Have you ever been really close to a newsworthy event?

[FoBoT]

I knew and went to highschool with the kid that shot Gabrielle Giffords.

holy bajeebus, that would freak me out

 

[UglyCasanova]

Lived in OKC during the bombing. I remember there being at least 2 kids in my grade or right above me that lost a parent.

 

[Freshgeardude]

Someone who went to my high school and family friends was killed by a suicide bomber in Israel.

It made local, and I'm sure national news, since he was an American teenager.




A few weeks ago there was a pileup on I75 in Florida 9miles south of Gainesville, where I go to college. I saw it on fox news main story. Like 12 people died from it.

The injured were all helicoptered into the hospital that's bordering/on campus

 

[jlee]

Yep, front page in local newspaper (several times) a few years ago (there's probably a thread for it somewhere), and more local news for other stuff (fatal rollover, murder/suicide, etc).

 

[gorcorps]

Not overly news worthy IMO but a kid I went to school with was on "The Real World" and my uncle who is a cop down in FL who basically transports people to an from a court room. He's been on TLC a few times in clips about crimes that made the news when those shows are showing clips of either the trail or verdict.

He's had to tackle a number of people after a sentence comes down that gives them basically nothing to live for. Like life or death sentences for example.

I knew a guy on the real world too. Pissed me off because all through school he managed to just fall into success and leech off of everybody. To hear he was on there just confirmed he's still a worthless asshole who falls into good situations through little of his own doing.

 

[MetalMat]

Hurricane Katrina, maybe you heard of it?

 

[SearchMaster]

I live in a pretty small community, about 15K people, and we had a tornado go through. Not that big a deal, but my wife happened to be in London at the time and saw our little city on CNN in her hotel room.

I appeared on NBC's Dateline. We were skiing in CO and they were doing a story about someone who was being charged with manslaughter for skiing too fast and killing someone. I had stopped to wait for my wife and friend, then looked over and noticed the cameraman and reporter. When my wife and buddy showed up I commented that the reporter looked like the guy from Dateline, then we moved on. A few weeks later I happened to be in a hotel room on a business trip and caught the episode of Dateline and saw myself stopping in the background .

 

[Linflas]

News outlets are not in the business of educating you. They are in the business of selling advertisements, and they will do anything they can to get you to to watch.

Journalism is dead.

The press has never been in the business of educating anyone. In the past they were much more upfront regarding their biases and didn't try to peddle the myth of objectivity but any educating they did was only incidental to the point of view they were supporting. Generally they would attempt to keep the editorializing in the opinion section but their choices in what to cover as news reflected their biases. When it comes to crime sensationalism has always carried the day be it Lindburgh's baby in the days of print and radio to Casey Anthony in today's 24x7 TV and internet coverage. It is not so much that journalism is dead rather it never lived in the sense of the idealistic portrait that some have painted for it.

 

[Linflas]

Hurricane Katrina, maybe you heard of it?

That would be a prime modern example of media hysteria in full bloom with lots of seriously flawed and outright fictitious nonsense being peddled as news.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

The Columbia shuttle broke up over my head (Nacogdoches, TX), I still remember hearing it. There were bits and pieces of debris scattered around town including in my apartment parking lot. Cops were parked in their cars near the fallen pieces guarding them until they could be picked up.

i remember that whole affair. I was an active member on another message board at the time and another member worked for NASA. He was outside his house posting waiting for the shuttle to fly overhead. he was wondering why he hadnt seen it yet then informed us all he got a call and something had happened. So we all learned of the shuttles demise before it was all over the news.

 

[NoCreativity]

All mine happened with kids I knew in HS:

- 1 burned down a stable by accident killing several horses (trying to scare them with firecrackers)
- 1 kids parents were on flight 800
- 1 kids dad got busted with a warehouse full of weed (couple tons)

 

[Joseph F]

Yep, front page in local newspaper (several times) a few years ago (there's probably a thread for it somewhere), and more local news for other stuff (fatal rollover, murder/suicide, etc).

For a minute, I thought that you were implying that you had been in a fatal rollover, murdered several people and committed suicide. :awe:

 

[lxskllr]

Ronald Reagan came to my school. Secret Service took my pocket knife, and gave it back at the end of the day. If that happened today, I'd probably be in Gitmo :^D

 

[Linflas]

Ronald Reagan came to my school. Secret Service took my pocket knife, and gave it back at the end of the day. If that happened today, I'd probably be in Gitmo :^D

And that would just be from the school's "Zero Tolerance Policy" regarding weapons!

 

[BurnItDwn]

In 1996 I was northbound on Wolf Rd next to Palwaukee Airport and they had the road closed and were redirecting everybody westbound on Hintz. A plane had just crashed right after takeoff directly north of the airport. It was on the news a lot for a few days.

 

[zinfamous]

Ronald Reagan came to my school. Secret Service took my pocket knife, and gave it back at the end of the day. If that happened today, I'd probably be in Gitmo :^D

and you missed your opportunity to impress Jodie Foster.

 

[waggy]

and you missed your opportunity to impress Jodie Foster.

that's just wrong. so wrong.

 

[SKORPI0]

People Power Revolution (1986).

Lived near where it happened, walking distance of 2 miles.

Went there and joined the millions to depose the current President.
Couldn't even go to work because the streets were literary closed. :awe:

 

[BergeLSU]

That would be a prime modern example of media hysteria in full bloom with lots of seriously flawed and outright fictitious nonsense being peddled as news.

When I leave the south and tell people I am from New Orleans, 7/10 of them think the city is still underwater or is a warzone.

 

[BrokenVisage]

One of my former neighbors has been in the news for a couple years. I knew the family well. and I know a lot about the kid's situation. It's nothing like what's been reported in the news. They've gotten it really wrong. It's so bizarre to listen to all the stuff that these fancy commentators are yammering about. I'm certainly not going to talk about this to any news people.

Anyone else ever experience this?

Looks like you're not going to talk to any of us about it either. But thanks for the useless details, leaving us on edge about what story you're even talking about.

 

[coloumb]

nope..and I like it that way!

 

[Possessed Freak]

I was at the barber 2 doors from a bank that was being robbed. Walked out of the barber to a crapton of squad cars all around.