What About Haiti?

Judging by the attention the media are devoting to the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti lately, you'd think that things must be going pretty well. No need to cover it anymore.

The star-studded telethon organized by George Clooney is over.

The ribbons that adorned the celebrities' gowns and formal wear at televised awards shows, the ones meant to raise awareness for Haiti earthquake victims, are relics.

Apparently, it's time to move on.

That, of course, is ridiculous; but it's the nature of our media and the way we view our world.

I was thinking about how great the need still is in Haiti and how quickly we forget, when I came upon this piece by Archy Cary, Big Journalism.

"Down Memory Lane: Has Haiti Fallen Victim to the MSM’s Short Attention Span?"

Cary writes:

It’s happened before, this tendency of the MSM to walk away from an incomplete story when something new, and usually more political, comes along. Like sheep moving en masse, the eager correspondents run off in a pack to chase the new news.

It happens…it did back in 1979.

On November 4, 1979, when Iranian “students” took over the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, a 444-day saga began. If you weren’t tuned-in then, here’s just one image from that day.

Although little happened for months on end, the network evening news-readers counted up the days of the “crisis” like we count up the deficit these days. For President Jimmy Carter, the no-news of the daily-news brought political death by 444 cuts.

What’s been largely erased from our collective memory is that, up until that November 4, another story had dominated the daily news cycle for months. Through November 3, day-after-day-after-day the MSM had chronicled the tragic ordeal of tens of thousands of Cambodian refugees crammed in tent camps along the border with Thailand, often crossing over the line to escape the genocide of the Khmer Rouge and their killing fields.

Then, on November 4, 1979, media coverage of the Cambodian refugees disappeared. Their story went dark. It was as though the Cambodian refugees all suddenly evaporated. They were there on November 3, then – finger snap – gone on the fourth.

Although there still are stories here and there about Haiti, it's no longer all-consuming.

Poof!

All better in Haiti?

Of course not.

It's a false reality constructed through a weird process by a group known as the media.

What really matters right now is Sarah Palin's hand.