Urgent News Alert! Dustbin Blows Over In Florida!

A five minute long item on the 10 o'clock news this evening. Apparently a hurricane is set to make 'landfall' in our beloved Florida. We were shown film of a black dustbin that had blown over.

We went over live to our lady on the scene, who had her anorak on. It looked quite windy. Some palm trees in the background were being blown around. Folk in Florida are very, very worried about this hurricane she told us. It could be the strongest to hit our dear homeland of the United States since 2018. People had been hoping the hurricane would lose strength before it 'made landfall', but no! We heard an update from the US president.

Could Disneyland be in danger? You can expect further extensive and far reaching live and up to the minute coverage to let us know just how much damage is done, when this hurricane makes 'landfall'.

Of course, over the past few days it has just been travelling over all that empty sea to the south of dear Florida. But now it's going to hit actual land!

Here are some images of it passing over some of that empty water before making 'landfall'

 

Lots of info on Cuba hurricane devastation....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Cuba+hurricane&page=1

 

I would call it cursory rather than "lots". Still glad to see that 2 people dead and 11 million without electricity did make an obscure corner of the BBC website.

We got to the fifth paragraph too before we started talking about florida again.

 

Disappointing to see that this was God’s reaction to the great news of legalised gay marriage in Cuba. God is such a ****.

 

It’s called hurricane Ian, that is clearly not a Cuban name so I’m not sure why you’re surprised.

 

I can understand your frustration @Clive_ofthe_Kremlin but this is just another product of a capitalist western society.

Like it or not, Brits relate to English speaking, mainly white, nations, especially if they are a popular tourist destination.

The BBC chase the ratings, just like any other news outlet. They know "their market". They know more people will be engaged with a story about a potential disaster in a place they relate to than they will with a country that has actually experienced death and destruction but is somewhere that is non-English speaking and is "far away".

That's why 100's of deaths in an African country will always appear below a report about a few deaths in the US or Europe.

It doesn't make it right but that's the way it is.

 

It's supposed to be the national broadcaster, with a mission to report what's happening in the world, fairly and even-handedly. It shouldn't be "chasing ratings". How is it a function of news reporting to chase ratings? It ought to be about informing viewers about what's going on in the world.

Currently they really ought to rename it. "Newsterntainment at Ten" with the subtitle "By white people, for white people and about white people".

In fact, even that would be insufficient. More accurate would be "By rich white people, for rich white people and about rich white people". Examples being the constant talk about the rising interest rates and the danger they represent to "our mortgages". Because we all have mortgages, don't we?

They followed up an item about "our mortgages" the other day with a report about the number of slugs having declined this year because of the dry summer. They then talked for about five minutes about the damage slugs could do to "our gardens". Because we've all got our gardens, haven't we?

Although I agree with your analysis to some extent, I think there's a little more to it than the ratings chasing. I reckon there's something more sinister behind it. If you talk constantly and sympathetically about it being a bit blowy in Florida, complete with interviews with those affected and the US president etc, or you make the headlines about 2 inches of snow that's fallen in New York and it's a bit chilly there, then you're inviting viewers to feel empathy and allegiance with the poor sufferers of the weather. How terrible! Must be awful for them. Our poor allies.

Then if you more or less completely ignore the hurricane flattening of Cuba (where plenty of British people have also been on holiday incidentally) or just don't report the fact that one third of Pakistan's territory is submerged below floodwater (plenty of British people have Pakistani heritage) and instead only ever talk about such countries in scornful pejorative terms (usually presented by the woeful Simon Reeves) - items about desperate migrants, police repression, border disputes, communists, people suffering poverty etc - then you create the opposite impression amongst the audience. These are BAD countries. Terrible. Totally alien to us and our values. Something ought to be done about them!

 

Agree with all of this.
News of mini disasters, deaths in so called ‘third world’ countries, especially with no historic British connection are not news to most media outlets in the UK.

I’m disappointed but not surprised that there is virtually no ‘bad’ news (or good news) reported about South Africa, which has many white ex Brit heritage citizens.

For example, hundreds of isolated farmers have been murdered in recent years in targeted attacks. Many having suffered physical and sexual torture before being killed.
It is shocking, but you don’t hear about it here.
Here is just one recent example of a retired farmer hacked to death with pangas.
https://www.sapeople.com/2022/09/22...-hearted-rustenburg-farmer-brutally-murdered/

 

I know someone who's in Florida right now, (exact same holiday every year).
They posted a video from a bar showing a few trees flapping about saying it's a "bit scary".

