Reporters are morons

Watching the devastation and human suffering caused by Katrina and it's aftermath is very painful, but adding to that pain is the sheer idiocy of many of the reporters. How do these people get these jobs? They're stupider than the average person, and they're being highly paid to provide us with vital information?

Earlier this morning, two female anchors on MSNBC were watching and trying to describe video of a helicopter rescue. There was an elderly white man and a large black woman and some others on a roof. They'd spray-painted in red paint that they needed help and that there was a diabetic and a person with heart conditions stranded on the roof who needed transport.

The ditzy women babbled along, never even noticing the message on the roof. Then at one point, the rotor wash from the military helicopter began blowing shingles off of a neighboring home. One dopy reporter remarked "What is that we're seeing? Roof tiles are coming off the home. I guess there's still strong winds."

Finally someone corrected her. She later refered to the "tiles" being blown off by the "rotery blades" of the "coast guard" helicopter (It was obviously national guard as the helicopter was army green and so were the uniforms of the crew) Then in the next sentence, she remarked about the fact that the stranded group had spray-painted a plea for help on the roof, as well as others waving towels, umbrellas, and flags, saying, "People are using whatever is disposable to them." (It's "at their disposal", ding-dong.)

Then in a bit of racist assumption, when they were hoisting the elderly man and the heavy-set black woman up to the helicopter together, she said that they were an elderly man with diabetes and his home nurse. Unbelievable. Of course, maybe the black woman had diabetes... maybe she had a heart condition... or maybe not. The woman didn't know. But she assumed the white man had the health condition, and apparently, in her world, the only reason a black woman would be around a white man is if she was his hired nurse.

There's been enough stupidity and moronic comments in the last few days to last a lifetime. I know it's a bit difficult to report when you don't have much information and try to fill time, but you'd think these people would at least have a minimum of common sense, or at least sensitivity.

And I can't even watch Aaron Brown, with his galling and blatant attempt to be "real" and hoping to reprise his 9-11 coverage and maybe get an emmy. We know it's a real tragedy Aaron, you don't need to make stupid observations to get that across.

And of course, no one can manage to get help to these desperate people, but the news channels managed to get their dramatic music out of the can and create all sorts of flashy, dramatic graphics to hype their coverage. I'm sure they're desperately looking for some "heros", but so far, it's been so grim that they're having a tough time. Look for the usual glut of "hero" stories in the near future, taking people who are only doing their jobs or doing what anyone should do in the situation and trying to make them look as if they're remarkable "heros". They can't serve up enough of those fake emotional hooks.

A reporter just now was reporting from the Astrodome, where they're gearing up for the arrival of thousands of refugees. But the first bus that showed up wasn't part of the "official" bus caravan. They insisted on calling the bus a "renegade" bus, and implied that the bus and it's passengers were disgusting somehow for grabbing a bus out of a desperate situation. That was stupid enough.

Then the reporter got annoyed for no apparent reason explaining that he got really frustrated because some people who had arrived had described seeing dead elderly people, when, he explained, they might just be fabricating the stories. Why he felt they were lying, he didn't say. But, and this is the kicker, he said that people making up such stories was very, very bad, because, he said, "It only generates more concern."

Well, we can't have THAT! What the hell?

What media stupidity or annoyances have you noticed?