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An analysis of the Buffalo air crash

60 points| pc | 17 years ago |milesobrien.wordpress.com | reply

12 comments

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[+] pg|17 years ago|reply
I remember reading a comment here recently to the effect that "citizen journalism" could never really be taken seriously:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=430819

I remember thinking at the time that this was wrong, and that I'd seen several instances where people publishing online had clearly done their homework better than journalists writing for print publications. This article is the sort of thing I mean. It seems unlikely the big newsmagazines will do as good a job when they write about this.

Incidentally, the reason I put "citizen journalism" in quotes is not because I dislike the idea, but because I don't think this name is good enough for it. At its best it doesn't need to have any qualifiers appended: it's simply journalism.

[+] whughes|17 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_O%27Brien_(journalist)

"Based in New York City, he served as CNN's chief technology and environment correspondent. He was also the network’s space and aviation correspondent and an occasional stand-in anchor. He anchored The Situation Room on November 26, 2008, covering the terrorist attack in Mumbai on the Oberoi Trident and Taj Mahal Hotels, as well as several other locations.

He covered Hurricane Katrina for several weeks anchoring CNN’s Peabody and Dupont Award-winning coverage.

During his 16-year tenure at CNN, he anchored several news and talk programs, including Science and Technology Week, Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning, TalkBack Live, Headline News Primetime, Live From... and, most recently, American Morning."

This guy is not really a great example, although the article is definitely exceptional. He's pretty entrenched in the old media.

[+] jacquesm|17 years ago|reply
The BBC, which is renowned for the quality of its journalism seems to agree with you, they actively solicit contributions from people on the ground at the bottom of most articles.

And then there is indymedia.org which falls somewhere between the 'real' news organizations and 'citizen journalism'.

[+] eli|17 years ago|reply
Scary.

I flew into Buffalo last night and landed perhaps 20 minutes before the crash. It never would have occurred to me that ice could have been an issue. There was some light snow, but otherwise it looked like a fine night. It wasn't even cold -- the ground was too warm for any snow to stick.

[+] diN0bot|17 years ago|reply
interesting. i'm wondering now what resources to look at when flying in the winter to see what the ice risks are.
[+] pgebhard|17 years ago|reply
Very interesting and thorough analysis. It's not just someone making wild speculation based on a rehashing of network news, but rather, he seems to be a seasoned small craft pilot with legitimate knowledge and understanding to add.
[+] jwesley|17 years ago|reply
Something that insightful makes me upset at how pathetic the media is. Millions of dollars spent creating hundreds of hours of coverage, and all of it together will not be as informative as a blog post some guy wrote in an hour. Can't the networks get someone like him on the air?
[+] delano|17 years ago|reply
As an aside, the Bombardier Q-400 is a great air craft. The acceleration is incredible and it's by far the quietest turboprop I've flown on.
[+] bluishgreen|17 years ago|reply
"Whenever I see the slightest bit of ice on my wings, I disconnect the autopilot so I can feel what is happening to the airplane"

Well if feeling how much correction the plane is taking at this point is so important then shouldn't they have a prominent big red glowing light that beeps the ___ out when a threshold is reached.