Editorial Disclaimer: in no way is this article meant to harm or disrespect those who have lost property, livelihood or loved-ones.
May we please not label everything unexpected "THE DEVASTATION"?
Since at least hurricane Katrina, every newscast and talking head refer to unexpected and unplanned events as the above phrase. The magnitude of the event seems not to matter, rather it seems that "THE DEVASTATION" is the great equalizer. If it carries that tag, the event is the worst possible event ever, in the history of the world.
I cringe whenever I see the Special Report screen; I know when they cut away to the studio, I should go get another cup of tea but I do not. What has happened to our culture that we use such a phrase so often? Are we trying to make the survivors of natural and man-made disasters feel better? Does it convey compassion to use that phrase almost exclusively when describing events out of our control?
I confess, I just do not understand modern journalism on a number of fronts however; this one phrase really gets under my skin. Let's consider pulling the college thesaurus off the shelf and thumb through while listening to that boring pitch on the phone. Or maybe it could be a new reality show; "Journalism 101" sounds kinda catchy.
Perhaps some cash prizes could be squeezed out of the print journalism moguls, or scholarships maybe?
Having recently gone through several "big issues" at work; imagine my mental state when the perfect storm finally hit. Changes in regime, software expirations looming, disharmony among the ranks, [deleted] construction workers stomping, banging and clanging overhead for months then the BIG ONE . . .
Doors off their hinges, desks in disarray, tediously long fresh installations stalled, what had the world come to while mid-terms were going on?
Seems the aforementioned [deleted] construction workers sprung a leak somewhere above the computers. One monitor had to have the
water p o u r e d out of it's insides.
Way to Go Boys!
Does this qualify as "THE DEVASTATION"? Hardly. Despite the fact that we had deadlines breathing down our necks, stalled upgrades, did we say deadlines?
Oh, right and then there were the turbo fans deafening us. Think "aircraft carrier deck" to add to the aforementioned [deleted] construction workers, our people were and still are, cranky. This personal event probably qualifies as something along the lines of; "dang, why couldn't this have happened at the begining of spring break, not the end? It's not like I went anywhere."
Hey, anybody remember our insurance agent's email address? No?
1 comments:
Before it was "the devastation" it was something else. Take it all the way back to the Hindenburg fiasco and it was "oh the humanity". I'm sure that got overused. It's not really reporting anymore, it's sensationalism at it's finest. Make everyone sit up and pay attention. Make people feel sorry for those who have lost (I am by no means saying we shouldn't help our brother, we should, just hear me out) so they take up a monetary collection to help out. That's all fine and good until you realize that the huge amount of money spent there could have been divvied up better. Need I remind your readers of the tsunami where America raised billions for relief efforts but couldn't raise half that to help our brothers and sisters in New Orleans. But, as usual, I'm straying from the point. The point is that the newsmedia in this country is just plain old sensationalist bullcrap (think Entertainment Tonight only with real news). Lets not start on the loss of self censorship over the decades. I'm with you 100% on this one. Sorry to hear of your very own disaster area, hope all goes well to fix it all.
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