Anatomy of a Flight 1549 media mob scene
Yesterday, I noted how passenger Jeff Kolodjay spoke to the media about his harrowing experience and about pilot Chesley Sullenberger’s heroism immediately after emerging from the frigid waters of the Hudson River. The video was played many times last night. It bugged the hell out of me. And here’s why: Kolodjay’s ears and nose were red. He had no coat, short sleeves, and only a flimsy cap on his head while the bundled-up reporters stood there sticking their recorders and cameras in his face. When a reporter challenged him on not even being wet, he pointed out that his pants had been soaking and were frozen solid on his legs. He could have said, “It’s 20 degrees out here and 40 degrees in the water, you ninny!” Instead, he patiently and graciously spoke to the media pack for another several minutes. He described letting women (including one with a baby) off the plane first. He was amazingly calm, thoughtful, gracious, good-humored, and at times, overwhelmed with emotion.
Too bad the clods around him demonstrated such ill manners. Eventually, someone gave him a coat. (Watch about a minute into this video — which was filmed at the very end of the media mob scene.) It’s not clear if it was a journalist who finally gave him some warm clothing while all the other reporters shivered despite being covered head to toe. I know they have to do their jobs. But how about a little humanity and consideration? Geez.
The thing is, Kolodjay seems like such a decent guy, he probably didn’t mind or notice the media mob’s thoughtlessness. But it was there and it was stark and it was embarrassing.
Let’s walk through the middle of the media mob scene frame by frame. (Video here.)
Reporterette Number One looks warm and chic in her winter coat and turtleneck. Media Guy Number One in the black hat pushes himself up front in the right-hand foreground. Kolodjay in the middle looks cold.
Media Guy Number Two in the brown hat approaches. Media Gal Number Two in the back has a thicker hat than Kolodjay and a cozy scarf. Kolodjay looks really cold.
Kolodjay’s ears are red. We see more of Media Guy Number Two’s big black coat. Media Guy Number Three in the back nears the scene in huge hooded outerwear. Kolodjay’s ears are red. He looks cold.
Media Guy Number Four rushes up. Nope, not to give his cozy hat and coat to Kolodjay. To stick the mic in his face, silly. Media Gal Number Three wrapped in scarf, hat, and heavy jacket does the same. Oh, and pay attention to the furry-topped guy running from the back. Meanwhile, Kolodjay’s ears and nose have grown even redder. Crikey, he’s got to be cold.
There’s Furry-Topped Media Guy! Coming to the rescue to offer his winter apparel to Kolodjay, who has just been through hell? Nope again.
First to pester. Last to respond with a helping hand. Media vultures at work. Guess they were too busy being “objective” to see a fellow human freezing his buns off right in front of their faces. Oh, but I’m certain Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, and company are now frantically wooing Kolodjay for the next-day, Big Get interview with all sorts of special enticements to compensate.
Because They Care.
***
Compare and contrast:
Many passengers rushed toward the back, thinking that was where the emergency exits were, Mr. Zuhoski said, but that part of the fuselage seemed to be sinking, and flooding, faster. “I started to get, you know, close to my neck underwater. I just thought I was going to drown right there.”
He stripped down to his underwear, the better to swim to safety. As the crowd thinned out, he crawled across the top of the seats and clambered out. He said he believed he was one of the last people off the plane, and he swam to a dinghy that was bobbing in the Hudson.
Everyone else in the dinghy had their clothes, and everyone was dry. They huddled, and each peeled off something to outfit him.
***
Afterthought: What would JTP do? Somehow, I don’t think Joe would have let Jeff stand in front of him freezing while doing an interview. But I guess that wouldn’t be very Professional.
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“He never got fazed by anything. He was just so calm.”
