While watching the carnage wrought by the tsunamis around the Indian Ocean today on CNN, I was struck by a journalist’s remark that because it was high tourist season for Europeans, the tidal waves were “especially a tragedy.” Now I know that tragedy hits closest to home, but the implication I got was that it would be less of a tragedy if there were no European tourists there.
I suppose close-text reading of newscasts can reveal quite a bit…
An Ergodic Walk 
I sometimes find that journalists don’t think too far outside their own nation / country of heritage / whatever.
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
Its interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry
What? More evidence that American lives, especially Christian white ones count for more to our media? Unfortunately, not so surprising…
Even worse was David Brooks “read between the lines” suggestion that the tsunami was God’s punishment in some form for something done in that region, and that we don’t seem to connect with that. Yeah, sure. Interestingly, God was especially mean given that one of the largest catholic churches in India was full at the time of the wave, and no one (200 people) but the priest escaped. I think certain comments would benefit by 2 minutes of thinking before being spurted out…