Am I the only person in Canada who is sick and fucking tired of being blasted repetitively by the “Bathurst Tragedy”?
Yes, i know, this IS a tragedy, its a horrible acccident…but i have to be honest…im fucking SICK of hearing about it. EVERY day on the news, they dedicate 15 minutes off the top of the newscast to this story, or even worse, to related tales about sympathy drives, and messages…
give me a fucking break. I really dont want to seem callous, but there is a LOT more going on in the world than what amounts to nothing more than a terrible accident.
There has been so much coverage, so many repeated interviews, so many tales of sympathy, that frankly, i feel BAD for not being more sensitive. But thy have hit me with so much of the same shit, i cant help it…
I hope im not the only one who feels this way, but im quite sure Ill get plenty of messages about this bitch…
so to finish, i offer all my sympathies to friends and families of those lost, its a horrible tragedy…
And to the news stations and newpapers…ENOUGH already!…..
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2008.
Sick fuck.
Wait ’till the trial starts for those two accused of murdering that poor girl in Dartmouth. Its going to be day to day front page coverage. I wasn’t surprised by the Daily News’ treatment of it but was a little shocked that the Herald ran pretty much the same gruesome details in their rag as well.
Have some effing respect.
I cry every time I see the coverage on this story. 7 young men lost their lives, and you actually took the time to type the words “give me a break” in referrance to this tragedy??? I think it’s a reminder to appreciate your loved ones every day, because you can lose them at any time, this story is real and our sadness about it makes US real. Puts things in perspective…..the OP is just an ignorant prick!
Furthermore, I can’t believe The Coast even allowed this idiot to post this!
I’m with Lori – this horrible tragedy should give us time to reflect about our own loved ones and how fragile life really is. This is an entire community in mourning – that you are inconvenienced for a few days seems pretty petty.
These people lost thier lives, and you’re all bitter for 15 minutes out of yours? Who’s holding you down and forcing you to watch the news, anyway?
Considering its closeness to our region I think it is being given the time it deserves, as we are somewhat connected to it as Maritimers. Had this happened in Nebraska or the Alsace region of France I’m sure it would be given the appropriate amount of airtime.
I don’t think the poster doesn’t care about what happened to these kids but why do they need to have 100 news cameras in the face of these kids friends and loved one at the funeral. I don’t know about everyone else but I would not appreciate news cameras at a loved ones funeral. It is however a tragedy that deserves news coverage but what is the limit? how about a little non televised respect for the kids lost.
I think that the OP went a little far here, but I am sort of inclined to agree. Yes, it was tragedy. Yes, we are all horrified, saddened, angry, grieving, sympathetic… but the constant and repetative news coverage gives the whole thing a grimey feeling. I don’t want to be bombarded with heartbreaking interviews, coverage from memorial services and so forth, not because I don’t have time or respect for the victims and their families but becase I don’t want any news outfit making big bucks on this tragedy. Furthermore, I think that the community in Bathurst that has been affected need some time to grieve alone. Having a camera shoved in your face every other day is not going to help anyone come to terms with this terrible loss. It’s time for the community to band together and support each other and time for this nationwide grief peepshow to end.
8 people in our region just tragically lost their lives with 7 of them being 17 yo or younger and you have taken the time out of your day to post this crap? Then you have the audacity to try and justify why you posted it???? In all the years I have been reading “Bitch” this is the only post that has truly and honestly offended me. I am in total disbelief that someone took the time to compose this. You are a douche bag. An inconsiderate, selfish, and sick douche bag. Why would The Coast publish this crap??? Tim Bousquet (sp?) please explain.
Raoul, the OP didn’t post anything racist, homophobic, sexist or threatening which is more than can be said for most other bitches on the Coast. They only laid down an opinion that is different from your own.
“I don’t want any news outfit making big bucks on this tragedy.” I can assure you that news “outfits” don’t make “big bucks” off this, or any other tragedy.Television stations make their money on advertising – that’s it. Businesses purchase commercial time well in advance of any tragedy or news event. So, the stations make their money by putting a news program to air, whether it’s filled with an hour of tragedy, or an hour of cats stuck in trees.
Jennifer you are 100% correct; there are some unfortunate postings on this site. Just because it is not racist, homophobic, sexist or threatening does not mean that I cannot be offended by the comment. Furthermore, I’m not speaking for anybody other than myself in regard to being offended but it seems to be the popular sentiment among the posts to date.In a world where news casts (NEWSCASTS!!!!) are bringing us 24-7 coverage of Brittany’s troubles, Oprah’s latest cause and the hard times caused by the Writers Guild of America strike there is a REAL newsstory happening in our own backyard and now this person is “sick of f****** hearing about it”???? THIS IS NEWS! It’s tragic, shocking and tangible. In a community as small as Bathurst, and the Maritimes for that matter, it really hits home. Not only have 8 lives been lost but many many more have been forever changed. Many of us have travelled those same roads and many of us have travelled to events in similar fashion as part of a group or team. It could have happened to any of us over the years and if it was your family member who suffered how would you feel reading this post?In time this story will fade from the mainstream media (likely by the end of the week) and those affected will try to move on. Instead of making insensitive comments like “give me a f****** break” sometimes keeping your “mouth” shut is the right thing to do.In a world of 800 channel TV, satellite radio, world wide web and gaming consoles if a person doesn’t want to follow a news story it’s pretty easy not to.
Newsgal: how do media services determine their advertising rates? Pluck them out of the sky or some other method? Look into it and let us know, k?