January 17, 2009 04:20 PM by Michelle Malkin
37 CommentsFlight 1549 pilot: God bless Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger!
January 15, 2009 05:57 PM by Michelle Malkin
97 Comments
Plane down: US Airways disaster miracle in Hudson River; Update: All survived? Passenger: “Everyone prayed”
January 15, 2009 03:49 PM by Michelle Malkin
75 Comments
Categories: Flight 1549
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If any of the MSM see that you have posted this, I can just about guarantee that they will spin it as Mr. Kolodjay is just a glory hound that was seeking attention and if he was cold he should have gone to where he could have found warmth, because obviously by that time the emergency response workers had provided him that option.
I was thinking, while the ordered evacuation of the plane was recalled, that the passangers and crew behaved as Americans. We rise to the occasion and we do our country pround, no matter the circumstances. That’s what Americans do…..
And the media, well, look what they do, or don’t do. Sums it up all right there.
I’m beginning to understand why journalism, or at least what we now call journalism, is an appealing job for so many Americans. It requires no special skills, no real credentials in any area of life, no accountability to any external entity, brings with it Constitutional rights with which to attempt brow-beating others, and has no means to regulate itself. But hey, what should I expect? It’s not like Congress or the Executive Branch really give much credence to the Constitution, so why should I expect the press to follow through with their Constitutional purpose?
If you watch the video of this man talking on a cell phone you can clearly see he is suffering from hypothermia. His lips and the hand holding the phone are clearly shaking and not one person in the press, trying to hear every word he says, offers this man a damn thing to wear.
Makes me wonder if the new media did this crap on purpose in the hopes of getting very dramatic coverage of people collapsing from hypothermia.
Story first, humanity second. It’s always that way. Got to get the interview done and get it printed, then have time to do something merciful, if there is time left.
They’re journalists, which is another way of saying they’re libs. We all know libs don’t give of themselves. They get government to make others give of themselves.
That’s just how they roll.
This media scene was set up so the bubble headed bleached blonde can come on at 5 and tell you bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye……… Thank God no one died!
Pilot should get a medal and a hefty bonus!
When prodded to explain their apparent indifference to the man’s extreme discomfort, they can say they took their lead from the emperor penguins of Antarctica and huddled around him to protect him from the icy wind. That, or just become indignant, like George Costanza, when he ran in panic out of a children’s birthday party, screaming “fire”, after spying smoke in the kitchen, later attributed to a greasy hamburger fire that the birthday clown put out with his big shoes. He claimed later that he was leading the people to safety, and wondered (to the fireman) what kind of society would cast aspersions on the acts of a hero.
Wow! I commented about that scene with my friends at supper last night. I mentioned how empty-headed and thoughtless the reporters were to pester the poor guy wearing just a tee-shirt.
MSM reporters are just a bunch of vultures.
Off Topic, great column today Michelle. Excellent.
It’s really quite simple. The media couldn’t hand over any of their winter gear because they would have gotten cold. And if they got cold, they’d have had to leave the area to warm up — and then who would be left to stick microphones in the survivors’ faces???
The media are too important to the survival of the planet have to leave over such mundane matters as a scarf or gloves. The public has a right to know, dagnabit!
I think we need paparazzi laws for the media.
This is a very good point, Michelle Malkin, but it’s tainted by the bizarre partisan spin you seem to attach to every story, regardless of how relevant it is.
You want to find a group with lower ratings than the Pelosi/Reid congress? Just mention “the press” at your next social gathering.
They’re ignorant jackals, with WAY too much influence.
The “journalists” couldn’t give him anything, it might influence their reporting, it might show bias.
As if these jerks aren’t the most biased and unethical reporters ever!
If it was “the one” they would be begging to give him their jackets, scarves, hats and the women would be begging to take him home and personally warm him up. This is only speculation, based on recent behavior, of course.
Well you know…if he had collapsed , it would have made for a much “better” story……
Wouldn’t redistribution of warmth be Marxist? Thank god they didn’t offer their keffiyehs. Or their Che t-shirts.
I know this is slightly off topic…
Seeing that a huge flock of Canadian geese took this plane down, maybe it’s time for the USFWS to lift the ban on hunting them. For years now they have been flying rats pooping everywhere creating a huge nuisance. The Canadians can hunt them – why not us?
