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Bridge Over Troubled Waters

August 2nd, 2007. Published under General. 8 Comments.

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard about the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that crosses the Mississippi River. It’s hard to not know about it due to the near inexhaustible coverage being given to this story.

I spent most of the evening on the couch with Tim, a glass of wine, the television on and my laptop open instant messaging people and making quick posts on the pertinent online sites to let people know I was ok and finding out if everyone else was ok. I even sent a text message on my phone to a friend - and you all know how much my very being repels text messaging.

It was great seeing ordinary people stepping up when the shit hit the fan to help others in need. I also got a taste of the nature of the news media, who are nothing but a bunch of sharks who smell blood in the water.

With this being in my backyard, and mere blocks from where I work (I can see the south end of the collapse from the windows on my floor) I’m getting a bit incensed with all of the reporters whose sole purpose in this situation is to find the most salacious, the most juicy and the most sensational details of the story. I keep hearing reporters asking officials over and over if this collapse was “OMG TERRORISTS!!!1!!one!” and having to hear these officials, with exasperation in their voices, to keep saying “no…we believe this was a structural failure”.

These same reporters, when not given the nugget of tabloid glory that they so hoped for, then start asking about the gory details of the (as of now) 4 people that have died in this accident. Wanting to know just how they died and “please tell us in detail” what happened to them. Thankfully the spokespeople at the hospitals in the area are keeping things respectful and only are giving out the bare minimum of information about those poor people.

THEN … when that avenue of questioning doesn’t work, they start in on the officials and spokespeople themselves, asking them to “tell us how YOU feel” about the whole thing. Again, hoping to get some great soundbite and some awesome video of a teary-eyed official breaking down over this whole tragedy, the national news media fails to realize that us Minnesotans, while we do love to slow down to “rubberneck” at an accident, are also from the land of Lutherans* where they don’t show emotion to strangers, or most people. Granted, that’s a generalization, but if the spokespeople and officials are any indication, they’re not going to lose it on national television.

There’s a discussion in the Twin Cities community on Live Journal about the “coverage” of the story. My favorite quote: “Welcome to the wonderful world of disaster porn.”

And if I hear ONE MORE PERSON comparing this to “9/11″, I’m going to fucking lose it. It’s a bridge collapse - one that happened to an old bridge (that had some suspect structural integrity) that was under construction and it had just collapsed. There are NO similarities to 9/11 anywhere in this situation, unless you count that both incidents had dead people. Nothing else. We’re not under attack. We’re not all going to die. The bridge collapsed, you weren’t on it and we’ll all be fine.

I just got this email on my work account from a co-worker:

If anyone has an interesting personal story about the 35W bridge collapse, or has a friend or family member who was involved and has something interesting to say about it, I’ve been contacted by both CNN and Fox News with a request to pass on to them with contact information for anyone I become aware of whom they might want to put on TV. If you know of someone, especially someone who hasn’t already been interviewed, let me know.

Good lord - when will it stop?

Mourn the dead, heal the wounded - but get your goddamn cameras out of our faces.

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*-Go listen to a Prairie Home Companion if you don’t believe me.