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WDW Taking a Hit Over Gator and Massacre ...
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
Goofnut1980
Well-Known Member
Folks are stupid if they think something like that didn't exist before... But if they all want to cancel, that is ok with me. The Soarin' queue will be MUCH short for me to wait in!!!
Donaldfan1934
Well-Known Member
I'm still surprised that this tragedy has gotten as much press as it has. Sure, it has a sensational nature to it, but so does a kid getting killed and dragged by a bus. Why is it that this makes it into People magazine while other equally horrific events are usually relegated to brief, quickly forgotten mentions on the news? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Walt_Disney_World
Prince-1
Well-Known Member
Except a kid never has been dragged by a bus at Disney before and one has been dragged by an alligator into the water and killed at the premier resort at Disney. No big surprise to why people did a story on it.
wogwog
Well-Known Member
April 2, 2010 Fort Wilderness.Except that it has
Figments Friend
Well-Known Member
Yeah, this is definitely not helping Disney's image with consumers.
I have a story to share that happened to me recently that might be appreciated here.
If anything, it is a example of some people's perception of things.
At a retail store, I see two older ladies standing in line to purchase some 'Finding Dory' merchandise for their grandchild in tow.
They had picked out about a dozen items, and upon hearing the total price upon checkout one of them comments on how expensive the items seem to be.
In a lighthearted, fully in-jest mode, I make a comment along the lines of " Well, that's Disney licensing for you..".
What happened next was the real kicker though.
The other woman pipes up now and says " yeah, Disney needs the money to pay for that gator killing now..."
The other woman just nodded in agreement.
Uhhh...yeah.
Humorous, or disturbing..?
I'll let each decide for themselves.
I will say this - not quite what I was expecting from two sweet old ladies!
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I have a story to share that happened to me recently that might be appreciated here.
If anything, it is a example of some people's perception of things.
At a retail store, I see two older ladies standing in line to purchase some 'Finding Dory' merchandise for their grandchild in tow.
They had picked out about a dozen items, and upon hearing the total price upon checkout one of them comments on how expensive the items seem to be.
In a lighthearted, fully in-jest mode, I make a comment along the lines of " Well, that's Disney licensing for you..".
What happened next was the real kicker though.
The other woman pipes up now and says " yeah, Disney needs the money to pay for that gator killing now..."
The other woman just nodded in agreement.
Uhhh...yeah.
Humorous, or disturbing..?
I'll let each decide for themselves.
I will say this - not quite what I was expecting from two sweet old ladies!
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Donaldfan1934
Well-Known Member
I see you don't believe what I said. Here's the section in the Wikipedia article I got that from.
"On April 1, 2010, a nine-year-old boy was crushed to death by a Disney transportation bus at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground while he was riding his bicycle with an 11-year-old friend.[6] A report from the Florida Highway Patrol says that the victim appeared to turn his bike into the road and ran into the side of the bus, subsequently being dragged under the bus's right-rear tire.[6] The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.[7] A preliminary report stated that the bus driver, who has 30 years' experience with Disney, was not impaired or driving recklessly and that charges probably would not be filed, pending a full investigation of the incident.[6] In October 2010, Disney World was sued for $15,000 by the boy's mother.[8]"
THIS is exactly my point. You, a longtime member on a WDW forum, have never even heard of this incident, yet the entire general public is aware of the most recent one that happened right after news of a major terrorist attack/mass shooting?!?!?! One that happened in the very same city no less?!?!?! What the hell shot this particular story into the stratosphere, especially in a time where it had bigger news to rival?
flynnibus
Premium Member
The story isn't as sensational when most of your readers will go 'dumb kid wrecks and gets killed... Sucks but dumb kid' verse..... Innocent toddler taken from father by killer gator!!! ZOMG killer gators! Who lets that happen!!?? Zomg I never realized that could happen... AT DISNEY!
There isn't a lot of adjacent stories you can write on kids on bikes... Or monorail operations... But gators in Florida?? A gold mine of pointless 'me too' stories you can attach.
I mentioned the bus and monorail incidents awhile back for this very point..
