Opaque Lucidity

Never A Good Day

Comair Flight 5191 crashed after takeoff from Lexington, Kentucky at 6AM this morning. Of the 50 people on board, only one of the pilots survived. As of right now, it appears that the pilot tried to take off from the wrong runway. The runway he used was too short for the commuter jet; I don't know if he pulled up too early and stalled or just ran off the end of the strip. The plane landed intact in some farmland a mile away, but a fire engulfed the aircraft immediately. Officials are saying that most of the people who died probably burned to death. Not a pleasant thing to think about.

Although it's probably not a good time to bring this up, I can't help but be angered by the local media's handling of this story. I can certainly understand granting special coverage to the crash because Lexington is only an hour from Louisville. What I can't understand is the morbidity and stupidity of the reporters covering the story. It served as a reminder to me that most reporters went to college, got a degree in journalism (which makes one an expert at nothing) and then went to work for a media outlet. Most of them just don't come across as very smart people.

A case in point is the press conference the CEO of Comair held this afternoon in Lexington. He made it clear from the outset that his first priority is the passengers' families. They will be flown to Lexington from anywhere in the world and settled in nearby accommodations until such time as they want to go home. Yet, the first questions was, "Have you been to the crash site?" His answer: "No. I came right from Cincinnati and my first priority was to see to the families of the victims. We have a team at the crash site who are cooperating fully with the NTSB." Second question: "Why haven't you gone to the site?"

Really? Are you that dense? Or do you just like the sound of your own voice?

I have a theory about reporters in our 21st century, 24/7/365 news world: if you have good hair and teeth, can read a teleprompter and can ask a scathing question without batting an eye, then you're in. It's not exactly Edward R. Murrow out there anymore, and we are all a little worse for it.