It seems like RTE are trying to instill a fear of flying in people

cyberhog · 30-06-2011 08:47AM #1

We seem to get weekly programmes on RTE 2 about airline disasters of one kind or another.I don't understand why RTE keep feeding us this constant diet of true horror stories when the reality is that commercial planes hardly ever crash or get hijacked.

Why is RTE so obsessed with incidents involving aircraft?

Caoimhín · 30-06-2011 08:49AM

Good ratings?

Seachmall · 30-06-2011 08:56AM

It's a conspiracy by the Jews to prevent another mass emigration of Irish.

They fear us so they confine us.

Zebra3 · 30-06-2011 09:06AM

Seachmall wrote: »

It's a conspiracy by the Jews to prevent another mass emigration of Irish.

They fear us so they confine us.

No, that's the people of the Gaza ghetto they're doing that to.

GavRedKing · 30-06-2011 09:11AM

Stay away from the Discovery channel so, all they seem to show is air investigation and such shows.

Although these programmes are quite interesting IMO, they wouldnt give me a fear of flying at all.

_feedback_ · 30-06-2011 09:17AM

Bord Failte make them do it, to try to prevent people flying off on their holidays. If RTE refuse, they lock them up in a room while play "Heathers - Remember When" on repeat.

Sunnyisland · 30-06-2011 09:21AM

cyberhog wrote: »

We seem to get weekly programmes on RTE 2 about airline disasters of one kind or another.I don't understand why RTE keep feeding us this constant diet of true horror stories when the reality is that commercial planes hardly ever crash or get hijacked.

Why is RTE so obsessed with incidents involving aircraft?

:P They hate michael o'leary

Cookie_Monster · 30-06-2011 09:24AM

Don't ever watch the History Channel so, you'll be forever paranoid that Nazi tanks are going to roll around the corner.

Caoimhín · 30-06-2011 09:48AM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Don't ever watch the History Channel so, you'll be forever paranoid that Nazi tanks are going to roll around the corner.

Or the History channel. They should just stop the pretence and rename it the Nazi channel.

jester77 · 30-06-2011 09:51AM

cyberhog wrote: »

We seem to get weekly programmes on RTE 2 about airline disasters of one kind or another.I don't understand why RTE keep feeding us this constant diet of true horror stories when the reality is that commercial planes hardly ever crash or get hijacked.

Why is RTE so obsessed with incidents involving aircraft?

Doubt they are trying to stop people from flying. Don't they show every fatal car crash that happens on the national news as well. Hasn't stopped people from speeding and causing accidents!

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 30-06-2011 09:54AM

They're also very fond of programmes about buildings collapsing. They might as well just give up trying and show this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZguHLo-Yq0

Orando Broom · 30-06-2011 09:58AM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Don't ever watch the History Channel so, you'll be forever paranoid that Nazi tanks are going to roll around the corner.

On Nickelodeon furry death waits around every corner.

jimthemental · 30-06-2011 10:21AM

I was watching one of those Discovery channels last week and there was a program about UFO's on. I swear the journalism, tone and research was so poor that this thing did not deserve to see the light of day. National Geographic and History channel are occasionally good but most of the rest of these type of shows are crap. I can't understand why RTE wastes money on these when they could re run Band of Brothers or even Friends, something people want to watch.

Orando Broom · 30-06-2011 10:38AM

jimthemental wrote: »

I was watching one of those Discovery channels last week and there was a program about UFO's on. I swear the journalism, tone and research was so poor that this thing did not deserve to see the light of day. National Geographic and History channel are occasionally good but most of the rest of these type of shows are crap. I can't understand why RTE wastes money on these when they could re run Band of Brothers or even Friends, something people want to watch.

Both NG and History both have their fair share of 'The Hunt for the Nazi UFO Monsters' type shows too.

All guff, all bull****. It's a huge shame, I love me oul history and science.

Orando Broom · 30-06-2011 10:42AM

Actually why do the shows on those channels Discovery, NG and History incessantly repeat the same segues between segments all the time. they must assume that their viewership has an IQ of sub 79 and that the shows core themes need to be reinforced time after time after time.

drives me mental.

Cú Giobach · 30-06-2011 10:44AM

jimthemental wrote: »

could re run Band of Brothers or even Friends, something people want to watch.

