June 16, 2005

Measuring Incremental Movements

Tuesday's West Coast tsunami warning (that I posted an entry about) was big news in all the usual places yesterday. But really there was not much for news outlets to say after reporting that an earthquake had occurred, causing no damage and a tsunami warning had been issued for a tsunami that thankfully didn't happen. Oh, wait, that's not quite accurate because technically a tsunami did occur. A tsunami, measuring a whole one centimeter, did hit the coast. The machines that take such measurements picked that up, and lucky that they did as otherwise we never would have known. Ahem.

But. Believe me, I'm not complaining -- I much prefer that what the news ended up having to report in this case was basically that nothing happened.

I sometimes can't help but marvel -- vacillating between admiration and disdain -- at the ingenuity of the press when they find themselves having to report these "nothing happened" stories, especially when they somehow feel obliged to continue doing so through a news cycle or two (or three or four or five).

But, then, sometimes I also kinda like Henry James's novels, too.

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Well. As I was just in the middle of composing this entry about nothing happening, something happened. Southern California just got hit with another earthquake. No real damage, no injuries reported at this moment.

And so the press has more fodder for this topic for some news cycles for a while. As there's a whole lot of shaking going on, even if (so far) it's been causing little tangible damage. Well, in California, at any rate, where most of the recent quakes have been located. The recent quake in Chile actually did cause some real damage and killed at least 8 people (from the last news report I saw on it).

And that itself, I predict, will end up being fodder for the world media's news cycles in the very near future -- as I think they'll probably very shortly become preoccupied with being irritated at our press's preoccupation with reporting how nothing has happened around here really. And then they'll take that opportunity to bitch about how the U.S. doesn't notice and doesn't care when earthquakes (or anything) happen elsewhere, etc. etc. etc.

But I think they're wrong -- at least about people here not noticing or caring about earthquakes. I think people who live in regions regularly affected by earthquakes, big or small, do take notice when quakes are reported anywhere. It's a weird but real bond people share when they experience the same kinds of natural (or unnatural) disasters.

True, our national news media doesn't usually devote much intense focus to earthquakes occurring in other parts of the world unless they're huge catastrophic disasters, but actually our national media doesn't devote much intense focus on our own country's earthquakes unless they're huge catastrophic disasters either. And, ya know, neither does the same foreign news media who bitch about what our news media covers either. So there.

But. That's what the news is: bitch, bitch, bitch, ohmygod something horrible's happened o' the humanity, bitch, bitch, bitch, release poll and research study data out of context, bitch, bitch, bitch, oh wow look at that, bitch, bitch, bitch, speculate, condemn, wring hands, gossip about celebrities, pontificate, weep, leap for joy, grouse about those who leap for joy, bitch, bitch, bitch, o' the humanity, o' the humanity, o' the humanity.

Anyway. This current focused news flurry is an aberration caused by the spate of quakes that have happened in somewhat close proximity within a short period of time. And unless another one hits soon and causes enough mayhem to satisfy the "if it bleeds, it leads" blood lust of the news media, I predict the attention is certain to be pretty short-lived.

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Hmm. I actually had been composing an entirely different entry here today that only was meant to begin with referring to the news' coverage of Tuesday's quake in a rather peripheral way. But the earth keeps moving and sidetracking my train of thought. It'll do that.