The Next Day

***Updated Thursday 2:50pm-I'm leaving my reactions to the 35W bridge collapse at the top of the page but if you're wanting to move on to something more mundane scroll down to find the sports related post I mentioned in these posts***

Just a couple of more quick thoughts on the bridge collapse here in Minneapolis last night and then we’ll return to regular blog programming about a bunch of stupid pointless crap. As someone who’s criticized the national media for focusing on local and national issues over more pressing issues abroad I must admit when something hits close to home it’s hard to stick to those beliefs. For example I was right there criticizing the wall to wall coverage when the Virginia Tech tragedy occurred. It wasn’t because I didn’t think it was worth covering but the neglect that Iraq and quadruple the deaths there the same day were receiving was equally tragic to me. Yet last night I sat in front of my TV flipping between all the local stations and CNN. This morning as I got ready for work I was right back there and I must admit that not once did I think, why isn’t CNN reporting on anything else in the world? I got to believe that if this had occurred in Cleveland or Atlanta I would not only be asking that question of the national media but criticizing them vociferously for it. Hell I still think that’s the right thing to do but it’s so much harder when it’s your back yard that Anderson Cooper et al are talking about. I do want to say kudos to the local media. This is a story they have to cover wall to wall and they’ve done so with great dignity and poise for the most part. Sure there was the local Fox affiliate (big surprise) that pulled out an “expose” on the state of country and rural bridges they ran a few months back so as to drum up fear and anger but for the most part these stations balanced their coverage between the stories of terror and heroism. While the “why” question looms large every station I watched approached this question with caution and reiterated over and over again that it’s far too early to make any leaps to judgment. Lastly a big shout out to the people that were on the bridge or in the area that put aside the flight instinct that I’m sure was strong and instead ran to the disaster and assisted in the early rescue efforts while the fire and police will still trickling in. That’s all for now either later today or tomorrow I’ll post the column about my seasonal sports depression that seems rather horrible now but the blog must go on.