Yes Clive I totally agree with you, it's bl**dy sad how Cuba and other countries around it are totally overlooked.

 

The damage to Cuba by 'Ian' has been covered extensively on the radio by the BBC World Service

 

Everyone who reads the Politics section starts having flashbacks. Ain’t that right @Since63?

 

I’m always amazed at the casual tone given to stories about dozens of people getting crushed in stampedes at religious festivals.

 

Fox News reporting on it with their customary calm and sensible analysis:

https://twitter.com/EverythingLoso/status/1574630740641431558?s=20&t=FUPZ7BZkTjd5XaqmzIAQuw

 

But if these disasters are highlighted and appeals made, the Brits are normally pretty good at putting their hand in pocket to donate.
£13.5m raised in 2 days for Pakistan floods.
https://www.dec.org.uk/press-releas...illion-in-two-days-as-aid-workers-sound-alarm

But I agree they need to be publicised.
I haven’t seen any appeal for Cuba for the latest hurricane damage.

 

I'm following it live on Channel 5 news

 

.. following them, not it.
Corrr...

Why don’t we have outstanding news reporters like this here?

 

I'd recommend Al Jazeera news. It genuinely tells you the important things that are going on in the world, unlike pretty much every other news outlet.

FT isn't bad either, but is very expensive.

 

She's a character in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The sole purpose of her character is that she has massive norks and is attractive to that guy in the background who looks all weird.

 

Wow!

How come you know so much about so many topics, few of which have any relevance to so much of the lives of so many ....

Could have done with your in-depth expertise on our fund raising quiz night last Saturday. Our miserable mid table performance would have been elevated to automatic promotion

 

I might be in love with this woman, not for the right reasons mind you.

 

1. How do you know my first name?
2. Are we meant to be using 'third world' in its original technical sense or in its later guise as an apparent expression of white suprmacist thinking?
3. Do you want a 2-page argument or the full 55-page one?

 

For the good of the race.
We have a bunker.

 

Head for the Poconos!

 

Storm coming, hatchet coming

(one of the most under-rated IASIP lines in my opinion, always cracks me up)

 

‘The Spaniards banged the Mayans and turned them into Mexicans’ is another under rated line.

 

Haha!

 

I don't understand why you'd try to minimise what's happening in Florida just because you're unhappy with the Cuba coverage.

I know people down there who have personally witnessed a very large gator swimming past their house, and have a video of a SHARK swimming up where their street used to be.



A picture from the video, for anyone of the cynical mindset.

If you want to complain about the underreporting of Cuba, do so. There's no need to pretend Florida is somehow overreacting though. They're getting hit hard.

 

^ See that river?

It's actually supposed to be a road.



^ Friend of a friend's current situation in Orlando.



^ Friend's cousin's current view out of the window.

 

Biden says it may have caused substantial loss of life in Florida, and could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history.

But sure… just a few dustbins blown over and a few trees flapping in the wind.

 

Mike - I don't know if you saw 'Newswatch' this morning on BBC1. It seems I wasn't the only one to make this complaint. To be fair, they did read out the communication from a viewer who asked why there was extensive coverage on News at 10 of Florida's PREPARATION for the coming hurricane, whilst saying nothing at all about the devastation and dead in Cuba which had already happened. They didn't make any comment on the complaint or look ashamed or anything, but at least they read it out.

The original long and detailed news item, I can assure you, began with lengthy video of a dustbin which had blown over in florida (black it was) and palm trees flapping.

 

Fair enough.

I really do think the damage to Cuba wasn’t and isn’t covered enough (have they even been able to fix the power yet as that could be a massive crisis in the making?).

But some of the stuff I read (especially on Twitter) about the US victims felt really flippant given how horrific some of it sounded.

 

They've done pretty well. Power was back the next day for most areas, although there are still very long daily power cuts.

The west end of the island (La Habana and especially Pinar del Río) is worst affected.

Lots of tobacco drying sheds wiped out. There's going to be a shortage of cigars coming up I think...

 

We’ll that particular human tragedy may make the BBC news headlines in the UK