Awful Reporting

I'm finally getting around to this...

I've been meaning to write a response to this report since I saw it on Thursday night.

Airing on WABC-TV, channel 7, in New York this report focused on three high speed boats that were unveiled for service by the U.S. Coast Guard to patrol the waters of New York Harbor.

The report was one of the worst pieces of Journalism that I had seen in some time. Continuously usually words such as "terrorism" and "9/11" throughout the report, the video acts as a PR stunt for these new high speed water crafts that are mounted with machine guns.

There is nothing wrong with having boats like this for security reasons, but when a major news outlet broadcasts a report that claims these boats will help in the "war on terror" it just feeds the fire. There is no "war on terror" being waged in the United States or anywhere else in the world. It's all rhetoric that has been used by the Bush administration for the past six years.

The question is, is this a real news story? Sure it's important that the Coast Guard have high speed boats in New York Harbor, and the report points out that the boats would be essential in saving the lives of disabled boaters, but this report acts a show of might and superiority. Another way of lulling citizens into a false sense of apathetic security.

But hey, it's nice to flex a little muscle. In the words of Bill Ritter, the broadcaster WABC-TV, these boats are "impressive little puppies."

That's just super.