Splat!

That wasn't very nice, Kodos. Go stand in a corner!

For those of you who never watch the news or live under a rock, a ComAir commuter plane crashed early this morning. If you are like me, perpetually glued to the news, you would know all of the sordid details. Don't get me wrong...I am not complaining. I should much rather hear about this than JonBenet.

So...the talking heads are running their mouths about this story, trying to piece together the random fragments they are receiving off the wires. I find it most amusing when the media starts trotting out the, "experts." Robert Hager is an expert. A random pop-psychologist is not an, "expert."

One of the anchors on MSNBC (Kodos' favorite channel of all time) was yakking it up with the pop-psychologist du jour. In compliance with SOP, ComAir has set up an 800 number to be used by those with family members and friends on this doomed flight. The good anchor was kind enough to share this with us. Except...there is one minor flaw with her reporting. She mentioned that she tried calling the number and was forced into phone-on-hold limbo (aka phone rot) for fifteen minutes. She pointed out the inefficiency in the process to pop-psychologist du jour. A conversation regarding PTSD ensues.

Here is what I fail to comprehend. If you are going to yammer away endlessly about having to wait for fifteen minutes to talk to a competent, crisis control operator for an airline...and you have no immediate connection to any of the passengers...are you not part of the problem and not part of the solution? Perhaps, just perhaps, if the media did not feel compelled to tie up the sole telephone line leading to a cherished resource, the family members might actually get through without having to wait the reported fifteen minutes and subsequently suffer from the horrors of PTSD.

Just a thought.

We are all drawn to stories about tragedies such as this. It satiates our innate curiosity for all things horrific. Reporters are supposed to report the data to us. Reporters should not cause undue harm to those who are already suffering, however.

Sometimes...less is more. This should be applied to sensational news stories. And if you're so phucking concerned about PTSD and the sanity of the victims' family...by golly gosh...do not tie up the lone phone line leading these people to critical resources.