Aarrggghhh....Noooo!!! :eek:

I used to spend a lot of my time skydiving and flying for fun and never thought twice about flying in commercial aircraft, a few years ago I was flying from Dublin to Cork in one of those Aer-Arann turbo-props and after all the aircrash investigation shows I'd seen, all I could think about as I looked out the window at the wing, was metal fatigue, counterfeit parts, bad maintenance ....etc
That fooking show has definitely taken away my pure unadulterated joy of flying (or it could be age and awareness

).

JustAddWater · 30-06-2011 10:57AM

Orando Broom wrote: »

Actually why do the shows on those channels Discovery, NG and History incessantly repeat the same segues between segments all the time. they must assume that their viewership has an IQ of sub 79 and that the shows core themes need to be reinforced time after time after time.

drives me mental.

It's called, 30 secs of footage expanded to 30 mins! Very prominent in shows such as destroyed in seconds or worlds biggest police chase 17 etc....

Cú Giobach · 30-06-2011 10:57AM

Orando Broom wrote: »

Actually why do the shows on those channels Discovery, NG and History incessantly repeat the same segues between segments all the time. they must assume that their viewership has an IQ of sub 79 and that the shows core themes need to be reinforced time after time after time.

drives me mental.

+1
Half an hour of an hour long show repeating what was already covered is becoming all too common now, I must admit it was really depressing when the BBC (still making the best though) and Channel 4 started doing it as well. I got rid of my Sky sub because Nat Geo, the History Channel and Discovery went to shite, freesat, saorview and a laptop connected to the telly is all that's needed nowadays if you're into documentaries.

phill106 · 30-06-2011 11:09AM

cyberhog wrote: »

Why is RTE so obsessed with incidents involving aircraft?

Because they believe their viewers would find it interesting? Hardly anyone watching it would have been in a plan crash and survived, so it plays on the "what if" curiosity everyone has.

Orando Broom · 30-06-2011 12:39PM

Cú Giobach wrote: »

+1
Half an hour of an hour long show repeating what was already covered is becoming all too common now, I must admit it was really depressing when the BBC (still making the best though) and Channel 4 started doing it as well. I got rid of my Sky sub because Nat Geo, the History Channel and Discovery went to shite, freesat, saorview and a laptop connected to the telly is all that's needed nowadays if you're into documentaries.

Absolutely, it's becoming contagious. Every bloody channel is doing it.

I get really down thinking about the pervasive need for dumbing down in every aspect of society.

Dravokivich · 30-06-2011 12:50PM

cyberhog wrote: »

We seem to get weekly programmes on RTE 2 about airline disasters of one kind or another.I don't understand why RTE keep feeding us this constant diet of true horror stories when the reality is that commercial planes hardly ever crash or get hijacked.

Why is RTE so obsessed with incidents involving aircraft?

Don't watch National Geographic.

ColeTrain · 30-06-2011 12:53PM

Seachmall wrote: »

It's a conspiracy by the Jews to prevent another mass emigration of Irish.

They fear us so they confine us.

They should have worked that idea into the Truman show.

heyjude · 30-06-2011 01:27PM

jimthemental wrote: »

I can't understand why RTE wastes money on these when they could re run Band of Brothers or even Friends, something people want to watch.

Perhaps its because RTE is supposed, as a public service broadcaster, to be catering to all interests and tastes and showing Friends for the millionth time, wouldn't seem to cater for that.

As for Friends being something people want to watch, if that was the sole criteria when setting their schedule, then we'd have wall to wall Fair City and Eastenders.

As to the general point as to why such programmes are popular, I think it has to do with curiosity about what happened, what the victims experienced, what caused it to happen and what was done to prevent it happening again. So far from scaring people into not flying, I think these programmes actually reassure people that such incidents are rare, that when they do happen there is a investigation and that when the reasons for the crash are established, that measures are taken to ensure it doesn't happen again.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, RTE isn't accused of scaring people from driving by showing car crashes, scaring people from sailing by showing boating disasters or scaring people from entering tall buildings by showing replays of 9/11. I suppose if you don't like a particular type of programme then maybe you could see these programmes as scaring people, but if you're that easily scared then you probably shouldn't be watching a programme like Mayday, Aircrash Investigation or Seconds from Disaster.

As I see it, there are few enough programmes on RTE worth watching and if programmes like these were removed to sate the nervous and the worried, then they should remove all the news programmes too, as what if there was a fire, a flood, a terrorist attack or an earthquake ?

AudreyHepburn · 30-06-2011 02:05PM

Personally I love the various plane crash programs because I love to understand how and why accidents happen and how planes work.

