Why do I get more information about our floods in the NYTimes than I get in my local papers? I didn’t know any buildings collapsed:
In Philadelphia, which lies between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, water levels in some areas were 15 feet above normal on Sunday and were approaching the 17-foot record set in 1869, said Mark McDonald, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Nutter.
The storm, which dumped at least six inches of rain on the city, caused the collapse of seven buildings, Mr. McDonald said, including a six-story structure just south of Center City. No one was injured, but 20 residents had to be evacuated. In one neighborhood on the Schuylkill, employees of the Mad River Bar & Grille watched the water inch up Main Street from their stoop until it became an island.
The bar’s general manager, Joe Decandido, 28, said his employees kept moving equipment and merchandise to higher ground but could not outrun the water rising in the basement. “You feel like you’re in the Titanic,” Mr. Decandido said. “It keeps rising, and there’s not much you can do.”
Because they are shit local newspapers. Lemme guess, all the editorials are conservative, there’s no foreign news, all the reporting out of state is AP “product,” and what local stories you do get are really just about ribbon-cutting ceremonies for local chamber of commerce businesses. Except if it bleeds, it leads. If there’s a local scandal, it isn’t discovered because of local police, or investigative journalism, but the FBI. And only then because the local Deppity Dawg Cheeseburger Feds just can’t ignore it any longer. Then there’s the banal “local” section with stories like “Local mom learns how to can food! You can too!” And every turn of phrase, everything they choose to cover and not cover, uses or reinforces conservative business ideology.
Actually, no.
Then they wonder why newspapers are disappearing as news sources for the general public.
Well, they ARE shit papers, although not for the reasons Jay lists.
BTW, Will Bunch says Irene was all a load of hype, so it must be true (pay no attention to that flooding in the burbs or in new england).
Why? Because you have a Rethug Gov and stories about people needing help don’t comport with Repuke mantra. The storm can’t be blamed on the preferred minority of the day. I guarantee that within a week, it will be as if the storm never occurred.
Interestingly, on WNYC this morning, during a segment about the terrible flooding in the Catskills, a commenter noted that the NYTimes rarely covers such issues in that area.
One of the guests was a former print reporter who runs (iirc) and reports for a local news source called The Watershed Post. Liveblog of Irene, photos, videos, posts, etc.
The six story building did not collapse– it’s a block from my house (its address was in earlier versions of this story). It just lost a piece of roof. Pix at http://nakedphilly.com/graduate-hospital/irene-damages-roof-at-artists-village-apartment-building/attachment/img_3177/
Wouldn’t want to be a tenant there now, but it’s far from a collapse.