From the CBC:
In addition to help from other Louisiana and Alabama departments, a Canadian task force of firefighters and police arrived four days after the storm, St. Bernard Fire Chief Thomas Stone said.
"If you can get a Canadian team here in four days, U.S. teams should be here faster than that," Stone said, referring to Vancouver's Urban Search and Rescue Team, which has been working with the Louisiana state police in the St. Bernard Parish area, about 30 kilometres east of New Orleans.
However, if you read a similar article on AOL.com then the above paragraph will be mysteriously absent...
The Canadian story: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050906/w090656.html
The AOL version: http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050824033709990005&_ccc=1&cid=842
What's going on here?
How come we aren't getting the same news that our good neighbors came to help us out before we got off our own asses and did something on our own? Granted, there are references to the 82nd Airbourne in the AOL draft that I don't see in the CBC draft, but that's a bit different isn't it? I am talking early response.
I, for one want to know how Canadians from Vancouver got to the trouble spot before US rescue teams did. How could this happen? I thank the Canadians for their efforts and for stepping up to do the right thing.
Now for the kicker: The Canadian firefighter paragraph WAS in the AOL story not 20 minutes ago. IT HAS BEEN REMOVED.
5 comments:
See? We help your sorry asses out, and this is the thanks we get.
And we'll keep doing it, too. So there.
There's two things going on here.
First: Canadian news always frontloads any Canadian angle.
Second: The United States media gatekeepers don't really care what happens outside Canada.
What do I think happened? The AOL gatekeeper decided that criticism of US response that smacks that another country could do things better was just too hot and it was deleted.
But this is nothing new. Canadians are very smug about all the craziness that seems to go on in the USA but very few Canadians actually get immersed in the same media soup as Americans do.
They *think* they do -- but they don't. If you want to see what's going on, read a book called "The Culture of Fear." That's what's going on. My parents, New Yorkers both, have lived here for 25 years. But they retired to Fla a couple years back.
They CANNOT BELIEVE THE DIFFERENCE.
My dad, who is the least savvy media critic going, said to me last Christmas, "they try to scare you about everything here. Everything. No wonder everyone's so crazy."
We don't get that kind of news in Canada.
In Canada, the problem is that French speakers and English speakers get totally different spin.
It's always something.
Funny Catch, though.
Just discovered this blog (I'm slow, I know) and wanted to say keep it up...
AOL ran the story using their abti-Canadianism filter taking out all the OU words (colour, favour etc) so the article was unfortunately shortened (I am Canadian bourn actually heh)
Excellent post, Bill, and exactly what I observe, living in both countries as I do now. Thanks, and I hope you'll keep on it...
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