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Tuesday, December 28, 2004

DISASTROUS COVERAGE
This weekend's devastating earthquake-tsunami combo in Southeast Asia has prompted some questionable coverage within the, ahem, 'journalistic' community. Perhaps leading the pack is today's New York Daily News, which manages to lead not with the tens of thousands dead but rather the remarkable survival of supermodel Petra Nemcova. Yes everyone, you can rest easy, Petra is a-ok... and hey, she's single now! Shame on you Daily News...

... and shame on me for making that joke.

To make up for my crass insensitivity, I've donated to AmeriCares relief effort. Here are a few other places you to can go to help:
B'Nai B'rith
Project Hope
UNICEF
World Concern
World Vision
A Full Roundup of Organizations

(All joking aside, the sheer magnitude of this disaster and its heartbreaking toll is almost unfathomable -- please do anything you can to help, every little bit counts)

Ok, now back to our own questionable coverage. A story in this morning's Washington Post truly outlined the horror of the tsunamis and detailed their tragic impact on ordinary, everyday citizens:
WELIGAMA, Sri Lanka, Dec. 26 -- Disaster struck with no warning out of a faultlessly clear blue sky. I was taking my morning swim around the island that my brother Geoffrey, a businessman, had bought on a whim a decade ago and turned into a tropical paradise 200 yards from one of the world's most beautiful beaches.
It is truly horrific to think that even the personal island playgrounds of some of the world's wealthiest individuals weren't spared by the wrath of the tsunamis, isn't it?

MORE Questionable Coverage
Oprah's Gay Designer Survives Tsunami (CNN)
U2's Adam Clayton Missing? (Craig's List)
Tucker Carlson interviews
heavy-drinking, Hitler-obsessed eyewitness; expresses concern that the Hamptons may be next. (CNN, full transcript)
Gawker's Full Roundup
Low Culture: How You Too Can Earn a Paltry $15 Million

Comments:
What's questionable about CNN's coverage of designer Nate Berkus surviving this horific disaster? They do not go overboard and mention his sexuality (as you do). A great many people know who Nate Berkus is and this is simply a way of bringing the story closer tto home by relating ti to someone that many people feel they know. Why label your link as Oprah's GAY Designer.
 
My apologies, but please blame Gawker as I cribbed the headline from them. (see the "Gawker's Full Round-up" link above for the source) Regular readers know that I would never call out someone's sexual preference for a cheap laugh... ok, that's a lie, but still, I'm a friend to the gay community, I swear! So just shut up and donate to the cause already.
- jed

(on the upside, your comment not only means someone is reading my blog, but the fact that I offended you must mean I'm no my way to stardom!)
 
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