I got the feeling they were waiting for him to declare himself a victim.
Those passengers had to confront hypothermia because, in 8 years as President, George Bush never had the decency to even consider a multi-billion dollar “Coats for Wintertime Waterway Flight Crash Victims” federal program. The media was just doing their job by showing us how much suffering Bush was allowing to happen. This will change next week with Obama. His first task will be to call in his Joint Chiefs of Staff and order them to do….uh….something or other about the cold or the soldiers or whatever…
It allows one to be a selfish snot in everything one does, and get away with it.
Hold on there NJR…this will eventually be blamed on global warming and the increase in the volume of birds’ flight patterns.
Isn’t the redistribution of warmth MARXIST? When did conservatives start believing that keeping someone in an extreme cold environment and questioning them, constitute torture?
But before this happens, and as we ponder the event, I’m sure the Obama Eco Czar has already dispatched hundreds of lawyers to obtain passenger flight lists and converged upon the scene to set up clients for the eventual law suit against Americans for causing global warming which eventually brought this plane down.
There, the story has already been written and you read it here first.
That’s not just journalism, that’s liberalism… not that there’s much if any any difference.
This seems like a familiar situation. I realize these reporters are being paid to do a job and pretty often, their bosses are real A-holes, but this really does perpetuate the image of “Media Scum” doesn’t it?
I’m sure they’ll do their proper research beforehand (you know, make sure he’s paid his taxes, child support, alimony, whatever) becasue they’ll learn he’s a hardworking, honest contributor to society who happens to vote conservative.
Because they care.
No surprise from me that the media acted the way they did. Give the freezing survivor of the plane crash a coat? Why should they?
Does anyone else remember the MSM video of the sniper killing an American soldier in Iraq?
They don’t care – it’s all about getting a story.
A couple of these reporters do seem to be less than thoughtful-perhaps the rush of the moment shut off the empathy part of their brain-if they have one.
But we must remember that before that all kinds of small boats rushed to the rescue-tug boats, harbor pilot, water taxi and such.
Reporters as a class do generally irritate me. A number of years ago a local man lost his wife and children in a car crash. As he was being escorted into the hospital by the police a local TV reporter stuck a microphone into his face and asked him how he felt.
Class. But there were heros yesterday-it is just they were doing things and not talking stupid.
Couric & Co. won’t do that. That job is for the Obam-a-bots working at various public agencies. Who by the way will gladly furnish such information the the Obamedia for a small fee…or favors to be redeemed at a later date.
When I think about it, the way of liberal journalism isn’t to offer one’s own coat to a freezing passenger, but instead to castigate the Bush administration for failing to establish a fully funded ‘Department of Winterwear for Survivors of Airline Disasters in Cold Weather,’ followed by lengthy editorials, and eventually a $350,000,000 Federal agency, located in West Virginia, to stockpile coats in the event of future airline accidents.
That’s the liberal way.
What I find most inappropriate is how journalists/reporters insert themselves into the situation as if they are an integral part of what is happening. They are like the people who show up late to a party and remind everyone that the party may begin now that they’ve arrived. If something bad has happened, reporters insert themselves into the situation as the scene investigator, technical/legal expert, and judge. If something good has happened, reporters insert themselves as the accomplice of the hero, that if they weren’t there, then none of this would be possible.
The geese are Canada geese, not Canadian geese. We really don’t know where they are from. They could be from Canada or just upstate New York.
I saw that interview on last night’s news and was thinking the exact same thing. What a bunch of j-school clods…
When I first saw the video last night I assumed someone had already offered him dry clothing.
It did not dawn on me he was standing there in frozen clothing.
Look, journalists are not humanitarian at heart, they all dream of a Pulitzer, that is all.
I thought after NBC’s Brian Williams’ telephone interview of Mr. Jeff Kolodjay, he was allowed to get changed/showered/warmed and not have to stand half-frozen answering inane questions from the mob, er reporters.
I was wrong.