There isn't a lot of adjacent stories you can write on kids on bikes... Or monorail operations... But gators in Florida?? A gold mine of pointless 'me too' stories you can attach.
I mentioned the bus and monorail incidents awhile back for this very point..
Donaldfan1934
Well-Known Member
You have a point here. While the severity of these incidents are the same, but the narcissistic relatability of one definitely trumps the others. Personally, I feel all of these horrific events should be treated and mourned for equally. Then again, a lot of readers were wrongly thinking "dumb parents" in this case so I guess they are to an extent.
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tractor tipper
Well-Known Member
Social media is now the new driver of how stories are seen and told. The filter of an editor is gone.
Donaldfan1934
Well-Known Member
True. The influence of social media is rapidly growing. So much so that the publicity of an event that happened just a few years ago may be larger if it happened now. Now that I think of it, this is probably the determining that affected its publicity above all else.
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SorcererMC
Well-Known Member
Interesting to me that the main headline and photos do not contain any Disney iconography (ie unless you want to count the hotels, which I don't). It gives the news story without that sensationalist aspect.
jrogue
Well-Known Member
Perhaps what also factors in to all the media surrounding this is that all eyes were already on Orlando? They had the singer who was shot that Friday, then the shooting massacre Sunday morning, and then this child being attacked on Tuesday. It was tragedy after tragedy, so that probably added into the spread of this incident
Disneyhead'71
Well-Known Member
This event at WDW had the unfortunate timing of having ALL of the international media in town for the shooting. It they all weren't already here, the local affiliates would have done all the heavy lifting.
SorcererMC
Well-Known Member
NY Times Travel section did a piece on 'theme park' tourism, which they probably wouldn't have otherwise done.
Donaldfan1934
Well-Known Member
These are the best insights yet. An influx reporters means an influx of news stories.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
A 2-year-old viciously attacked by an alligator in front of his parents at WDW's most expensive hotel versus a 9-year-old apparently veering his bike into a bus at a campground, and it seems odd that the media covers one story but not the other?
One story has headline grabbing sensationalism written all over it.
The other does not.
One story has headline grabbing sensationalism written all over it.
The other does not.
Donaldfan1934
Well-Known Member
Both are extremely horrific and gruesome deaths that could happen to your child. Unless you're dumb enough to think aligators don't exist in Florida, then I don't see how one is worse than the other.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
I agree. However, with all respect, we're not discussing what a parent might think about the tragic loss of a child.
We're discussing why the media would cover one with front page stories (which newspapers such as USA Today and AJC did) versus not mentioning the other at all.
One story is full of sensational headline grabbing aspects while the other is, sadly, "just another traffic fatality" apparently caused by a child swerving into a bus, not that bus swerving into the child.
If you've been watching the national (vs. local) media coverage, there have been many statements from those media people in effect saying, "I never thought WDW had alligators. I expected Disney to do something to get rid of them."
In fact, by not warning about alligators, a legal argument could be made that outsiders would be correct to assume that Disney had done something about them.
Interestingly enough, most coverage from a legal perspective has been along the lines of, "If Disney knew they had alligators and didn't warn the public about the problem, Disney is going to have to write a very big check."
In other words, the assumption that you are making, "dumb enough to think that alligators don't exist in Florida", is exactly why Disney should have warned about them. Legally, there is absolutely no excuse for Disney to not have posted "alligator warning" signs when it knew about the hazard.
It might be shocking but not everyone knows that WDW has alligators and not everyone reads a travel guide before visiting WDW.
I dislike the "you should just know" attitude some have. Such an attitude would not be acceptable in the case of a workplace accident. ("No need to put up a sign to warn about a wet floor. Everyone should just walk around all day assuming the floor is wet.") It's certainly not acceptable for a place that derives the majority of its revenue from out-of-state visitors.
As a business inviting customers onto its property to conduct commerce, Disney has the strongest legal obligation to warn those invitees about known hazards. This is well-established tort law. Disney failed in its legal obligation.
This case is getting so much coverage (versus the other one) in part because, in this case, Disney is to blame.
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