Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly train derailments

Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by jerf on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:03AM (#34775246)

It is kind of interesting that the media seems to be softballing this. Usually their MO for this kind of disaster is hype, hype, hype, and sensationalism. Under most models of how the media works, this ought to be front page day & night, and if anything should be getting overestimated rather than under. Any internal mental model of how the media works that fails to integrate this should be getting challenged, and I'm still not sure how to do it myself. I can just see there's definitely a strong data point here.

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Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by jollofricepeas on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:28AM (#34775642)

Both liberal and conservative media have our heads in the clouds right now both literally and figuratively.

The lead story has been balloons and aliens since before the derailment.

It doesn’t help that there’s still a war in Ukraine, a earthquake in the Middle East and the Super Bowl just happened.

It’s for these reasons that a “small-town Ohio issue” is further down on the media list of priorities.

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Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by bsenftner on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @07:56AM (#34788621)

Kicker: there is no "liberal" or "conservative" media - there is only billionaire owned media dispensing what they deem the public's mind should be filled.

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Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by lgbrandon on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @04:22PM (#34796214)

exactly. they just like pitting the little guy against each other so we don't look at them. Those making money and getting rich.

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Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by lkschubert8 on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:17AM (#34775457)

More money invested in rail than would be made off the coverage by the relevant parties would be the simplest answer.

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Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by thex10 on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:46AM (#34775957)

Maybe suppression is at play?

Apparently the rail operator lobbied against safety measures that could have mitigated the impact of this disaster. They probably have a decent PR budget... https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rule...

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Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by bsenftner on Monday February 13, 2023 @12:13PM (#34776491)

Hard news needs to be treated as a public service, as in a government agency with the same rights and abilities as federal agents. Hard news needs to have review authority above that of the local state government.

The natural state of human affairs is crony corruption, plain and simple; currently we allow multiple corrupt states (local, county, state, each corporation's internal affairs, etc...). We should just admit our natural corruption and observe that only one can be king, and that king already exists: our federal government. The Federal government ought to make it their primary mission, as the ruling top dog in our corrupt society, do destroy all other corrupt operations stealing from them.

We are an immature, petty civilization. Let's admit our immaturity, and perhaps mature a bit as a result.

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Re:Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly t... by sangnoir on Monday February 13, 2023 @12:30PM (#34776849)

Have you factored in corporatism? Most large news media organizations in the US are owned by, or carry water for large corporations, and will never bring adequate coverage to stories that show labor in a favorable light, or show the malfeasance of corporations - unless it's corporation vs corporation.

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