The Mysteries of LA Geography
Because LA and San Francisco -- and maybe Beverly Hills and Palm Springs -- are the only compass points on some Easterners' mental map of California, I guess we shouldn't be surprised to hear this kind of geo-gaffe.
When fires closed the San Diego Freeway the other day, as laobserved.com reported, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams intoned ominously about a world-famous museum coming "dangerously close" to being burned by fire.
He meant the Getty Museum, which was a couple of canyons and two whole miles from where the fire started.
But I can top that. The big fires in northern LA County in mid-October? The Huffingtonpost.com headline said that the fire -- at least 20-some miles away -- was ''close'' to downtown Los Angeles.
Close? Maybe close if you're measuring intergalactic distances.
I emailed a pal at Huffingtonpost, who corrected it. I pointed out that when a tornado hit Westchester County, about 20 miles north of New York City, nobody would have dreamed of -- nor did anyone -- write a headline, ``Twister Strikes Near Manhattan.''
But nothing can ever top the New York Times' one-edition 1994 headline about a space shuttle landing at Edwards Air Force Base:
After Detour to California, Shuttle Returns to Earth.
Scott Gries, Getty Images
I heard a report on NPR, a woman living in Granada Hills explained that during the recent fires, she and her neighbors would watch the cable news shows without the sound because the audio information was incorrect (names of canyons, etc.) They would stop reporting on the fires about midnight, then begin again the next morning.
This makes the case for freeing the airwaves from corporate control. Low band community radio stations could provide a better service to the public, by having people who know the area and their neighbors do the reporting and then give more accurate information to the cable news shows. And they can keep broadcasting for as long as they need to throughout the emergency.
Posted by: Maggie Knowles | October 27, 2008 at 08:10 AM