Patrick Morgan
895 Church St.
Bullhead City, Az. 86442

Patrick Morgan
895 Church St.
Bullhead City, Az. 86442

But does the consument really care about why somebody robbed a bank or feel with the family and friends? In my opinon, NO. It is all that much superficial, it just has to look spectacular. We people in Europe are generally told that Americans are “very kind, but a bit superficial”. Maybe this cliché is right… I just watched the movie “Blood Diamond” (a masterpiece, really!). When they arrive at a refugee camp with 1′000′000 people, Jennifer Conelly says “Maybe you get a 2-seconds glance of that at CNN between the Sport and the News”. The bad thing about the movie is, that the situation is damn true.

TV choppers should right now head to Africa, to the Middle East or similar destinations instead. It happens so much shit in Africa alone and nobody cares about… In some countries in Africa are probably more rapes and children murders in one day than in one year in NY. But one case in NY gets more attention than ten years of civil war in africa. A child’s death is tragical in NY and in Africa, but I call everyone a racist who thinks that the American child is more important.

These stupid pursuits on TV and the lack of media interest on developing countries has the same reason: It is both just because of this unbelievable superficiality. And that’s a problem of the whole society.

ps: sorry for my English…! As you probably noticed, it is not my native language.

I have to agree that my earlier comment was incorrect in assigning blame to the helicopter pilots out there — they are doing their jobs, feeding their families, etc. That’s fine. My beef really is with the nitwits at the top of the commercial news foodchain. I guess in a way you could say they’re just doing their jobs, too.

But someone, somewhere along the line has to take some responsibility for the abhorrent condition of TV news. Someone needs to stand up and say, “No, I’m not going to put a helicopter in the air just because O.J.’s driving his Bronco down the freeway.” Please, for the love of democracy, put those dollars into doing investigative journalism or simple local coverage — on the ground, literally. Keep me informed on issues that matter to the future of my family and community.

And yes, the time for that debate is right now — not after the funeral, not after we’ve forgotten about this incident. If there’s a breaking story here, it’s the collision followed by an immediate grounding of all choppers and a serious public debate over the value of such “coverage.” Does the public really benefit from this chopper mania? Should the stations just get their insurance dollars and buy new choppers and start all over again?

I know, I know — we won’t see real change. The gyros will keep spinning up. The chases will go on. “Max X” needs its video clips and CNN anchors need to be able to say “…well, we can’t quite tell what’s going on… there’s a lot of smoke… we’re told there’s been a crash… we’ll — wait… uh… we’ll go to commercial and come back with more in a moment…” Sad.

Ya know, I recently re-watched a Season 1 episode of the new Battlestar Galactica and it speaks to this situation in a way. It’s the one where Apollo blows up a civilian transport on orders from his father. There’s a scene at the end where Dad comes in and tries to comfort Apollo by saying, “I gave the order to shoot. It’s not your responsibility.” Rather than being relieved Apollo responds, “But I’m the one that pulled the trigger. And that’s my responsibility.”

So here’s a question… In the wreckage of these two helicopters and their destroyed lives, who gave the orders to shoot and who pulled the trigger?

And people like the anonymous one are probably a product of the (international compared) bad school basic education or other problems which should be in the media instead… Wake up, America!

Isnt it a bit strange that KTVK.com’s lead story is about the crash (and it’s employees) followed by death of the Police Officer. This further proves its time for the station’s staff to think about what it’s doing to serve the community. It’s also time for stations to stop the non-stop coverages of police chases.

The car chase suspect was a menace. A police helicopter needed to be up there to coordinate the police pursuit. One media helicopter needed to be there to alert the public. Four other copters needed to be on stand-by at Scottsdale Airpark to relieve the pool copter if the chase continued. That reasonable, intelligent approach would have saved the lives of four distinguished, intelligent news professionals.

Oh, but wait, we’re talking about the idiotic TV and newspaper news industry, aren’t we? The one where industry leaders like Knight Ridder implode in a shareholder revolt, and Tribune sells itself to a Chicago parking lot king in a fire sale. Yeah, those are the brainless ones.

ps. i can’t say i’m in total agreement with john, but i’ll side with his right to post his view wherever…

Everyone else, please ignore John the Troll, whose self-preservation is indicative of today’s societal ills.

The thinking goes like this: “You got what you deserved.”

How many brainless TV stations and copter pilots have been chasing high-speed pursuit stories for how many years, dumbing down TV news to the point of hillybilly antics and subjecting the thinking sector of the public to this moronic display? Argh!

I’m sorry it had to be these particular men at this particular time — but it had to be somebody sometime. Here’s hoping these deaths will send a signal to TV stations across the country that this kind of “news coverage” is meaningless drivel and isn’t worth the fuel or manhours or deaths expended.

Spend that money covering the police officer killed in the line of duty. Cover the funding problems of a local charity. Do investigative journalism on corrupt politicians. The copter shots of snarled traffic and pursuits don’t enlighten civic dialogue, solve problems or bring the community together.

Here’s to more copters falling out of the sky. Preferably with soft — and permanent — landings.

This happened on live television, even though viewers of either station didn’t see the actual crashes. There was no way to downplay it.

It also happened right in downtown Phoenix, not out in the middle of the desert.

Now, if you’re complaining about the amount of coverage on stations outside of the Phoenix market, I may be inclined to agree with you. But, then, I’m not a news person.

With that said, i find it odd the amount of attention all the TV stations devoted to this unfortunate accident. What if the people in the copters were NOT TV people. Do you think it would get more than a 2 minute story? Seems like news is really only news if it involves News people. All the stations should be ashamed at the amount of coverage.