Rodrigo Aguiar / BNO’s Mexico bureau chief (rjavier@bnonews.com)
We got word of a major earthquake on the morning of July 15, 2009, just after another big story: a passenger plane crash in Iran. The earthquake struck off New Zealand.
We think that every newsroom should be able to track at least several major developing stories at the same time. We don’t know why, possibly because of the plane crash coverage, but the first reports of the powerful earthquake near New Zealand reached the mainstream media late.
This is our timeline (ET).
05:23: A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocks New Zealand.
05:42: A tsunami warning is issued for New Zealand by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. This is the first official word on the quake.
05:43: BNO News gets the official tsunami warning statement.
05:47: After checking the initial report from the United States Geological Survey for more parameters on the quake, the first bulletin is sent to our subscribers: BULLETIN — MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE OFF NEW ZEALAND.
05:48: Another bulletin is sent stating the magnitude and saying that a tsunami warning is in effect: BULLETIN — NEW ZEALAND UNDER TSUNAMI WARNING AFTER A MASSIVE 7.8 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE
05:56: Reuters is the first major news agency to alert its clients about the quake: MAGNITUDE 7.8 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEAR NEW ZEALAND — JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY
06:04: Then, first word from The Associated Press: BC-AS—APNewsAlert/21 The USGS issues a tsunami warning after 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits off New Zealand . It should be noted that the USGS never issues tsunami warnings, and does not even calculate tsunami possibility. That is work of the tsunami warning centers.
06:08: The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology issues a tsunami watch for much of its east coast including Sydney. An update is sent from BNO News via Twitter.
06:09: Then, first word from CNN: Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issues alert after 7.8-preliminary magnitude quake hits off New Zealand’s South Island.
06:36: The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, its sub-department is called the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre, upgrades the tsunami watch to a warning after a buoy in the ocean detected a tsunami. It was picked up by BNO News in only a matter of minutes: BULLETIN — JOINT AUSTRALIA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTRE ISSUES NATIONAL TSUNAMI WARNING. It’s interesting to know that the mainstream media did not cover this particular tsunami warning at all even though Australia’s Lord Howe Island had evacuated coastal areas and there was only little coverage from local media. A bulletin followed about one minute later, stating a tsunami had been generated: BULLETIN — OCEAN BUOY CONFIRMS TSUNAMI GENERATED AFTER MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE OFF NEW ZEALAND.
06:37 and after: Even though Australia remained under an active tsunami warning for several hours, the mainstream media’s coverage had already ended as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center canceled the tsunami warning for New Zealand itself. Throughout the coverage, while Iran’s plane crash was receiving “breaking news” attention, the earthquake was receiving only little attention as a “developing story.”
This particular event, even though no destructive tsunami was generated and no one died from the earthquake, just shows the lack of coverage from the mainstream media at times. The question is where people should turn to when the most accessible media fails to provide the most accurate and up-to-the-second information, which could be saving lives in events like this. Is a story about a deadly plane crash, which is not a developing event, really more important than a developing story which could threaten the lives of people?
NOTE: In this event, BNO News’ coverage was entirely based on BNO News sources and did not rely on any other media outlet. We are aware that there have been recent media reports which described BNO News as a “news aggregator-only” service, this is completely incorrect. BNO News has requested these articles to be edited, or to at least insert our view, but these publications have failed to do so, which we extremely regret. While we do use reporting from other publications at times, which will always make clear from which media outlet the information is coming from, we have an extensive news gathering operation. At this time, BNO News is working on our forthcoming services and can currently not afford to do original news coverage 24/7 and during these times we will include coverage from other sources which is, again, always saying it’s from another news source. This is our official blog and we will write more on our coverage in the next days.
