4/23/13 11:02 AM

This is a pretty extensive disaster it seems. Boston news cycle trumping it into obscurity it seems? ?

4/23/13 1:35 PM

The disaster in Texas has more loss than the BM event, yet it is only a blip on the radar. In the Boston area, it is barely mentioned here, but the news here does have a daily 10 minute update on the condition of the bombing suspect (morning/noon/night) in the hospital before we talk about the weather.

Today's (April 23rd) boston.com front page.

http://boston.com/

No mention of the TX disaster.

4/23/13 1:40 PM

Hate to say it, but it's true.

West is getting some press, and got quite a lot for the first few days (especially with the video of the explosion), but it seems to have cooled fast (except for the muckrakers on FB pointing out that it had a lot more explosives on hand than it should have, wasn't on the regulatory radar, etc.). Overall, you're right--it has passed quickly out of the mainstream.

But then again, it wasn't criminal or terroristic, was it?

4/23/13 2:21 PM

Perhaps if it happened a couple days BEFORE, rather than AFTER the Boston bombing, it might have gotten more press coverage?

4/23/13 3:24 PM

The blast damaged 150 buildings, including three of West's four schools, killed 14 people and injured more than 160 others. It was so powerful that it set off seismographs, registering as a 2.1-magnitude tremor.

Note to self: Do not live near fertilizer factory.

4/23/13 3:43 PM

It's gotten plenty of coverage here in New York. But then, we have real newspapers and real tv news . . .

4/23/13 6:05 PM

" muckrakers on FB"

I guess you mean facebook, because under-regulation doesn't sound like fox broadcasting.

A real tragedy, as real as the one in Boston.

Does anyone recall in the Boston speeches any mention of moral support for the families in West? Not that I don't think it would escape the speech writer's imagination, but listening to them all is unlikely.

BTW, it took until Monday before I heard an analysis of the Boston shut- down that agreed with mine: It was a lesson sent to the world of how to effectively shut down major US cities for a day.

Two differences:
Mine recognized terrorists' willingness to trade a life to accomplish the task, (obviously.)
The commentator raised the point that discovery of the suspects involved intense gunfire.
Long term security issue vs Episodic public safety concern.
Difficult decision, and one I'm not going to second guess.

4/23/13 7:03 PM

NPR and PBS have been covering the West, TX explosion well. I don't listen to local news because it's pretty much Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" over and over. And yes the tragedy in TX was covered in the Boston speeches.

The shutdown of Boston was strictly because the bombers were so clueless that they didn't have an exit strategy and so were running around town when they should have been long gone. It's like Timothy McVeigh and his broken tail light. Around here it's the guys with suspended licenses that have the defective cars that attract the attention of the police. Not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

4/23/13 9:29 PM

quote:

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It was a lesson sent to the world of how to effectively shut down major US cities for a day.

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