Forgive me for the harsh headline. Bad weather puts me in a mood.
Of course, it's weather. It's been happening for billions of years, long before we built cities beside - or in some cases, below - the sea, long before we decided we were masters of the environment. Yeah, right.
So I can't really blame Mother Nature for doing her thing. I can, however, toss a few barbs at every American television network anchor and reporter currently covering the hurricane beat. There's a fine line between informing the public (good) and scaring the bejeebers out of them for no good reason (as you likely guessed, bad) and I'm going to conclude that most of these journos long ago crossed that line.
Their hyperbolic, sensationalistic choice of words and tone doesn't help viewers understand what they need to do to protect themselves and their homes. Sure, it may grab viewers' attention, but like a Fox "News" show, you come away feeling like you've actually lost brain cells in the process.
I just watched a reporter stand in a wind tunnel to illustrate the effects of hurricane-force winds on the human body. I didn't learn a whole lot that I didn't know, but I'm going to spend a while trying to banish those images of his flapping cheeks from my mind. Repeating the Google Earth projection of lower Manhattan flooding with 500 BILLION TONS OF WATER three times was probably a bit much, too. I'm pretty sure there's at least one viewer out there who thought it was real and is now reaching for his panic attack meds.
There are plenty of examples of great reporting on this potentially serious weather event. Unfortunately, they're being drowned out by the morons whose attention-grabbing pursuit of ratings seems to matter more to them than the basic journalistic goal of serving the community's greater good.
Your turn: How is Hurricane Irene touching you?
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# 23 of MY THIRTY DAYS OF THANKSGIVING
15 hours ago
9 comments:
Irene, ain't touching me. lol... O bet your eyes were rolling w/the 'earthquake'in NY.. lol....Remember the earthquake in HI. a few years ago? CNN blew it out of proprotion.. i remember trying to call my bf and after 5 days he called me and told me they couldn't use their cells because they wanted the air waves to be clear(?) He said they weren't affected and he was ok... Looks like the media does what is has to do to get the audience.. sad, huh?
Irene, ain't touching me. lol... O bet your eyes were rolling w/the 'earthquake'in NY.. lol....Remember the earthquake in HI. a few years ago? CNN blew it out of proprotion.. i remember trying to call my bf and after 5 days he called me and told me they couldn't use their cells because they wanted the air waves to be clear(?) He said they weren't affected and he was ok... Looks like the media does what is has to do to get the audience.. sad, huh?
Well, other than sucking water, it is more the hurricane reporters who suck, Irene is just Irene, being what naure made her.
Rain gives you the blues, huh? Kind of like Annie Wilkes?
Good luck with the hurricane.
From the other side of the world the reports certainly sound scarey, and potentially horrific! They get business out of drumming it up as much as possible, and cause unnecessary panic.
It's headed right for me and I'm dry heaving. I cant watch Weather Channel for more than a few minutes before I start feeling like crying. Can I stay with you a couple days?
Well, here in Chesapeake, Virginia.. Irene is on her way. Already a few rain showers and hours of getting those outside things that could become airborne tied down or moved inside. Extra water for animals and people and now all we can do is wait. The most helpful idea I heard and implemented was to turn the freezer and the refrigerator down lower than normal so that if the power is off for a protracted time, you might be able to save the food.
Oh and we did feel the earth move under our feet on Tuesday as well. My daughter, Nyssa, the geologist/meteorologist is extremely jealous.
Lower Manhattan is flooding? Oh no... brb, gotta go read about it.
Totally agree with you. I was in the Dominican Republic and watched Irene pass through... what we saw on TV made us more nervous than what we were bracing for on land. I'm happy living in a bubble , very little TV of that sort gets in!!!
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