Tonight Rita Crosby was doing a show from Bagram Afghanistan... a salute to the troops. Naturally I was looking forward to it - just to see the people out there and maybe catch a glimpse of my son (I know highly unlikely... but there it is).

So, what happens? A plane skids off the runway at Chicago's Midway Airport... and suddenly this is HUGE news. The plane is damaged, 2 people on the ground are injured... and this makes it necessary to stop all programming and simply speculate like mad about what "really" happened.

So far they've talked to a passenger, the woman who used to be in charge of the NTSB, given out unsubstantiated statements from a man who claims to be a flight mechanic (who did not talk on the phone or on camera), AND now they're about to talk to a pilot.

I could understand if the plane had crashed and most everyone or everyone had died... but this is like a big traffic accident. They are cutting off the troops to sit around and speculate about what "might" have happened in an incident that the announcer himself dubbed a "non-accident"!

For heaven sake! It's snowing like mad - the plane skidded into an intersection... the world has NOT come to an end and you will know more once the authorities start talking. Get off the television and quit trying to analyze a situation you have no facts to support!

By the way - stating the same tiny set of facts 15 times in a row is NOT the way to hold an audience!

Let's get back to the troops please!

UPDATE: They had just gotten back to the troops when... oh wait for it! PICTURES they got a camera out there finally and had pictures of the plane's tail piece sticking out about a fence. This necessitated stopping all programming again, and then putting the weather person on to tell us it's snowing in Chicago... d'oh - I would never have known if they hadn't told me!

UPDATE 2: I did stay up to watch the show at 1am my time. It turned out to be very good. Rita and the rest of the WWE team had gone out to one of the FOB's - they gave a tour (these were Marines but I don't know what unit). Did a tour on the ground with one of the patrols (if I remember right it was the 164th MPs from Alaska). There was a short acknowledgement of how much the helicopters do... They talked to one of the Blackhawk pilots who has been awarded a Silver Star... Very short shot from the inside of a Chinook... might have been young son sitting on the back ramp, but I couldn't tell.

The thing that bothers me most... a good number of men and women got to say hello to their families back home... I do hope that the families were able to see the entire show at some point... To think that they might have missed the opportunity because MSNBC wanted to show us the tail of an aircraft... and give us no story at all... makes me want to cry.

Posted by: Teresa in Military at 04:39 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 DITTO! I mean seriously...Rita Crosby travels to the other side of the globe to do a live broadcast, and we listen to news about a plane that skidded into an intersection.

Looks like Rita airs again at 1:00 am EST. So surely the news is slower at that time of the morning....of course, that's assuming that there aren't live photos of snow falling or grass growing somewhere.

Posted by: Jen at December 08, 2005 05:45 PM (pDbxp)

2 Thank you for the show update Jen - I didn't know there would be a rebroadcast! I think I'll be staying up a bit late - unless of course they just want to talk a bit more about the snow...

Posted by: Teresa at December 08, 2005 05:53 PM (FZwDL)

3 SUN TO RISE IN MORNING.

Details at 11.

Posted by: Jim - PRS at December 09, 2005 12:08 AM (njBz/)

4 I'm so sorry. I couldn't believe it when I saw what happened. I even went back to check my email to be sure I had the right channel.

Damn. I hope you caught it later.

Posted by: Tammi at December 09, 2005 01:27 AM (ElqcZ)

5 Totally annoying. It was the one time I was actually planning to watch Rita Cosby's show. Idiot!

Posted by: Sissy Willis at December 09, 2005 02:21 AM (mrcD4)

6 What a crock! Hope you did get to see the replay, and I hope that you and a LOT of other people let the station know how you feel. Also, let the advertisers know how you feel -- that will get more attention and help fix the "Sun Will Rise In The Morning" school of non-reporting...

Posted by: Laughing Wolf at December 09, 2005 02:49 AM (5cMH5)

7 I managed to stay awake to see the rebroadcast, and it was definitely worth it. So little is on the news about Afghanistan and what our troops are accomplishing there, that I am so glad MSNBC (of all channels) reported from BAF and had something positive to share.

Posted by: Jen at December 09, 2005 05:14 AM (pDbxp)

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I was over at Sieg's place and I see that some of the WWE stars are visiting Bagram! Looks like MSNBC will be doing a show tonight...

National media outlet MSNBC is scheduled to provide news coverage of the tour. MSNBC's Rita Cosby has announced plans to broadcast "Rita Cosby: Live and Direct" live from Afghanistan on Wednesday Dec. 7, and Thursday, December 8, at 9 p.m. ET, to provide viewers a look into life on active duty for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and to chronicle WWE's tour.

Tune in tonight to see some of Big Windy's finest!

Posted by: Teresa in Military at 07:10 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Thanks for the extra info on what to look for on MSNBC. Right at 9:00 p.m. EST, I was anxiously sitting in front of the TV ready to watch - only to be interrupted by news of the Chicago SWA plane crash. No offense to the passengers aboard that flight - I mean I'm glad everyone seems to be okay. But what about the troops?!

Posted by: Jen at December 08, 2005 04:33 PM (pDbxp)

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If you heard about the 2 Chinook Emergency landings today and are stopping by because you were looking for information.... They were NOT Big Windy chinooks.

There were 5 US soldiers injured and one Afghani National Army soldier also injured. So far, the only word on them is that they are stable. Please keep them in your prayers.

Many many thanks to Calivalleygirl for keeping me up to date!

Posted by: Teresa in Military at 07:51 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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