I mean, no we are not aware of a connection to any metropolitan area. Which is the point. If the lack of derailment coverage was just pro-metropolitan bias you wouldn’t expect Billings, MT to be receiving the entire attention of the media right now.
I’m not sure this is relevant to the original discussion. Pro-metropolitan bias doesn’t explain the difference between how the 2 stories are being treated. Media’s class-alignment with railroad execs and politicians responsible for the disaster is a more reasonable explanation.
I would say they're equally plausible. It's kind of gross that folks are so ready to deny that there's an over focus on metropolitan issues (I say that as someone that lives in a metro and has lived in a pretty rural area before). The immediate dismissal from folks does lend more credence to the idea that it's a societal bias.
I mean, I'm not denying that there's a metropolitan bias in the media, just that it doesn't explain why 2 stories that both happened in relatively rural locations got reported on differently.
