Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wet Landing in the Hudson
Sunny & bright, some snow on the ground, then you go out there & you feel fine for about 30 seconds, then a little breeze hits & instantly sucks out all the warm air under your clothes, & your face freezes. Reminds me of a cartoon where a little boy is standing in front of his house, he's wearing bulky coat, long scarf, thick pants, ski hat, huge mittens, & boots, & he's looking at his mom in the front door & saying, "How can I have fun? I can't even move."
***
Later: I heard about the miraculous Hudson River plane crash 2 hours after it happened, so I didn't see the breaking news coverage. Everyone had been rescued. But for all the national & local news organizations based in Manhattan, blocks from the River, I thought TV coverage wasn't all that good. They had very little compelling video footage, kept showing the same two or three minutes worth over & over. They ran out of new news about the crash but the story was too big to leave & move on to other news. Still photos at New York Times were better. Katie Couric's coverage at 6:30 was awful; by then the CBS team still hadn't pulled together a strong 15 minute summary, & she pointlessly did her program standing by a busy West Side street that had been given back to a delayed late rush hour. Nothing was happening. It was all over except giving the pilot a ticker tape parade. Nobody had cell phone video of the plane going down.
***
I was napping with the radio on during Bush's speech. At one point in the speech I was there, & I shouted, "Liar!" & two Secret Service guys came over & grabbed me. I think it was when he said, "For eight years, we have also strived to expand opportunity and hope here at home."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
***
Later: I heard about the miraculous Hudson River plane crash 2 hours after it happened, so I didn't see the breaking news coverage. Everyone had been rescued. But for all the national & local news organizations based in Manhattan, blocks from the River, I thought TV coverage wasn't all that good. They had very little compelling video footage, kept showing the same two or three minutes worth over & over. They ran out of new news about the crash but the story was too big to leave & move on to other news. Still photos at New York Times were better. Katie Couric's coverage at 6:30 was awful; by then the CBS team still hadn't pulled together a strong 15 minute summary, & she pointlessly did her program standing by a busy West Side street that had been given back to a delayed late rush hour. Nothing was happening. It was all over except giving the pilot a ticker tape parade. Nobody had cell phone video of the plane going down.
***
I was napping with the radio on during Bush's speech. At one point in the speech I was there, & I shouted, "Liar!" & two Secret Service guys came over & grabbed me. I think it was when he said, "For eight years, we have also strived to expand opportunity and hope here at home."
