LAPPING IT UP:

LAPPING IT UP: As we covered the run-up to the return of the Hawai`i Superferry (HSf) even we couldn’t predict the abject hilarity if not depravity of the Honolulu print press in their attempt to rake in advertising dollars by lying about the news.

While the Maui News headlined “Ride ‘really, really rough’;
Superferry sails, but voyage not smooth; many suffer sickness” with a secondary lede of “’It was one of the most miserable rides I’ve ever had,’ said Kim Lane of Seattle.”, the Honolulu Advertiser’s article today not only didn’t mention that 1/3 of the passengers were vomiting due to seasickness but shilled the Superferry with animated ads for IT, side-by-side with the article on-line.

The Star Bulletin, similarly ad bedecked, did mention in passing some seasickness buried deep inside a paragraph in the middle of the article. And it should be noted that Channel 9 has also covered the retching story, even interviewing Kahului Harbor’s Coalition spokesperson Karen Chun the night before the re-launch.

Both Honolulu papers report without verification the inflated numbers of passengers even at the absurdly low levels the HSf officials are claiming as compared to previously reliable eyewitness Bard Parsons’ who reports Monday’s at even lower levels of people and cars traveling.

As we enter Day 6 of the Mystery of the Missing MSM reporting on the race discrimination suit at Superferry builder Asutal, Larry Geller at Disappeared News has looked at a similarly ignored story by the big boys at the NY Times and their excuse for not even covering the recent Winter Soldier Hearings that exposed the U.S’ Iraq War Crimes and drew tremendous audiences in the alternative press such as Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now which broadcast the hearings and covered them daily.... out of New York

Their excuse? According to their Public Editor- the Times’ version of an ombudsman- their news people claim that- and I am not making this up- they didn’t know about the hearings.

Larry documents the voluminous press releases sent to the Times before the event but even if they hadn’t read them, what kind of reporters and editors does the Times hire these days that miss an event that millions are listening to and talking and reading about.

It raises an interesting philosophical question? If a tree falls in the NY Times’ newsroom and the reporters and editors ignore it, does it make a sound in the mainstream media?

The HSf Vomit-Comet is apparently a floating biohazard. No hospital, medical, police, fire or ambulance employees are allowed by law these days to treat body fluids as anything but a biohazard. Yet these poor Superferry employees- not to mention passengers, are required to slurp it up like Carol Burnett’s mop-lady, cheerfully exposing themselves to OSHA violations if not conditions that would require the DOH to shut them down.

You would think by now someone is the MSM would have gotten through to the DOH to ask about at least employee protections and the use of hazmat suits
for the crew if not the passengers who might be wearing someone else’s disease-filled lunch on their exposed skin.

“Hello? City desk? Have you heard about the story that all the reporters have beans in their ears?”
“Sorry sir- I can’t hear you... I have beans in my ears”.