Cranky – Televisions have ratings periods twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. Information is gathered regarding how many people are watching during any given hour.The advertising department of a station then uses those numbers to set their commercial prices. They would go to a prospective (or current) clients and say “We, station ABC, have XXX,XXX viewiers during the X o’clock hour, therefore it will cost you $X,XXX to puchase XX seconds to reach those XXX,XXX viewers.I’m not sure if your response was a criticism of my post. My point was that the stations are making the same amount of money today showing coverage of the Bathurst tragedy, as they would if the top story of the day was cat bylaws or parking on Parade Square.I hope this clarifies things.
My bad, that should have read “television stations have ratings periods…”
I’m somewhat inclined to agree. While the main post definitely crossed the line, the sentiment behind it didn’t.At least, that’s what I got from it. The OP is saying they’re tired of hearing this day in and day out on the news constantly. I agree.Yes, it’s a damn tragedy. Yes, it deserved news coverage. No, it shouldn’t be on the news every day since the accident.It’s a sign of not having any other big headlines to run in the area that they run this over and over.Furthermore, the news companies themselves could be a bit more caring when that’s the sentiment they’re trying to get their watchers to feel. Did anybody catch that one particular interview with one of the surviving kids? Kid is staring at the ground, hair covering his eyes and trying not to cry.Where the fuck do big companies get off trying to get an interview so soon? And you know they badgered the kid/kid’s family for the piece too.But enough on that tangent.Basically, what I’m saying is I agree with the sentiment expressed in the first post. The event happened, the news covered it, now let it drop. Don’t keep running the story unless you plan on continuously running every other story as well.
I would like to say that it’s certainly a tragedy to see such a terrible situation unfold like this. I feel saddened and my heart goes out to all the families involved in the accident. My father was recently involved in a car accident going at around 120 km/h, and because of the car he was driving, his life was spared and i still talk to him to this day. The other person in the other car wasn’t as lucky. So i understand what those families are going through. The original message that was posted wasn’t disrespectful to the families of the kids nor was the person who posted it without any emotions. Everyone has an opinion and we all have the right to express it. I personaly believe there’s no opinion in the world that will not offend anyone. Someone will always be offended regardless. That being said, I believe that the original commet was directed at the media and how they’re taking advantage of the situation. Cranky mentioned that they’re trying to make their money out of it, and that’s what TV stations do. Newsgal on the other hand disagreed, even though she detialed how TV stations schedule advertising slot and sell them. On that note, the accident occured early saturday morning. I watch the news and read the papers regulard, not as much on weekend but i do listen to the radio and watch TV on weekends. I only knew about the accident monday morning. It’s a terrible accident. Everyone in all of canada wanted to know about it and watch it on the news and see the scene of the accident. if the accident happened early sat morning, you’re telling me it took 2 complete days for (sat and sun) for the TV stations to report it. If you think about it, TV stations monitor their ratings and the bublic’s reaction. They knew a lot of people will be watching that particular section. Realizing the severity of the accident, they decided to take time and reprice their advertising slots and sell them to the highest bidder. That’s what TV stations do. Same as what happened on sept 11th, 2001. I personaly wouldn’t want TV cameras at my funeral or in my face when i’m at a close friend’s funeral asking me about it. I find that’s disrespectful. In fact i’d probably kick them out because i know they’re only covering it because there’s something in it for them. If TV stations didn’t make money out of news, they wouldn’t report it! Once again, no one here is being insensitive towards what happened. I agree with everyone, and certainly understand since it happened to my family around christmas time, but if you think about it, and if TV stations are reporting news for the hell of it and not for the money, Iraqi’s, Afghanis and a whole wack of people around the world are dying everyday due to much worse reasons. Limbs being cut off. People being decapitated. I don’t see TV stations reporting any of it. Because no one cares and people wouldn’t watch that, which would send their ratings down the drain and the would be no cash flowing in. I’m hoping this reply doesn’t offend anyone and as i mentioned before i certainly feel the pain of those families. I wasn’t able to contact my dad to find out whether he was alive or dead for 24 hrs. It was by far the worst 24 hours i had to endure.
I was mainly referring to print media but they all make their money off of the sad and grotesque. PaperX goes to sell advertising space. They say: “here are our numbers. By altering our editorial policies we were able to increase our sale of x number of units off the shelf, we only lost y number, and picked up this many new subscribers. We believe this is because of our new policy regarding an increased sensationalization of our product. We expect this trend to continue so our delivery of consumers to you, the advertiser, will cost this much for the coming quarter (or however long they buy space for).”
“Did anybody catch that one particular interview with one of the surviving kids? Kid is staring at the ground, hair covering his eyes and trying not to cry.”The key word there is interview. The survivor was asked if he would like to do an interview, and he accepted. No one forced him do it. He chose to share his story with others.
This is a difficult topic, and highly emotional. I tend to agree that the coverage crosses the line and threatens to exploit grief and tragedy for the sake of sensationalism (and maybe paper sales).Having said that, perhaps it gives the families and community some comfort to know that they have the sympathy of many, many people and that people far and wide “care” about what has happened. But more importantly (and whether or not this end justifies the means or not, I’m not sure), people near and far have all been alerted to the accident potential of a situation like this; with particular attention to the safety of 15-passenger carrier vans. So if telling this story with these broadcast levels helps to prevent something like it from happening again (even once), then I think the coverage has public benefit and value.
I don’t mean to hurt anyone on this topic. At my school we had a red and black day which I participated in and a moment of silence. But I do tend to agree that its been on the News too long. If it was my friend or sister who had passed away I wouldn’t appreciate having a camera shoved in my face everytime I went to the store or to the funeral. However I have sympathy for the familys and friends of the boys and the teacher.
you have no heart you selfish bitch