THIS PROGRAMMING NOTE: To echo something Linda noted on her own blog today, we, too, are watching with great concern the devastating events in Japan. We will continue to blog as normally as we can, because that's the thing at which we are allegedly good, and like you we will balance our use of the Internet between the serious and the supplemental as events warrant.
A list of charities active in relief efforts is here, and this thread is open for whatever's on your mind.
If you go to Google Maps and put in the words "japan map," it will give you a link to "Maps related to the Earthquate and Tsunami," which I'm hoping I just managed to add as a link here. I found it to be very useful in seeing the relative locations of everything, including the nuclear plants.
ReplyDeleteIt is somewhat arbitrary, but events that are more political in nature are less likely to be mentioned.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the triple whammy of the earthquake, tsunami, and ongoing nuclear issues makes this an extraordinary news story. Add in the cultural and historical fact that the country facing a potential multiple-reactor nuclear meltdown is the one country that was hit by nuclear bombs, and the significance of what has happened and is continuing to happen increases even more. Obviously, just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAs with 9/11, I am so far relieved that no celebrity was killed in this disaster, less the media rebrand this into some story that "Tom Cruise, along with 10,000 or more Japanese, were killed. Coming up, how will Katie Holmes, a new widow, cope with this?"
ReplyDeleteMy favorite thus far in that vein have been: "Breaking Dawn set briefly evacuated, but everyone's OK!" and the note that the entire cast of a show that films in Hawaii is safe because they'd already wrapped for the season.
ReplyDeleteThe rule is that we interrupt our coverage for whatever the fuck we want to interrupt it for. It's a pretty good rule and hasn't caused any problems yet.
ReplyDeleteThat video Gawker posted of the tsunami is just breathtaking. The water just does not stop.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who's currently in Japan, although he was south and west of the worst of it (in Gifu) so he only experience a 6.6. He quickly reported in on Facebook to let us all know he was okay. According to him, while the tragedy is immense the way the people have rallied to come to the aid of both the survivors and the dead has been incredible.
ReplyDeleteNo criticism was intended or made, no need to be defensive. It's just an interesting cultural question for a cultural blog. The NFL played its regular Sunday schedule after the JFK assassination and got criticism for it. Sometimes broadcast networks preempt their regular schedule for disaster coverage, sometimes they don't. Most events get by with a perfunctory moment of silence at the beginning. On the other hand, the 1989 World Series was postponed for quite some time, though I don't recall how much of that was for logistical reasons and how much of that was because of the "How can you play baseball so soon after a disaster?" concern.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Barbara Olson doesn't count as a celebrity, but how soon we forget David Angell. (And I'm surprised we don't hear more about Seth Macfarlane's close call. How different his obituary would look.)
ReplyDeleteI think there are levels of reaction:
ReplyDeleteAcknowledgment of Event
Continuing Coverage of Event
Suspension of All Other Coverage
Also, Gilbert Gottfriend believes it's okay to be funny (about this) again.
His career got a whole second wind out of that Friar's Club combo of the 9-11 joke followed by the Aristocrats. No surprise here.
ReplyDeleteWhat second (what first?) wind does he have other than being the voice of obnoxious animals?
ReplyDeleteOh, wait: AFLAC has fired him on account of the jokes.
Thanks for the link Genevieve that was really interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm basing that on the fact that I knew Gilbert Gottfried existed, then I forgot that he existed, then I remembered that he existed, and then I was on the verge of forgetting again. Resurgence.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this. I was in Tokyo on business last week and was at Narita Airport to come home when the quake hit. The calm and kindness demonstrated by every Japanese person I met while we spent the night at the airport was amazing and so comforting, and my heart breaks for Japan now and for these people who've suffered so much with dignity and quiet resolve.
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