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Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

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Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#101

Post by ramesh31 »

sebkomianos wrote: post #88
ramesh31 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>have to wonder why a story of environmental disaster (and presumably, negligence) making a small town uninhabitable isn't being milked for every drop of sensation that can be mustered. Trains crash. Accidents happen. It's about as newsworthy as a severe thunderstorm. Sad for the people involved, but true nonetheless.

You can't really believe that brain-damaging chemicals in the air (and soil and water) is the same thing with lightnings in a severe thunderstorm!

>You can't really believe that brain-damaging chemicals in the air (and soil and water) is the same thing with lightnings in a severe thunderstorm!

To a news cycle it is. There will surely be longform thinkpieces, investigative journalism, and maybe a Peabody or two to come out of this in a year. But as far as national headlines, simply nobody cares about a train wreck with zero casualties somewhere in the midwest.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#103

Post by hgsgm »

ticviking wrote: post #49
bruce511 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am intrigued by your outrage (seriously). I'm curious to know what you are hoping the world's media will accomplish there? On the one hand train derailment, chemical fire, environmental damage - it makes for a story but really not a terribly interesting one (to me). It's certainly an unwelcome event, but there doesn't seem to be anything deeper than what you see on the surface. Is there a deeper story here? Is ther…

The TL;DR of the ongoing story is the train engineers tried to strike recently over these kinds of issues and our Congress stopped them from doing so. Now it’s an massive disaster that we were warned was coming and the basic measures to fix it(like hiring more engineers and letting them have sick days) won’t happen in a sane way.

The unions negotiated for more sick/emergency time (supported by Democrats but blocked by Republicans), and argued that working sick/distracted would be a safety risk, but they did not negotiate for the equipment and maintenance changes that would have prevented this derailment.

Wikipedia:

> The trains were not equipped with electronically controlled pneumatic brakes, which a former Federal Railroad Administration official said would have reduced the severity of the accident.[4] In 2017, Norfolk Southern had successfully lobbied to have regulations requiring their use on trains carrying hazardous materials repealed.[4]

> About 48 hours later, the National Transportation Safety Board said it had preliminary findings that a mechanical problem on an axle of one of the cars led to the derailment.[9]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Ohio_train_derailment

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#104

Post by nimbius »

refuse wrote: post #5

I've heard about this, but it is surprising how little coverage it gets compared to other things. If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda (you'd also have to weigh it against other stories developing at around the same time). I have to wonder why a story of environmental disas…

Unsurprising. Even the love canal disaster in the US faced massive disinterest before it was quietly revealed to have been a cataclysmic environmental contamination. It boils down to this:

- rail fired a ton of employees a while ago and is now seeing serious issues due to mismanagement

- government oversight is a moderate Republican masquerading as a liberal democrat and just wants the clout from successful negotiations but the concep of most government oversight in the US is hold music at best.

- this city does not threaten harm or inconvenience elites.

- reporting this issue harms and threatens elites and could see a ripple effect during a recession. Rail is a primium mobile for most of wealths investments at some level.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#106

Post by sebkomianos »

worthless-trash wrote: post #76
sebkomianos wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few questions: 1) Do you think that a town getting poisoned is not "special"? 2) Do you think that the 5000 people that lived on said town are out of life-threatening danger? 3) Do you think it's only said town and said 5000 people that are threatened by this? 4) Don't you think that working conditions need to be regulated in order to be safe? 5) Don't you think that this disaster could help us prevent other ones?

Explain how media sensationalism helps 1-5. The people are already very aware, authorities are already aware, you're already aware. so we can't use the awareness angle.

I don't know what you mean by "sensationalism" so I will only say this:

Such disasters need to be heavily reported on because that's the only way for better regulation and prevention.

Furthermore, there is things that have to be done for the town to become safe and for the people to be taken care of and compensated.

And that's about it, really.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#107

Post by freen »

luckylion wrote: post #91
pessimizer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda It's not like it's subtle. There have been hundreds of Chinese weather balloon stories in the past week. Have there been hundreds of stories about this? US companies make money from stories about Chinese weather balloons. They lose mon…

> US companies make money from stories about Chinese weather balloons. They lose money when horrific things like this happen. The carrier will lose money. But a news company would make money, wouldn't they? Bad news is good news after all, and environmental disasters are bad news.

Likely there is considerable overlap in ownership between the handful of railway companies that dominate the market and handful of media companies that dominate the market.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#108

Post by sebkomianos »

clouddrover wrote: post #97
sebkomianos wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What is it about? Is it about trying to construct an incoherent false narrative that it is being covered up?

No, it's about the story itself.

If you see a news title reading "This happened there and you haven't heard about it" but you have actually heard about it, just move on.

What's the point of saying "I have actually heard about it?".

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#109

Post by epakai »

pessimizer wrote: post #70
epakai wrote: post #20

Frankly getting tired of hearing about how I haven't heard about it, and nobody wants me to hear about it. If you want to write about news, write about it. If you want to point out instances of news media not covering this story where they might have covered other stories go for it, cite instances. All I've been convinced of so far is some people have an axe to grind, and part of their narrative is how the media or t…

The person who wrote this article doesn't owe you anything. And they certainly didn't beg you to read this.

If they want to make false claims and not back them up then my two-cents is more than they deserve. This article does nothing to reinforce the headline. It's just a clickbait summary that leads to myself and others flaming the article rather than the kind of discussion that's worthwhile on HN.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#110

Post by sebkomianos »

eastbound wrote: post #89
Johnny555 wrote: post #61

One conspiracy theory floating around is that the UFO shoot downs came at a fortuitous time to keep this chemical spill off the front page.

In a world where the Ukraine war ended Covid, balloons in the sky can certainly keep environmental catastrophes off the front page.

Preach, brother.
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