t we address problems before there are accidents? There were a number of failing grades on our infrastructure (I heard it on CNN so it must be true, since they talked about it 14 times yesterda :)), so why wasn’t anything done then?
Get ready for countless hours of the blame game with politicians falling over themselves to promise more spending on infrastructure.
It’s all quite predictable and silly.
I’ve managed to avoid all but about 15 minutes of TV coverage of this story but I do have to say that this story has much more going for it than most of those that get the 24/7 treatment. Just about everyone drives over or under a bridge regularly and we certainly don’t expect them to just suddenly and completely fall down. Its a fairly unique situatation (unlike a car accident) yet it could have been any of us on the falling bridge. Couple that with the fact that we don’t know why it fell; its starting to look like “officials” may have known it was not completely safe; and the whole “crumbling infrastructure” issue and you have a perfect storm of endless talk about who did what and why and how it happened, etc. Sure, the talking heads won’t stop talking but at least there are some fairly interesting issues for them to talk about here.
While other stories may deserve more coverage, the fact is that as far as TV news is concerned its either this or Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan or the latest child murder mystery so I’ll take the bridge collapse any day 
A couple months ago, we turned off CNN, Fox, and Msnbc, and decided to stick with the evening news, the Daily Show, and The Economist. Absolutely no difference in how well we’re informed about world affairs.
I think that stories that remind us how fragile everything we count on makes for big stories. Now 9/11 was big in alot of ways but just think how a bunch of nut cases get in some airplanes and changed our society and the fallout from that just keeps on going years later. I think we were all scared then because something we probably hadn’t dreamed of happened right before our eyes.
The part of the coverage that strikes me is that looking at the bridge pictures, theres another bridge right next to it. I live on Galveston Island and theres one bridge (actully theres another small one lane toll bridge on the west end of the island) that thousands of people use every day. Theres the port of Galveston, the University of Texas Medical Branch, a college and tons of other business and if that one bridge fell down or blew up, it would create major, major problems. Things that make us stop and think make for big stories and I guess thats not a bad thing.
Look on the bright side, at least we don’t have to hear about Lyndsey Lohan 
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Paris Hilton has been staying home? Lindsay Lohan’s troubles aren’t interesting enough? If only Par-Ho and Loh-Ho had been near the bridge…
Yes, it’s true, there IS another bridge there–but that’s a local, “in-town” bridge, so to speak. It is NOT a major artery, nor is it an interstate freeway.
In the Twin Cities, as I would imagine like in many larger cities, travel around town is done primarily via the freeways. It’s how we commute, how we go from one side of town to the other, etc. For the vast majority of us, we’re not going to drive that way to go anywhere.
The I35W brisge IS the bridge that takes thousands of Twin Citians into Downtown, or to the U, or to the Metrodome. It’s a major artery, and not only going to be a huge snafu for those whose route is directly affected, but also for everyone else on the other already over-crowded freeways who will now have to absorb the extra traffic.
And, FWIW, I think the coverage amount is influenced because there was no earthquake or terrorism or assassin or boat hitting this bridge. It wasn’t even like the Sago mine disaster, which was (no matter how tragic) sort of an occupational hazard. There was NOTHING. It was there, life was normal, and then, 30 seconda later, it wasn’t.
It was a complete and total random freak accident that, for as far as it looks to all of us, had NO apparent cause.
So take that, the truest representation of “there but for the grace of god” that I have seen in a long while (if not ever in my life), and pair it with all the politics that will undoubtedly go hand in hand with it eventually…and you have a national media melee.
For you all, it seems distant and remote, I’m sure. But for those of us who had a landmark so constant it was virtually unnoticeable suddleny disappear, taking our friends, family, and neighbors down with it…well, it’s disconcerting to say the least.
(And to add a disclaimer, yes. I DID know someone, family, in fact, who was on the bridge–although I was unaware she had been there until the following day. She is fine, for the most part. :-))
Why don’t they talk about all the bridges than HAVE NOT collapsed!!
Why don’t they talk about all the bridges than HAVE NOT collapsed!!
Well, we’re getting a heavy dose of that here. Our stations have moved into “regional emmy” mode (as I call it) and are driving around filming the undersides of all our bridges, showing chipped concrete, exposed rebar, etc. Cut to an interview with a local official assuring us all is well. Cut to another interview with a man wearing a dirty wife beater saying “I drive over that there bridge every durn day!”
I drove over a bridge today in Chicagoland that was apparently given a failed rating by someone or another. I hope it’s not that huge one on 80/94 that goes over the giant rock quarry. Can’t imagine the carnage if that gave away – think 8-10 lanes plunging into the bottom of a rock pit. Ouch.
**I think it means that nothing new that is ‘‘worthy of news coverage’’ is going on in the world. Pretty sad. **
To look at it from a different perspective … Since most news is Bad News in the form of crime, conspiracy, war, death, scare tactics, etc … that this is dominating the headlines for a few days, that’s probably a good thing.
We’ll get back to blaming the president, celebrities and drug problems, the latest health scare, some emotional story about immigration - healthcare - abortion, etc, some political scandal, etc soon enough.
I haven’t been watching the news at all (only when I want to be depressed and feel like the world is ending), I found about this because a Twins baseball game was cancelled.
I’m tired of “news”.
It kills me to give credit to the media, but this is a really important story. It is not really a story about this particular bridge. It is a story about the American infrastructure, which is not in very good shape. A collapsing bridge gets that message across. Should our over capacity electrical switching and distribution system shut down he random state, that would make even better video.
Saying this is no big deal is about the same as your saying that 9/11 was no big deal. It is not about one bridge or one airplane. It is about a serious problem that if left unaddressed could result in lots of airplanes and lots of bridges.
“Saying this is no big deal is about the same as your saying that 9/11 was no big deal.”
Ok, now that’s funny.
“It is not really a story about this particular bridge. It is a story about the American infrastructure, which is not in very good shape.”
Yeah, but that’s not the story they’re covering. They’re covering the story of the paraplegic who wheeled himself away from his trcuk, and they’re repeating the number of casualties repeatedly, and they’re showing that firefighter woman who’s swimming around as part of the search team. The infrastructure part is a very minor part of the coverage this is receiving.
I see lots of coverage how this bridge is rated the same as any other number of bridges. I am not watching the 24 hours TV news, but, on balance, what I have read is pretty good and long over due.
I do laugh at the politicians who are saying this is all Bush’s and Iraq’s fault though. I guess the last highway bill just wasn’t enough of a pig.
"I am not watching the 24 hours TV news, but, on balance, what I have read is pretty good and long over due. "
Ok, but I was specifically talking about the 24 hour news channel coverage. That’s why I mentioned it in the opening post.
24 hour news coverage is always inane. There simply isn’t that much news, so they have to fill the time with repetitious tripe.
I have given up on TV news completely.
Why don’t they talk about all the bridges than HAVE NOT collapsed!!
I got a laugh out of this, though I’m not entirely sure what you intended your post to mean.
My first thought was with regard to, “Why do they only show the bad news about Iraq? What about all the good deeds our soldiers are doing.”
Here we’d have, “Why doesn’t the news focus on what a great job our highway departments and civil engineers are doing with all the bridges that don’t colapse?”
Actually, this was quite a big deal over a century ago. Before engineers discovered fatigue in metal, iron railroad bridges were colapsing at a rate of 1 in 4!!!