Comments on: New York News

By: Joanie

Joanie — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:54:59 +0000

When I first heard about the accident and the news people were wondering if it was a terrorist attack, my first thought was how dumb are these people. When I heard it as a small, single engine plain, I blew it off and quit listening. I feel the government over-reacted in that they deployed fighters over several cities. Since I have heard comments on the news from several private pilots of small single engine planes complaining about restricted air space, saying that some of the areas verge on being rediculous, they are so large.

By: fshk

fshk — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 17:51:45 +0000

Hmm. The New York blogs and the baseball blogs were all over the story, understandably. I blogged about it because I’m a New Yorker and a Yankees fan, so it seemed relevant, plus I found out about it before a lot of other people I know did because a friend from out of town who couldn’t remember where my office was called to ask if I was okay before any of the facts were really known.

I haven’t looked much beyond local news sources, so I had no idea the righties went bonkers. That strikes me as odd; it was ruled an accident fairly early, plus righties mostly show animosity towards New York unless there’s something they can exploit… oh, wait. But I don’t really see the value in flogging the story. Are the righties trying to tell us now we should be afraid of small planes piloted by baseball players?

By: Tom Hilton

Tom Hilton — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 17:25:10 +0000

I think the fear issue is a big part of it. That said, it was also a Big Story because the pilot was a pitcher for the New York Yankees (who were just eliminated from the playoffs). I don’t follow sports, but lots of other people do.

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:14:09 +0000

Addicted to fear? Adrenaline rushes? I read somewhere that adrenaline is designed for emergencies, after which the physical body must neutralize [by shaking, and other metabolic processes] whatever adrenaline still circulates, because adrenaline is toxic.

Watching the fear-mongerers…… I can believe that addiction to adrenaline rushes does lead to chronic toxicity….. especially poisoning healthy mental function.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:23:32 +0000

Besides the above, baseball player stories are nearly as good as MWM (missing white women). Plus, it’s probably a relief for these people not to have to strain their (limited) imaginations coming up with some way to spin whatever into “good” news for the Right.

Yeah, even Wolf spent 2 hours on it, and Cafferty dredged deep to come up with apropos questions. Well, I caught up on some reading.

By: ironranger

ironranger — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:57:56 +0000

Yeah, cnn, etc showing images all day sure seemed like catering to the fear factor to me.

By: maha

maha — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:45:53 +0000

Spades, I think you’re on to something.

By: Che Pasa

Che Pasa — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:44:45 +0000

Re: Spades R. Spades @ 10:13a Exactly. In fact, just that element of FEAR was being retailed throughout the rightie's realm -- even going so far as to claim that the act was deliberate, a hideous choice to cause as much destruction as possible by a clearly deranged pilot, even if that pilot was a famous baseball player, and even if the evidence shows it was an accident. Doesn't matter. Because the issue is the FEAR that can be whipped up by incidents like this, fear of the deliberate actions of deranged people, in other words, anybody can be (and probably is) a terriss at heart and will use any opportunity available to kill you!!! Media in general loves FEAR. Fear sells. Fear of spinach, vaccines, terriss, it all runs together in the media, because FEAR is such a winner in their minds. And no matter what we say about it, most of us are vulnerable to the FEAR ploy.

By: Swami

Swami — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:31:00 +0000

Here in Tampa, talk radio maximized the possible terrorist angle. One call-in listener suggested that we consider the possibility that the crash might be a terrorist probe to guage our lastest Homeland Security defenses…..Dood..get a drug!

By: Spades R. Spades

Spades R. Spades — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:13:40 +0000

Perhaps the most plausible explanation revolves around the whole Fear Issue. Even an event quickly determined to be an accident can still be quite usefully exploited and beaten to death by the usual culprits if for no other reason than to not so subtly remind everyone that it COULD have been an act of terror…while simultaneously being at least somewhat reassuring that it wasn’t. People can then be thankful and releived in general terms…but that always handy specter of fear still is as maintained as it is reflected by this tragic event.
Besides…in these days and times…it has, for many, become a virtually inbred/induced Pavlovian response to instantly think that most anything that crashes or blows up somewhere is surely the handiwork of The Bad Guys.