December 27, 2004
Agenda-Driven Reporting
Some people just can’t help themselves. A horrendous tragedy occurs, and they exploit it for their own political ends. This reporter sounds like a defense attorney for a rape suspect, trying to blame the victim. His claim: Human activities contributed to the carnage in the Asian tsunami disaster.
“What has made this a disaster is that people have started to occupy part of the landscape that they shouldn’t have occupied,” he told AFP in a telephone interview from Paris. “Fifty years ago the coastline was not densely occupied as now by tourist hotels.”
Of course, what the reporter states is fact. It is certainly true that there would not be this level of human loss, were it not for a large number of people who now live and work so near the coastline. Fifty years ago, the coastline didn’t have these hotels, but at the same time, world air travel had not progressed enough to make it a viable destination.
Where this reporter goes off the reservation is by making claims describing places that people “shouldn’t have occupied”. This reporter came into this story with the pre-existing belief that nature is more important than human life and enjoyment, and that they got their just desserts for scoffing at mother earth.
Instead of looking at ways to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future, such as the implementation of a warning system, coupled with more flood-friendly building methods, the blame automatically falls on the evil people (especially tourists from Europe and the US) who willfully destroyed a vibrant human-free ecosystem. You can quickly tell that this reporter is more concerned with advancing the Green agenda than with the 23,000+ casualties of this horrific tragedy.
I caution to read the news defensively at all times. Often, you can spot the fallacies and bias in the arguments and stories with a little work. This, on the other hand, was downright blatant op-ed material masquerading as news.
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