Posted On: Wednesday - February 27th 2019 7:10PM MST
In Topics: Websites Media Stupidity
... with a gleam in her eye."
Atlas Air, a freight airline flying just under 100 widebody aircraft* lost 3 of its pilot group of over 1700 four nights back. It's true that it seems not as big a deal when there are no paying passengers, with their complete reliance on the planes, pilots, and mechanics of the airline for their safety. This crash, along with Fed-Ex, UPS, and other cargo carrier's crashes indeed don't make the news for months and months on end, as they do for the passenger airlines.
This is still sad for the families and friends of the 3 pilots lost. Additionally, this Boeing 767 is not a plane only in use as a freighter. The model is in use by Delta, American, and United Airlines, just to name the 3 big US carriers with ~ 160 of them flying 200-odd people back and forth to mostly Europe and South America. Whatever the cause of the Atlas Air crash could very well have to do with how these planes are maintained or how the pilots fly them, on the passenger airlines too.
Therefore it's interesting that there seems to be not much follow-up all over the web. I would not know about TV news, but would have not have missed headlines on yahoo (after logging out of mail), and other mainstream sites, were this a wreck with passengers killed. I checked Drudge, a site I've avoided lately for various reasons**, and saw nothing on this crash, just 4 days later.
What can you say? Yes, it's not news to people, as they are not cargo, so "it won't happen to them". There are probably not enough "journalists" in the Lyin' Press with the brains to follow the aviation business with enough knowledge to understand that this crash could still be very pertinent. It's been quite a while since I've picked up the USA Today that serves mostly as a hotel doormat (more here on that rag). They do cater to the businessman by running small articles with tips or info on airline travel on Mondays, least last time I looked. They must have read that Monday is the biggest business air-travel day. Fine, but, I doubt they care either about the Atlas accident. It'd be up to the bloggers, the people that have the brains, and spend the time, to understand an industry, to keep us up on the investigation.
What it comes down to is not just that nobody is interested and journalists are stupid, but also that it's not scary enough to get enough readers. "If it bleeds, it leads." has always been the mantra of the Lyin' Press, and I guess that's just a demand problem. Scaring the crap out of you pays, at least they figure based on their circulation numbers, such as all those USA Todays that we thing are just doormats.
Don Henley, formerly of the 1970's country-rock, then just rock, band, The Eagles***, wrote of this back in
I'd put the whole song here, but, though Don Henley wrote some great scathing lyrics back in 1982 (must have been after he got a freakin' clue about the world), but the tune really isn't that hot. From Dirty Laundry:
I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry.
Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here.
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear.
Come and whisper in my ear.
Give us dirty laundry.
Kick 'em when they're up,
kick 'em when they're down.
Kick 'em when they're up,
kick 'em when they're down.
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde
who comes on at five.
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash
with a gleam in her eye.
It's interesting when people die.
Give us dirty laundry.
Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom
got a running bet.
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry.
You don't really need to find out what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone.
Eat your dirty laundry.
[Chorus]
Dirty little secrets,
dirty little lies,
we got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie.
We love to cut you down to size.
We love dirty laundry.
We can do "The Innuendo".
We can dance and sing.
When it's said and done,
we haven't told you a thing
We all know that Crap is King
Give us dirty laundry!
RIP, Atlas Air 3591 crew.
* 40 of the 767s, > 50 747's of various types and 6 Triple-7s.
** Now, the simple flat page that loaded quickly and again every 2 minutes or so (to give Matt Drudge more "hits") has more ads slowing down my reading, and he seems to be plastering the site with on-going anti-Trump headlines. Fuck that.
*** Featured before on Peak Stupidity here, here, here, and here.
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