Some lives worth more than others?

RMCF

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Don't want to come across as anti-American here, but I am always baffled as to why some people get more news time when something happens to them than others.

Example1: Hurricane Katrina. Apparently the final death toll is less than 1000 but it was on the news for more than a week solid.

Earthquake in Pakistan - death toll more than 19,000. Got 1 days coverage in news and basically have now moved on to other things.

Example2: Tsunami last year in which a lot of Western tourists were killed. Coverage for weeks on end.

There was an earthquake/bad flooding in Bangladesh about a year before which killed numbers greater than the tsunami yet the coverage was again for 1 or 2 days.

Are some lives more important than others?
 
yup mine is more important than anyone elses, thats the way i like it and thats the way its staying :D

but yea i know what you mean, news means more when it involves your own, i.e london bombings, 911 etc etc you can only hear "car bombing in kabul" so many times before you switch off
 
its a good point, Hurrican Katrina went on for ages and ages, yet there hasnt been no way near as much converage, also Pakistan isnt the richest country in the world and there have been no immediate efforts to help them
 
SOK said:
Are some lives more important than others?

No. But some get more news time.

Watch the coverage increase if Britons are found among the dead.
 
Well, considering that most media companies are either from the US or the EU, its pretty obvious that they are going to cover their own people more than people from another country.
 
stuff you see on the news is bullocks. when you think of it, people work on general 9-5 jobs or some type of 30-40 hour a week schdule, on top of that, you would have a family life, kids etc if not, then youd persue in other activities, going out etc. so everything people would see on the news, would be taken at face value because there is no time to research and seek the truth on the subject

there is a good video on the net called, the revolution will not be televised and shows how the media twsited and lied in a story covered, as above, the media in that country will cover up the truths in order to meet the governments aims and educate people differently. have a look for the video and watch it.

the media is fvked!!!!!!!!!
 
shahedz said:
there have been no immediate efforts to help them

British rescue workers are continuing the hunt for survivors two days after the South Asia earthquake, which has so far killed more than 19,000 people.
Search teams are aiding the effort in Pakistan's capital Islamabad and rural Kashmir, while Oxfam has sent engineers to help the sanitation effort.

Meanwhile, an umbrella group of 13 UK charities is considering whether to launch a joint appeal for donations.

The government has so far pledged nearly £1m to the relief operation.

"And as we respond to the requests for help then the sum that we commit will rise, " said International Development Secretary Hilary Benn.

He said said they were also providing vital practical help on the ground, as well as tents and blankets to protect survivors from the "very cold nights".

The government had also offerered to fund the transportation of any supplies from the UK, or anywhere else, that charities needed to send, he said.

The above is taken from the BBC website so it is quite wrong to say that there have been no immediate efforts to help.
 
Some lives worth more than others?

Yes some lives are worth more than others its a simple as that however wrong that may seem. I bet theres not a person on these forums who doesnt know someone whos life they value above all others. :)

Also there are groups of people whos life are worth more than others. I would swap hundreds of prison inmates for a couple of sick children in hospital ward.
 
Tropical storm Stan has been wiping out villages in Mexico and El Salvador for over a week now, with a death toll of over 300, and hardly a word in the media. OK, nowhere near the same size of tragedy in Pakistan, but Hurricane Rita wasn't either.
 
I don't really agree that it has less coverage.

As with Katrina the BBC has a seperate section their website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/south_asia/2005/south_asia_quake/default.stm

Many of the weekend newspapers contained at least 6-8 pages dedicated to it. It's the top story on all the news channels.

I think Katrina got dragged out more because you had coverage of its creation, approach, arrival and aftermath. You don't know an earthquake is coming until it's too late. So we will only see reports of the aftermath.
 
also remember how the people reacted after katrina, stories of shoot outs, rapes, murders etc.

the area was already in a struggle, so from having nothing to having less than that, its survival of the fittest.

its quite strange how long bush decided to help people who live on the same turf as he compared to how quickly he helped those in the tsunami or the recent earthquake in pakistan.

am i right he asked for help from countries in the u.n. to help aid in katrina yet he still has supplies to give to other countries?
 
Didn't Not The 9 o'clock News do a news sketch years ago about some huge fake disaster and then go on to say only one Britain was injured, so showing up the fact that no matter how bad the death toll was our news only ever reacts if any of us happens to be involved? It's not new.

Does this type of reporting happen in other countries?
 

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