Hi. I’m getting a little bit tired of hearing the media bitch so much about the performance of the Japanese government during this earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown crisis. I know we’re always perfect here at home in response to natural disasters, but don’t rub it in; we don't want to make them feel bad. No, I’m not “on their (the Japanese government and their evil machinations) side”, but it’s just my guess that they’re kind of busy right now trying to solve problems and figure out the best course of action while also trying not to make millions of people panic.
I know that it looks a little weird to us here not to see everyone pulling their hair while running around and trampling each other to death looting everything in sight, but they do things a little differently over there. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll loot and kill when nobody’s looking, if it makes you feel any better. But this claim by the media here that the Japanese government is trying to hide the facts, etc., seems a little suspect to me. It seems like they are trying to find out what the facts are, and then what to do about it, without causing mass panic. I know that’s not the way we’re used to things over here, where the media tries to whip people up into a frenzy at the slightest provocation and spirals even the merest suggestion of a threat all out of control until they’ve gotten everyone hiding in their basement with a shotgun and a flashlight and six-months-worth of canned food piled up like a bird-blind; but can’t our news people, just for one minute, try to think about what’s best for the victims of this crisis rather than what’s best for their ratings?
Sure, you news anchors have nothing better to do all day than harass the grown-ups who are trying to actually solve the problems, but I think you’re just gumming up the works at this point. The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant isn’t going to swim over here like Godzilla and breathe atomic breath all over the United States. Even if it did, it would just be that lame Roland Emmerich Godzilla, and that one’s not even scary (or cool). So can’t we give the victims of this disaster a little bit of dignity and just leave them alone to try to get things sorted out without sticking a camera in their faces every five minutes? I trust them to do the right thing, and the media’s constant nagging can do nothing but get in their way. So please just stop with the disaster porn. Let’s do what we can to help as a nation, and pray for them. And by all means, report the facts when you have them. But enough already with the speculation and the doom-saying. Didn’t we have enough of that before?
I know that it looks a little weird to us here not to see everyone pulling their hair while running around and trampling each other to death looting everything in sight, but they do things a little differently over there. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll loot and kill when nobody’s looking, if it makes you feel any better. But this claim by the media here that the Japanese government is trying to hide the facts, etc., seems a little suspect to me. It seems like they are trying to find out what the facts are, and then what to do about it, without causing mass panic. I know that’s not the way we’re used to things over here, where the media tries to whip people up into a frenzy at the slightest provocation and spirals even the merest suggestion of a threat all out of control until they’ve gotten everyone hiding in their basement with a shotgun and a flashlight and six-months-worth of canned food piled up like a bird-blind; but can’t our news people, just for one minute, try to think about what’s best for the victims of this crisis rather than what’s best for their ratings?
Sure, you news anchors have nothing better to do all day than harass the grown-ups who are trying to actually solve the problems, but I think you’re just gumming up the works at this point. The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant isn’t going to swim over here like Godzilla and breathe atomic breath all over the United States. Even if it did, it would just be that lame Roland Emmerich Godzilla, and that one’s not even scary (or cool). So can’t we give the victims of this disaster a little bit of dignity and just leave them alone to try to get things sorted out without sticking a camera in their faces every five minutes? I trust them to do the right thing, and the media’s constant nagging can do nothing but get in their way. So please just stop with the disaster porn. Let’s do what we can to help as a nation, and pray for them. And by all means, report the facts when you have them. But enough already with the speculation and the doom-saying. Didn’t we have enough of that before?
