I just got done watching about 30 minutes of the special “Hurricane Irene Information” Channel 259 on DirecTV where they are carrying live reports from ABC7 out of New York City. I’ve watched many TV channels tonight like it.
I had to laugh, because they had some kid with a goofy smile on his face named Scott Goldberg in Times Square who looked like “Fez” from That 70’s Show prattling on about the wind and rain while meanwhile in the background the mega-signage of Times Square flashing in the background and cabbies going along the street in a business as usual mode along with some Saturday night revelers heckling the camera from behind him. The lower third super says “Irene Arrives”.
Then they switched to a live report from Ocean City, MD, with some guy standing in what looked like the city park pointing out waving trees in the background, but he himself had no trouble standing up to do the report. Some B-roll showed some guy mugging for the camera elsewhere trying to “hold up” a tree. Of course the tree wasn’t falling over at all and he was just doing the usual silly things people do on camera sometimes.
Now we have a reporter in a red windbreaker who’s standing just off some rip-rap on the beach in New Jersey knee deep in some muddy water, holding a mic and adjusting his hip waders. He doesn’t realize he’s on camera and neither does the camera operator, who reveals when he pulls back just how “staged” the shot actually is.
Then we get treated to more shots of reporters around the area, standing in wind and rain, with idle commentary, basically waiting for something significant to report. B-roll footage used in live shots is now on repeats, so it appears they are out of fresh video. So they pop back to the weather center to report on wind gusts from 57-70 mph in the Maryland beach areas.
The weather Channel has some guy doing standup reports in Virgina Beach Virgina, and they ran a collage of various standups he did during the day, in various poses and weather attire against the wind and rain. Meanwhile motorists in the background downtown area seem to be going about there business as usual.
Then we had the report of Obama “taking command” in the emergency bunker…for a Category 1 storm no less. I don’t ever recall a president doing this. It seemed more like a campaign photo op than anything else.
On other channels I’ve seen tonight: footage of wind, rain, boats, rocking in the marina, some tree and limbs down, and some roof and building damages that are all consistent with a strong storm like a Nor’easter, but what I don’t see is anything beyond that. Now that just may be they don’t have access to the “hardest hit” areas or it may mean there’s just not a lot happening. There’s lots of hand waving and graphical bling though.
First let me say that forecasters of this storm have done an admirable job of forecasting the track of this storm, our friend Joe Bastardi has done a great job at getting the word out and NOAA’s NHC has done a good job at keeping the country updated. Information is flowing smoothly, and there seems to be no hiccups at all there.
It is not a problem that officials have erred somewhat on the side of caution. It is better to occasionally overreact to potential disasters than be caught flat-footed and under prepared when more severe disasters strike. It would be arrogant to play “Monday morning quarterback”, literally Monday in this case, and to berate officials who had to make a judgement call and put public safety first.
But while the track forecasts and warnings were spot on, the intensity forecast however hasn’t been as accurate. Yes there are 70+ mph wind gusts, storm surge, widespread power outages, and reports of general damage, but as this storm moves in the Washington-Baltimore and NYC areas, it just doesn’t seem all that bad as it was advertised to be.
I certainly don’t want to make light of anyone who has suffered because of the storm, that’s not my intent at all. I’m only focusing on the state of news reporting.
I recall images of “The Perfect Storm” from 1991 which wasn’t a hurricane, and it seemed to produce damages far worse than this storm. Here it is below on satellite:
Irene, except for being closer to land in in this shot, doesn’t look all that different from “The Perfect Storm” of 1991.
In summary, it seems to me that much of the news coverage is just a bit “over the top” to me, mostly because they’ve committed themselves to round the clock coverage, but really have little to report on. They have to fill time somehow.
And where oh where is the AGW fueled intensity forecast by wild eyed activist turned arrestee Bill McKibben who said ocean temperatures were “bizarrely high”? He said:
“These warm ocean temperatures will also make Irene a much wetter hurricane than is typical, since much more water vapor can evaporate into the air from record-warm ocean surfaces.”
Sure it dumped a lot of rain, but no more than most other storms. For a hurricane that supposedly “has global warming as a middle name“, it sure doesn’t act like it. People should stop listening to this arrogant activist, he hyped the storm worse than the worst TV news reports.
Our own Charles the Moderator passed on a piece of video a few days ago that captures the essence of the state of TV news reporting on weather from 14 years ago. How little has changed. Here it is:
If you have similar examples of TV news excess, post them below.
UPDATE: This morning we are being treated to lots of imagery of down trees and branches, street flooding, and people gawking at waves along boardwalks in Long Island. It seems Irene wasn’t really much worse than a strong Nor’easter. Places with aged stormwater systems like Philadelphia couldn’t handle the combination of storm surge and heavy rain so there is a lot of flooding there.
CNN was talking about “8 feet of water” in New York. I presume it was the storm surge because they did not show any.
There is little I hate more than reporter out in storm telling everyone else that they should not be out in a storm. Do these people think they are Gods,so can’t be killed? Do they think their job is so importaint that it must be done like police or ambulance?
“Then we had the report of Obama “taking command” in the emergency bunker…for a Category 1 storm no less.”
