Carmaggedon? Really?

[Canid117]

Those of you watching the news (or its parodies) recently may have seen a story about a section of well traveled highway in Los Angeles being closed for maintenance. Why is this story on national news? Because people want to put "maggedon" on the back of something so they can sell a non story. So I ask you escapist what is the worst non story you have ever seen on the news. Links are appreciated.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/125396008.html

 

[Zykon TheLich]

And he

 

[Canid117]

And here was me thinking this would be about the game...

Sorry nope this is about mainstream news.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

[quote="Canid1

 

[Thaluikhain]

At least it could be a road in the Middle East, that'd sorta make some sense.

 

[LiberalSquirrel]

Where I live, it storms in the spring. A lot. Just like everywhere else. But for whatever reason, our weather-people on certain news stations insist on cutting into programming for hours on end to literally, for hours at a time, show the progression of rain. Which is particularly infuriating when said ranting about rain is DVR'ed, and the storm is just a simple storm without any flash floods or other dangerous possibilities.

Dunno if that's "news," technically, but I figured it was applicable- seeing as it is done by major news corporations.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Yeah, sadly it's basic rules of news media nowadays, if there's a minor hitch in a travel company, or a few flight cancellations at an airport it becomes 'HOLIDAY MELTDOWN TRAGEDY FOR UK FAMILIES', however, upgrading what is essentially a traffic jam to Armageddon is impressing asshattery, probably dependent on their desperate need to shoehorn a pun into a headline.

I don't know what other rags are like, but I'm always mildly irritated when there's a plane crash or terrorist attack and the world news will be '463 people killed in plane crash', and then the UK papers will rewrite that as '2 BRITS DIE IN FOREIGN DEATH PLUNGE HORROR' and about 4 paragraphs in, it'll quietly mention 'oh and 461 non brits died too'.

HAve to admit I only clicked here in the hope of a next gen Carmageddon sequel however, Surely the burnout guys could create something wonderful, and it's not like killing people for laffs is taboo in gaming any more. So long as they keep some silliness in there like the springs that shot out of your car and catapulted people to their death 300 ft away

 

[mysecondlife]

Those of you watching the news (or its parodies) recently may have seen a story about a section of well traveled highway in Los Angeles being closed for maintenance. Why is this story on national news? Because people want to put "maggedon" on the back of something so they can sell a non story. So I ask you escapist what is the worst non story you have ever seen on the news. Links are appreciated.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/125396008.html

I use 405 to get to LA airport from where I live.. this could easily effect people who wants to fly out to Los Angeles

Also, a lot of my friends seem anxious to get this road to reopen.

this may not effect you but I wouldn't call it a non-story.

But so much for carmaggedon... I hear it's the quietest Saturday Los Angeles ever had.

 

[Berethond]

Those of you watching the news (or its parodies) recently may have seen a story about a section of well traveled highway in Los Angeles being closed for maintenance. Why is this story on national news? Because people want to put "maggedon" on the back of something so they can sell a non story. So I ask you escapist what is the worst non story you have ever seen on the news. Links are appreciated.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/125396008.html

Well the 405 Freeway is the main artery of California. Its the route 66 of modern day. You shut that down, you pretty much shut down the link keeping California well run. The volume of traffic on that stretch of freeway is too much for surrounding roads.

This is the reason California wants to fix the instrastructure, which includes shutting the 405 down for maintenance.

No, I405 is the main artery of Los Angeles. Actually it's not even the main freeway in L.A., I5 is. There are twenty million other people in California who couldn't care less about the 405, though.

However, it is still a big deal, as literally millions of people use that freeway every day.

 

[Dags90]

Ah, right. Got my freeways mixed on that. Sorry about that. The point is, its used enough to be a real issue. To say its a non-story is false.

So it's more like the spleen of California? Which makes the alternate routes the liver...

 

[XzarTheMad]

Recently, there's been a lot of stories about rain. Yes, rain. We've had a few weeks of nice weather, then one with a fair amount of rain, and suddenly all the news is about is how many people have had their basements flood, and how many people are complaining. They even interviewed a life guard at a beach about how much it sucked that it was raining. All I can say is: This is the northern european summer. It rains a lot, especially after long periods of warm weather. Get the fuck used to it, protect your basements and get over yourselves.

It's like how, every year, the State Railways are baffled about leaves, during the fall, turning to mush and making it hard to brake, or snow on the tracks during the winter. I mean honestly, people! It happens every year! How have we, in 2011, STILL not found a reliable method for clearing the few hundred kilometres of tracks in a timely manner? You employ thousands of people!

 

[Neverhoodian]

At least they didn't call it "Cargate."

I think the media likes to cover stuff like this because it's cheaper to send a journalist across town to cover a traffic jam than halfway around the world to cover real news like a war.

My local town's newspaper is probably the worst for covering truly trivial stuff. I swear 80% of the time the front page has a photo of someone at the park playing frizbee with their dog or something equally banal. Meanwhile the gang member that shot three people in a drive-by is relegated to a paragraph-long blurb on the back page. Even worse, world news is literally buried on the back of the sports page, if it's even covered at all (and it's always just a copy-paste AP article).

Seriously messed up priorities, if you ask me.

 

[Polarity27]

I have to rib on Californians a little, since my metro area (Washington DC) is always in a race with LA for worst traffic. Carmageddon? Really? Do y'all know how often they shut down bits of the DC Beltway for construction? We've been dealing with one lane and exits changed around and whatnot for what, a year or two now?

Funny, nobody ever gave us free stuff or bike races or discounts for being stuck on the Beltway. We just suck it up and deal with it. (Or we plan to move. Not as I'd be one of those people, or anything...)