To be fair if you were to start removing all programs that could scare/damage people everything from the news to GAA matchs(which can turned violent) to films to documentries would have to go. We'd be left with cartoons and nothing more.

prinz · 30-06-2011 02:36PM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Personally I love the various plane crash programs because I love to understand how and why accidents happen and how planes work..

+1, and usually towards then end of each one they indicate how the lessons learned in each crash have been used to improve personnel training/procedures/engineering/saftey equipment/new technology etc...

which leads to this..

cyberhog wrote:

...when the reality is that commercial planes hardly ever crash or get hijacked

30-06-2011 08:30PM

I love those shows. Its facinating how such simple mistakes, the kind we all make everyday in our jobs, can lead to a plane crash.

A couple I remember

Someone forgot to remove duct dape from a sensor (pitot tube, I think) while cleaning the outside of the plane, and it crashed.

Another, there was a plane that needed it's fuel guage changed.
No problem, just stick in a new one. The maintance tech picked up one that looked idential to the old one and put it in.
Except it designed was for another model, and under estimated the amount of fuel. Another crash.

A co-pilot was calculating by hand the amount of weight (passenger, cargo, fuel) that was on-board.
But he forgot to carry the one.
Result, the runway was too short to allow the plane take off, and it crashed

Sticky_Fingers · 30-06-2011 08:38PM

salonfire wrote: »

I love those shows. Its facinating how such simple mistakes, the kind we all make everyday in our jobs, can lead to a plane crash.

A couple I remember

Someone forgot to remove duct dape from a sensor (pitot tube, I think) while cleaning the outside of the plane, and it crashed.

Another, there was a plane that needed it's fuel guage changed.
No problem, just stick in a new one. The maintance tech picked up one that looked idential to the old one and put it in.
Except it designed was for another model, and under estimated the amount of fuel. Another crash.

A co-pilot was calculating by hand the amount of weight (passenger, cargo, fuel) that was on-board.
But he forgot to carry the one.
Result, the runway was too short to allow the plane take off, and it crashed

Don't forget the one where a pilot was nearly sucked out the front window of the cockpit after it blew out all because the technician had used the wrong screw that was an teeny tiny bit too small.

30-06-2011 08:43PM

Sticky_Fingers wrote: »

Don't forget the one where a pilot was nearly sucked out the front window of the cockpit after it blew out all because the technician had used the wrong screw that was an teeny tiny bit too small.

He was sucked out as far as I remember :eek:

Only that his legs got caught stopped him being lost completely.
The cabin crew held on to him till they landed

Rebel021 · 30-06-2011 08:49PM

realies wrote: »

:P They hate michael o'leary

Who doesn't

flutterflye · 30-06-2011 08:54PM

Ah yes, the sensationalist bullcarp, with the voice over guy that does voice overs for everything, the intense melodic sequences, the vague scripting that omits reality and important facts, the shaky camera and lighting work, the leading and loaded questions and statements, the pseudo-professionals, and so on.

It's not just aircraft, it's crime, travelers, social welfare fraud, diet, child offenders, prostitution, germs, murderers, weather, water, aerosols, drugs, drug dealers, and so on ad infinitum.

It's lazy, sensationalist, garbage, which is created, carefully put together and broadcasted with the sole purpose of reeling in the average Joes and Janes that will eat up any old crap they are fed, and will go into work the following day and gossip to their friends about the shocking programme they saw last night on how all single mothers are sponging off the state, and here they are like mugs, paying for their lifestyle, and bejaysus Mary, it's just not on.

Thus prompting circulation, controversy, word of mouth advertising, and so on.

It's all about the money, money, money, and I don't think it's funny, that the media is making money from scare mongering, and lying to the general public, for nothing more than personal financial gain.

Sticky_Fingers · 30-06-2011 09:10PM

flutterflye wrote: »

Ah yes, the sensationalist bullcarp, with the voice over guy that does voice overs for everything, the intense melodic sequences, the vague scripting that omits reality and important facts, the shaky camera and lighting work, the leading and loaded questions and statements, the pseudo-professionals, and so on.

I don't agree with this at all, the Air Crash Investigation series doesn't distort reality or facts IMO. They use primary sources and interview those who were directly involved with the investigation showing how they arrived at their conclusions. I'm not a big fan of the "how the crash affected the passanger/family" bits but overall it's a fair portrait of the actual events. If anything it actually highlights just how safe air travel is since many of the crashes were due to a freak chain of events and how the industry remedied/mitigated the chances of it happening again.

It seems like RTE are trying to instill a fear of flying in people

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