Why (some) Reporters Suck
There’s been news recently about the victimless plane crash in the Hudson River. First of all let me say kudos to the pilot for somehow managing to land the plane safely on water. All 155 passengers on board were certainly lucky to have him as their pilot for that day.
The Hero of the Day
And as a sidenote and for the record, the pilot was 57-year-old Chesley Suleenberger III. It’s funny how news reports are talking about him over and over again about how he managed to save 155 people with his insane landing skills, and yet most reports merely refers to him as “the pilot”. Honestly, a man like this ought to deserve more recognition, he fricking saved 155 people from dying. HELLO?!
Annoying Reporters
Yes anyway, after landing the plane on water, the boats nearby came to help and eventually all passengers and crew were evacuated. And so the passengers finally get on to land, and who’s there to greet them? Nothing like a warm bunch of reporters to harrass you with questions:
Stupid Questions
This guy just went through a near death experience and the moment he gets back on to dry land you have to go and BOMBARD him with questions?! I mean he’s obviously still shaken from the whole experience and was shivering throughout the “interview” (I put interview in quotes because it was more of a let’s-annoy-the-heck-out-of-the-guy-who-almost-died-session) but yet reporters stuck to their mantra of annoying people as much as possible. Not only do they not give the guy a break, they ask completely pointless questions, like something along the lines of:
Annoying Reporter: How did you all get out?
Shaken Survivor: I don’t know man… I don’t know, by the luck of God I guess…
Annoying Reporter: No, how did you get out, the front, the back, the middle? (Yeah she asked if they got out through the middle)
Shaken Survivor: … Through the front
and
Another Annoying Reporter: How strong was it when you hit the water?
Shaken Survivor: It was pretty bad…
Simply WTF.
What in the world is the point of asking whether they got out through the front, the back, or (for crying out loud) the middle? Oh and what kind of question is “how strong was it?” How strong do you think it was when an effing aeroplane crashes into water? What’d you expect him to say?
“Oh it was a nice, soft landing, kudos to the pilot once again”
or
“Well we hit the water at a velocity of 4738495m/s, which in turn meant that the plane exerted a force of 47532N on the water, which in turn exerted 28473N upwards on the plane, so yeah, with a resultant force of 19059N (taking downards as positive), I’d say the landing was pretty bad.”
Why do these people persist on making life miserable for people like him, they don’t even let him finish his answers before cutting in with 5 of them asking different questions all at once while he’s in mid-sentence. Does it really matter whether they got out through the middle of the plane or not? Am I going to go:
“Oooh this article/news station is really good because they found out that the passengers got out through the front of the plane. How silly of me to think they might have gotten out through the middle or something *face palm*”
or
“Wow, I never knew that a plane crashing down into water would be a “pretty bad” impact. Thank you Oh-So-Brilliant reporter for asking such an insightful question”
Still…
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t exactly despise reporters for asking pointless questions all the time (after all most of them make a living out of asking pointless questions), but couldn’t they have the courtesy of asking their stupid questions AFTER the survivor has settled down, recovered from the shock, gotten extra layers of clothing on (seeing as how it was freezing cold), etc. Oh and while you’re at it, wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t bombard the single survivor with like 10 questions at a time, let him actually finish his answers and sentences, and possibly not ask stupid questions (like if you got out of the plane through its middle).
Wait what am I saying, they’re reporters…
