Columnist Asks Why MSM Isn’t Covering Haiti Disaster (But Anderson Cooper Is Still There)

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by Frances Martel | 1:46 pm, February 10th, 2010

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Big Journalism correspondents usually stick to pointing out often legitimate spin against the right wing in the mainstream media, but Archy Cary went one step further to analyze the well-documented media bias against victims of natural and political disasters.

Asking “Has Haiti Fallen Victim to the MSM’s Short Attention Span?”, Cary notes that the media has been unreliable in following up on the victims of massive humanitarian disasters in the past, specifically in the Cambodian genocide perpetrated by the radical leftist Khmer Rouge. But he called out one journalist who is sticking with the story.

Cary is generally correct in his assessment. But then he proceeded to berate American journalists for repeating history:

Remember how, against the backdrop of Caribbean foliage, CNN’s Anderson Cooper breathlessly reported the earthquake carnage? Remember how NBC’s Brian Williams did a touch-and-go at the Port-au-Prince Airport – the big dog reporting live from Haiti in casual attire? Remember how FOX’s Shepherd [sic] Smith tried, on-air, to facilitate the transfer of an adopted Haitian child to the U.S. couple who lacked only a signature from the U.S. Department of State to bring the child to America? Shep to the rescue.

The problem with this accusation is that the reason our memory of Anderson Cooper breathlessly reporting the earthquake carnage is so vivid is because he is still doing that on his program to this day. Cooper returned to New York for a week to anchor his show, but went back to Haiti this weekend. He wrote a blog post explaining that he left because he “needed a break,” but his conscience wouldn’t let him leave the story to die with its victims. Here is a clip of Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta shamefully ignoring the Haitian disaster last night:

Yes, the media has a history of exploiting disasters rather than helping to pick up the pieces, but Cooper has been one of the few to remain loyal to the people whose plight he has helped broadcast around the world, and deserves a little more respect for his work than being called out for not paying enough attention to something he has been covering almost exclusively on his program.

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Fidoohki

I honestly think that the MSM doesn’t want to be seen as ‘exploiting’ those tradgeties. I could be wrong though.
libra blue

It isn’t the MSM’s short attention span, it is the short attention span of their channel surfing, celebrity obsessed, reality show loving viewers that they are desperate to “satisfy,” evidenced by the less than spectacular ratings that AC360 has been getting during their continuing reports on the quake aftermath.

I have mixed feelings about CNN’s coverage of the Haitian tragedy which I believed crossed the line into exploitation with the telethon and their continued repeated showings of Anderson’s “rescue” of a young boy, but I think Anderson did the decent thing by returning to Haiti this week.

The blog he posted about his return even sounded like the pre-celebrity Anderson of Katrina fame. Maybe he still has a bit of the “true” journalist left in him after all.