I don't get it

3 hours have passed since it began. It's been non-stop. The news coverage, I mean.

I had just gotten back from Duke's morning walk when I turned on the TV. I tuned into TLC because that is one of my go-to channels and since this is my last weekday of time off before I start my new job on Monday I'm taking full advantage of daytime television. A rerun of A Baby Story was on, which means I was riveted from the first moment. Babies get me.

I decided to flip to the Today Show during a commercial and got up to make myself a latte. (Have I mentioned how great it is to get married and have people buy you amazing kitchen gadgets??) Halfway through pulling my espresso shot I heard the telltale chimes of a breaking news story cutting into the Today Show broadcast.

Grave situation, surely. A crane collapsed way uptown and crashed into a new-construction high-rise apartment building (as if we need another high-rise in this city), damaging it all the way down until it fell to the street. One person was killed (the crane operator - poor woman), 2 injured (construction workers), it's obviously a very sad story. This is the second crane collapse in NYC this year. The previous one was at a Trump building in mid-town and I believe there were fatalities in that accident, as well. It's a bad situation.

But let me ask this - does it warrant 3 hours of emergency news coverage? I'm not saying this because I'm dying to see what Hoda & Cathie Lee are talking about now, but because it's been 3 hours of the same images over and over, 3 hours of the same video footage on a loop, 3 hours of the same updates about the 2 injured workers' serious conditions, 3 hours of press conferences where city officials offer no new information and instead talk about how details will be forthcoming.

3 hours! I don't get it. I don't want to downplay the damage to the buildings or, far more importantly, the death of the operator or the injuries of the workers, but how much constant news coverage is enough? I hate to take emphasis away from these poor peoples' situations, but there are people who die every day in this city who don't get any coverage at all. How about the homeless guys who died at the shelter last night anonymously? The elderly woman who was found dead in her apartment weeks after she died because no one had visited her recently? What about the 20 animals that were put to death by NYCACC yesterday because they weren't adopted? There is no special coverage for them. They don't receive a headline. Why not? Because a handful of streets didn't need to be temporarily closed when they died? Is that what it takes to get people in this city to pay attention? Close a few streets? Inconvenience some Upper East Siders?