The part that surprises me, is that you seem surprised… This is the same MSM, who after a major tragedy, will chase down family and friends of the victim to get their IMMEDIATE reaction… SCUMBAGS all… If you believe things are different now because of SOCIETAL CHANGES, just take a look at the classic movie HIS GIRL FRIDAY… Not much has changed in 70 or so years…
mchristian said: (#31)
Maybe we could ask to see their papers?
This is the same MSM that had hundreds of reporters descend upon New Orleans during Katrina, only to not lend a hand while filming the misery.
I was at a seminar where the editor and chief of NPR was speaking and asked him why none of these reporters helped with the relief effort. The answer- “It wasn’t our job.”
So now you can relate to how most of America feels about the NY Times and CNN.
I am waiting for the liberal MSM and Peta to start blasting the pilot for “carelessly steering his aircraft into the path of the helpless geese” and then “purposely landing the jet in the river causing an ecological disaster” from leaking fuel and trauma to fish and fin alike.
There’s no damned “bizarre partisan spin”. If Michelle calling out these lowlife uncaring P.O.S. scumbags for what they are leads you to believe they are of a particular political persuasion, then you have just met the textbook description of projection. It’s as simple as that.
#31
I don’t care where they are from. People should be able to hunt them. They don’t seem to migrate anymore – except from playground to recreation area to a park, etc. There’s a problem when you can’t even walk on a grassy area without stepping in goose poop. The fact that they’re protected is ridiculous!
. . . on his way to the gym.
This is this first crash in a couple of years and now all of a sudden we have this hoax about birds shutting down an engine……What is the matter with everybody?…..you know Bush knew about these birds and didn’t warn the pilot!…….Sheeesh!
I would’ve given him a coat. Besides the fact that he is a bona fide hero, he looks like Robbie Williams!!
Detailed Truther analysis of Ms. Malkin’s video captures and bug-eyed claims of Jeff Kolodjay being a “fake” hero on a leftist blog site in 3… 2… 1…
Maybe the media figured with all the Global Warming, the passenger didn’t need a coat.
Your report reminds me of the exact moment when I began to lose respect for the media, which I remember as clearly as though it were yesterday.
It was about a hundred years ago, back when I was still in school, and involved the late Barry Dunsmore who was then an ABC correspondent in Saigon (as it then was).
As Saigon was falling to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces there were many evacuation flights taking place.
One of these flights was carrying children (orphans I think). The organizer was a woman (in fact a Montrealer) named Naomi Bronstein, and she was obviously working with a lot of love for these children and trying to get them to safety.
Shortly after takeoff the plane crashed, killing everyone aboard, including the children and Ms. Bronstein’s colleagues. The crash, and their deaths, occurred in front of her eyes.
I have never forgotten, nor forgiven, Barry Dunsmore’s coverage of that tragedy. The poor woman was obviously distraught, shaken, in shock…you name it. Yet there was Dunsmore, microphone in her face persistently asking her difficult questions about the accident that had just occurred, and the people who had been killed.
It was one of the cruelest most merciless media moments I have ever had the misfortune to watch, and I have never forgotten it.
I remember that incident every time I hear anyone talk about the nobility of the media. Your excellent comment on yesterday’s journalistic coverage brings it all back to me.
Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.
Even then, the MSM disdain for that war overshadowed the possible compassion they could have had. Some things never change, only grow in numbers.
My how you generalize. That’s not very tolerant of you.
What is the difference between Al-Qaeda and the MSM?
Still thinking??
Both enjoy/are employed in watching Americans die/suffer.
Both target & attack patriotic Americans.
Both describe America as satanic.
Both think our soldiers are all murderers.
Stumped? Me too.
Im just amazed at how that Obama fellow was able to get on board that plane in mid-flight and save all of those passengers from dying in the plane crash.
If only he had been president-elect on September 10th, 2001.
“Joe’s not even a real
Plumberjournalist. He’s just a fraud and he wasn’t even properly vetted.” (Channeling Alan Colmes, Bill Mahr etc. etc.)I’ll take a live report from Joe over any of these idiots. And yes, if it were Joe doing the interview, he would be shivering sans coat and hat and this guy would be warming up as they made their way to the ambulance. Both looking forward to an interview at a later, more convenient time and place.
