While the most of the world has been coming to grips with the horific consequences of the Russian tragedy, America was wrestling with a hurricane.
Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow puts the US coverage like this in today’s Snowmail:
I see we have allocated 30 seconds for the hurricane in Florida… weekending in America it was almost impossible to find out anything about the Russian tragedy. The wall-to-wall coverage of wet reporters, blowing palm trees and scudding rain were enough to make one want to put to sea to escape the transmission footprint.
And if it wasn’t the hurricane it was a basketball player’s rape charge.
I think the UK media acquitted itself well with its coverage – with the exception of Express newspapers. On Saturday, there was only one headline, and most papers, irrespective anything their marketing departments had planned, and TV campaigns that had run, put over the whole of their front page to the terrible tragedy. Not the Express. They had a CD Rom to give away, and half the front page in which to flog it. The same with the Star and its CD.
Then on Sunday, it was the Sunday Express that tried to get a British angle with a story that had no foundation. Not everything in other parts of the world can be tied into Britain. There probably weren’t any British tourists caught up in events (the usual standby), or even working there. Sometimes the news is just the news and needs to be reported as such.