Yikes, best wishes for all Londonites and people with friends and family in London.

the fog of news

Good phrase. As an inveterate clicker, I surfed from one network to the next, to CNN, only to see the exact same interview clip on each station (staggered in time, enough to be irritating). The bizarre thing was that at 7am my time, the bombings were 3 hours old, and the aftermath footage was still unbelieveably vague and far-off. If you have that little, just give half-hour updates and go with your regular programming, you know?

If you have that little, just give half-hour updates and go with your regular programming, you know?

They can't, because this is the Big Story, so they have to be talking about it, even if they have nothing to say.

They can't, because this is the Big Story, so they have to be talking about it, even if they have nothing to say.

They do that in Israel too?

I'm glad to hear Jamaica is not too worried about Dennis

Just because my family's not worried ... well, my mother flew back to Jamaica early so she could be home for the last hurricane. They're kinda weird that way. But it does sound like there's nothing to worry too deeply about. We have a solid concrete house, and the big trees have been trimmed long time.

They can't, because this is the Big Story, so they have to be talking about it, even if they have nothing to say.

Normally, okay. I'm right on board there if it were, say, the shark attack frenzy. (Ooh - shark week coming up.) But I can't say I mind in a case like this. Some stories are That Big.

Ooh - shark week coming up.

Yay! I'll have to pick up my Happy Shark Week cards - I already have a shark pen to fill them out with.

ION: ita, I like your tagline. Yay '80s pop!

But I can't say I mind in a case like this. Some stories are That Big.

This.

But, like, there is That Big, and then there is implying you have more information than you actually do. Run a ticker at the bottom of the screen; do a picture-in-picture of a loop of the footage you have; but the whole "watch the anchor ad-lib and interview minor functionaries who themselves have no idea" CNN-flood-o'-coverage sometimes just doesn't work.

They do that in Israel too?

Totally, all the time.

brenda, what I have a problem with in this scenario is how people have nothing new to say, so they're saying other stuff instead. I mean, I can totally see the sense behind repeating the facts, for people who just tuned it, but starting to throw speculations, accusations, and wrong unchecked facts. The story becomes what words that the newspeople are throwing into the air, rather than the actual story, if I'm making any sense. At least, that happens, more often than not, in Israel.

[Edit: x-post with Nutty, who expresses my thoughts better than I can. Oh, and to say that it is, in my eyes, a very personal thing, the level of too-much-news.]