Monday, September 27, 2004
Connecting The Dots
In the Open Thread just below this we proposed our favorite theories as to why Florida has had so many hurricanes this summer. I must say that I'm partial to the "David Lee Roth leaving Van Halen" theory.
Tom Englehardt has a more scientifically plausible explanation and openly asks why the media isn't connecting the dots: Xtreme weather meets Xtreme media bubble.
Was the Kobe Bryant trial drama really the most important thing that Americans needed to know about? Or the Scott Peterson trial?
Doesn't the media have an obligation to serve the public interest, to inform us, to warn us, the shine a spotlight into the dark corners that self-serving politicians and their corporate backers don't want exposed?
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Tom Englehardt has a more scientifically plausible explanation and openly asks why the media isn't connecting the dots: Xtreme weather meets Xtreme media bubble.
For the first time in history, four hurricanes – Charley, Frances, Ivan (the Terrible), and now Jeanne -- have smacked into Florida's long coastline one after another in a single hurricane season (not yet over), and here's the strangest thing of all: Forget that in March Brazil experienced the South Atlantic's first hurricane ever -- Brazilian meteorologists didn't even know what to name it; or that the Atlantic coast of Canada got whacked by Hurricane Juan, "the storm of the century," late last year (and the Canadian government suspects a link to global warming); or that the United States has already experienced a record number of tornados in 2004; or that Japan has had the worst season of typhoons in memory; or that Xtreme weather events have increased in recent years across the planet, including massive flooding in Europe, Bangladesh, and China, and a deathly summer heat wave that struck Europe in 2003.
Was the Kobe Bryant trial drama really the most important thing that Americans needed to know about? Or the Scott Peterson trial?
Doesn't the media have an obligation to serve the public interest, to inform us, to warn us, the shine a spotlight into the dark corners that self-serving politicians and their corporate backers don't want exposed?
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