Wrong!

[gridlore]

I'm watching a shcw on Discovery about Loma Prieta. So far:

- They have the quake occuring on the San Andreas fault,

It was actually on the Loma Prieta fault, which nobody really knew about in 1989.

- They show the World Series already underway.

The game hadn't started yet. In fact, the A's had just finsihed batting practice when the quake struk. Millions of Americans saw the quake live on national television.

- The damage is described as "total devastation."

damage was mostly cosmetic except in a few areas.

- The Marnia District is described as being built on marshland.

It's built on landfill. The original shoreline of the Bay is at about at Lombard Street.

- The Marina fire consumed one block, but to hear these guys the entire city was burning.

About sixteen buildings actually burned, the resto fo the damage was from the quake shock. There were several buildings that pancaked down.

The errors keep coming... faster than I can write. It's obvious that the producers want to make everything more sensational, but trust me... that day was sensational enough all on its own.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

If it's factual, people will become bored. This explains the huge outpouring of support for the war in Iraq.

[isomeme.livejournal.com]

Without exception, every single time I've watched a news or documentary program about an event of which I have first-hand knowledge, they have made significant errors (or deliberate distortions). The scary question is: What are you being misinformed about in cases where you *don't* have first-hand knowledge of the facts?

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

<annoying voice-over>Discovery Networks. We bring a new dimension to the documentary: Marketing.</annoying voice-over>

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

They also didn't mention that I started it...but then, they never do.

We were living in a cool old triplex in San Rafael...I put my key in the lock and the world started to shake. Unfortunatly, an earthquake is easier to start than stop, and taking my key out of the lock did absolutely no good.

I did get to hear the little girl downstairs call "Did you feel the earthquake?!" to her friend across the street. *grin*

Gessi

[johno.livejournal.com]

Was their "History Forensics" series, that one is really really bad.

However, the sensationallism was occuring as it happened.

We got power back fairly quicly and was watching the local news, lots of straight reporting by the locals and strong undercurrent of concern for the silence coming out of Santa Cruz.

Cable comes back on and we see the CNN and other national coverage.

San Francisco is BURNING!!!!!! Santa Cruz has FALLEN INTO THE WATER!!!!

Every reporter was backed by a pile of rubble or a fire.

I heard that the national folks looked for piles of rubble to stand in front of and even asking a bulldozer operators to make existing ones bigger.