Then and now
A cyclist in Battery Park posed this morning for the NYT while trying to get away from all the TV anchors doing 24/7 standups about the devastation from Rainstorm Irene. We’ve been hard pressed from the beginning to see what the big deal is.
By contrast 6 years ago there was a big storm, a Category 5 at its peak. People had plenty of notice of its arrival, and it was obvious to anyone paying attention that it was going to be a terrible disaster. Almost forgotten in the run-up to that storm was that the state and local officials in that case refused to evacuate the low lying areas, until an emergency appeal came from Washington. Note that the Lousiana officials had a PR strategy firmly in place even while they deferred emergency actions. A suspicious mind might think that there was a carefully constructed political-media strategy to use the terrible storm to their party’s advantage.
Is it just us or does the manufactured hysteria in the media today over a bad seasonal rainstorm seem very strange, almost as though they were trying to impose some pre-chosen narrative on the story?
August 28th, 2011 at 9:32 am
I was thinking the same thing. Everything has a political angle to the left/democrats it seems. Always thinking the political side of stuff it seems. Then they and the MSM craft the narrative they want and facts be damned…. ie, what most folks remember about Katrina and the meme of the Federal Government screwing up… when most if not all facts point the other way.
August 30th, 2011 at 1:19 am
Reasonable people take reasonable precautions. It would be ridiculous to depend on the government being ready to assist until some time after, well, anything. Bush tried to take the high road, and it allowed the media to destroy his reputation.
August 30th, 2011 at 6:28 am
A FOX weather lady seemed rather angry about the charges of hype. She said her job is to get people to heed the warnings, so if one person took the call to evacuate, she’d done her job. Then weather lady smugly says that those that had an old tree fall on their house would beg to differ with those charges of hype. Yadda yadda …
It does seem they take on the role of hyping the facts, thinking that will get people to listen and obey. But I think it is more about competing to see which news outlet can be the most sensationalist in coverage. A tsunami or storm or murder trial becomes a dramatic reality TV marathon. They become a parody of real news when their staged dramas are revealed.