treadly&me said:This death was one of nine road deaths in Queensland on the weekend. The reporting of this seems to be in stark constrast to the [cliche alert] "media frenzy" surrounding the trapped miners in Beaconsfield. In contrast 1633 people were killed on Australian roads in 2003 and in 2000 there were in excess of 14 000 car crashes involving casualties. I fail to see why this does not have the sort of national media attention that would put the recent events at Beaconsfield into the shade.
Actually, I do see why this doesn't happen - and that pisses me off all the more.
mining disasters are magnetic for news journos, and Beaconsfield was heavily driven my union activity and they fed the media constantly...?why were most of the press statements led by a union member's statement I have to ask?...
unfortunately cycling accidents are too commen, and unless it is a profile situation like Germany last year, it is small news and doesnt figure.
Today, in the SKY TV news it is claimed a new national health study announced 300 people are diagnosed with Diabetes DAILY!!!, I didnt get all the story, but this is just Australia, that too seems an extraordinary figure , alarming, and an indictment of our society, its behaviour, diet and social norms.
So down the track the potential deaths and debilitation from diabetes also makes Beaconsfield pale into insignificance. Look at it this way, down there and we have two miners , being "offered: huge payments for "their story", sure theycertainly had their lives threatened in an ordeal none of us would enjoy...but, think about it, they arent alone in death threatened by circumstance. They chose to go into a mine, were and are paid huge amounts to do so and it is their choice to do that every day.....as cyclists,(and we too chose to ride), many of us come very close daily when we too are threatened by big trucks or crazy drivers on the road.... the press dont keep things in perspective because they are driven by "sensation" and the need to incite to drive revenue daily.
I dont have a lot of time for the mainstream news media, because they have to put a spin on a story....always... we just cant get fact from them as that spoils the story they want to tell...
road deaths are horrible, thankfully overall the numbers are dropping every year ( by percentage of population anyway) , but they are still awful numbers, and when cyclists are included, this hits us close to the bone...overall road statistics on crashes and deaths are massive in the context of other "News", yet we get sensation of the moment from newspapers, because that is all they have to drive revenues daily.
I dont buy papers, rather I prefer to occasionaly tune in to news on TV, certainly not as a regular, and get really most of my news from the web , where I can cut out the [censored], determine my sources for feeds and get fact in far greater volume than spin.
I guess If I had a parrot, I would occasionally buy newpapers for him to [censored] on...
