Polianiac

This morning I was surfing the morning cable news programs to see what the world is talking about. I stopped on Faux News. Absentmindedly I contemplated the program’s title, “America’s Newsroom”. Suddenly the voice of Megyn Kelly broke through my ponderings with something like, “It was not a plane crash more like a plane splash…”

My jaw dropped. Oh no, you did not just say that!  Unfortunately, she did.

I guess it sounded cute to Ms. Kelly. She does have a background in corporate litigation. Minimization is obviously important in that role. Or maybe Ms. Kelly was reading someone else’s words and merely performed on cue. I do not know. I have no idea who or what  would think this statement appropriate much less news-worthy… Obviously this morning someone at FNC did.

Let’s ask those 155 souls aboard US Airways flight 1549 if this was a “plane splash”. Let’s ask those people if this experience felt like the absolute best water park ride of their lives. Ask the pilot if he considered downing his plane in the Hudson River a “crash” or a “splash”. Ask them how it felt to survive  the “crash” then be immediately confronted with the very real possibility of drowning from the “splash”.

Fox News Channel needs to hire a couple of psychologists to assist them with their interpretations of news. Oh—but that idea would be predicated on the fact that FNC cares about people—cares about the lives of American citizens when airing a program called America’s Newsroom. Just slap me silly…

Denying human experience is not news. It is dangerous. It hurts and damages those whose experience one is entrusted to tell, share, disseminate. And finally, who gains from this revisionist telling? Certainly not the 155 American citizens onboard US Airways 1549.  For their sake, I truly hope none of them were tuned into America’s Newsroom  today during the 10 a.m. hour. 

Trackback URI | Comments RSS