Ann Coulter called, she wants her pathological paranoia back.
Politicalguano said: (#50)
The MSM does not commit suicide bombings, at least directly. While the al-Qaeda leadership doesn’t either, its lower-level people do: the MSM does not. (They may exacerbate situations, but thye do not actually bomb.)
Oh, and from what I’ve heard, a fair percentage of the MSM likes to drink a lot[may be a bad stereotype], which al-Qadea isn’t likely to do.
Otherwise….
Michelle, where have you been? The MSM’s (a.k.a. – The Federation) Prime Directive is to “explore other worlds without interfering in the cultural development of such worlds. This is particularly the case when these civilizations lack the advancements that make a culture a candidate planet for Federation inclusion.” HT: wisegeek[dot]com
Well she can’t have it – not ’til I’m as rich as she has become, writing one best seller after another!
What partisan spin? She is pointing out that these “journalists” let this guy freeze his butt off without any concern for his physical well being!
There isn’t a partisan word in the story. Are you projecting again?
What would Sarah Palin have done in such frigid circumstances?
Im not sure thats a fair question – to anyone.
Sarah would think its summer and would be in a t-shirt
Guess we have a “new” JTP in Jeff the Passenger … and the MSM
JournalistsProstitutes predictably descended on him like a bunch of vultures looking for something to satisfy their bloodlust for stories of unbridled vicitimizationThe reporters didn’t give a cr@p about the passengers aboard the plane. They just wanted to get the story.
Gee, so how does it feel to be on a plane which crashed?
and running shorts : )
As reprehensible as these reporters are, wait until Israel (foolishly)allows the MSM to go into Gaza. For weeks, these MSM guys and gals led by pack leader Christine Amanpour will have morality tales for all the world to see. Evil Israelis and saintly innocent Palestinians. Wait until Brian Williams and Rick Sanchez and the rest of the MSM stand in front of destroyed building (all the while wearing their carefully ironed Banana Republic outfits with epaulets on shirts) and lecture Israel on its destructiveness. All semblance of objectivity will be stripped away. Expect Amanpour to be especially nasty and whiny, replete with her fake British accent. Maybe her husband Jamie Rubin will tag along behind her, nodding at his idol.
Vultures is a little to far up the food chain, piranha is a little more like it.
Lipstick.
Story – first
On air – second
top ratings – third
compassion –
pricelessI don’t believe that all journalists are as coarse as those we observed yesterday. I can remember, as an intern at a television station, when a reporter was talking to a woman whose husband was a Marine stationed in Beirut during the barracks bombing. They were talking to her in her home. When a family member said that some soldiers were walking up the pathway to the door. She started crying and family members started yelling. The cameraman kept the camera running until the reporter told him to shut the g-d video off just after the doorbell rang. She got to observe her grief without it being on the national news. There are fewer and fewer of those types of reporters out now.
“Journalists” will film someone being killed without lifting a finger to prevent it because “they only report the news, they don’t make it.” I’ve heard this dozens of times from reporters and can only shake my head that a ‘story” comes before a human life/ How do normal human beings become such low lifes?
Michelle, What do you think Ernie Pyle was, then? By your standard, Pyle would not have taken one picture because he’d be too busy assisting fallen soldiers instead of recording the carnage. Does a reporter have to be on a doomed flight before having a legitimate right to report on it?
Besides, If a reporter offered him their coat, it would be an example of media-bias. sarc
Not defending the MSM, but I saw more complete video of this mob scene and at one point Mr. Kolodjay has a coat on and he takes it off. ::shrugs:: For what it’s worth.
She would have warmed me up just by being there. It would have felt tropical.
ECS
A reporter asked an Omaha man how he felt after his house burned to the ground. He replied “How do you think I felt? That was a dumb question.”
Now, if he was a woman, or African-American or wearing a turban, he would have been glorified at once.