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Don’t forget George Bush who didn’t take command of the Hurricane Katrina debacle until day 4. At least Obama has a pulse.
This hype equals the hype of a (socalists) politicians death here this past week in Can. Our pro-GW LSM was in full blown mourning…all week long – much like this Irene hype by the media.
“Then we had the report of Obama “taking command” in the emergency bunker…for a Category 1 storm no less.”
Never let a crisis go to waste. Thus endeth the lesson.
A photo-op is a photo-op. If you can’t add jobs, every now andthen you can act like you have one.
Gerald Machnee says:
Yep I recall Katrina – CNN had a hyped-up-reporter in there saying on live TV that people were being murdered in mass, bodies everywhere and rapes were happening regularly, all in that one place( forget the name of it now – place for the NO football team, sry) where people who couldn’t leave on their own due to what ever reasons and because their Mayor didn’t provide options or transportation were stuck in this place for days….later saw a picture of hundreds of school buses swamped by water…could have used those.
The problem with over reporting an ordinary hurricane is that people will not believe the reports when a really strong hurricane hits. Best not to cry wolf. The attitude of the report is important.
As a resident of tornado alley, it’s frustating to have the TV station cut away fro the radar showing the tornado about to run along my back fence (literally, this spring) to show a photo of a reporter standing in the rain somewhere. We flip between channels to keep a constant radar picture, I can see rain and damage later.
Down on the Gulf Coast we have noticed a pattern extending back to every hurricane or tropical storm after Hurricane Andrew of exaggerating the wind speeds of the these systems. The buoys and land stations NEVER record sustained winds anywhere close to the wind speeds reported by NASA. Most of the buoys and land stations record wind speeds between 25% and 40% lower than what is reported by NOAA. There are at least three possible explanations: (1) for reporting purposes NOAA uses wind gusts instead of sustained winds, (2) the algorithm NOAA uses to compute surface wind speeds based on hurricane hunter readings at 10,000 feet and the dropsondes is inaccurate, or (3) they routinely exaggerate the wind speeds for reasons of “public safety”.
“At least Obama has a pulse.”
It’s from all that R&R.
Steve From Rockwood: You don’t remember correctly. George W Bush. Was communicating with the incompetent Nagin and the incompetent Landrieu from day one. He begged Landrieu to call out the national Guard right away, but she had to think about it for a day. He did not go to New Orleans for 4 days, what good would it had done for him to go? If he had gone you would be saying he was interfering with rescue operations. We are told that Obama can deal S and P downgrade the economy falling apart from the golf course of Martha Vineyard, why couldn’t Bush deal with Karina from the White House? Do you really think that Obama would have left the golf course if the hurricane wasn’t heading there. He isn’t in New York now, so he is doing exactly what Bush did. Somehow he’s a hero for being in the White House but Bush was a fool for being in the White House. Boy the double standards of you libs knows no bounds.
What happened to the US windmills? Did they take up the slack when the Maryland (?) nuke generator went offline for a while, or was it the wrong kind of wind for the windmills like we get the wrong kind of snow in the UK?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_wrong_type_of_snow
The problems with 24hour “News” channels.There isn’t enough real news to fill the day.
Obviously storm related deaths are a tragedy. I wonder how many accidental deaths usually occur in a weekend on the east coast? With so many people hunkered down in shelters, I wonder if those stats aren’t reduced? Less people on the roads, etc. I recall an urban legend about an L.A. earthquake that reduced drive-by shootings and hence even with the earthquake fatalities, fewer people were harmed that weekend! Not sure if that’s true or not but I’m curious about accident stats on the east coast this weekend compared to a normal weekend.
“Don’t forget George Bush who didn’t take command of the Hurricane Katrina debacle until day 4. At least Obama has a pulse.”
How do you know what Bush did or didn’t do? Because he didn’t do a photo op? Actually when he finally did the obligatory photo op it backfired terribly. The experts should run these operations. Any presidential meddling may look good but will almost certainly be harmful, except when help is requested The more local supervision can be the more efficient.
Katrina and specifically the Superdome situation was the most biased and misreported story of my life. Those running rescue operations ( not the president ) made decisions how to allocate their resources. If they had evacuated the Superdome earlier would other people have died? I have no idea ,and you can second guess their choices, but you didn’t have to make them. The fact is they didn’t ask for the presidents help which surely would have been given.
Obama being the ultimate poser would probably have done things somewhat differently. Better? Only by chance.
This TV/politicians’ hysteria cost me $500 today.
Despite the fact that Irene totally missed Boston (there’s nothing but a little rain here, not even any unusual wind), they closed Boston Logan airport for a day, which forced me to extend my stay in the airport Hilton (and the hotel guys are exploiting the situation to the hilt, charging $400 per additional night, whereas their regular price was around $150 per night).
The moronic, monotonous hype in the news about this fizzled hurricane is nauseating.
“President Obama is closely monitoring…” his own navel, I suppose.
The most terrible thing about our modern society is not that politicians and most of their electorate are brainless nincompoops. The most terrible thing is that there is practically no cultural alternative to this overwhelming, all-pervasive, hapless idiocy.
That would have to be saturday night !
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QkHW3KfPmo&w=480&h=390%5D
Que the music from “Peter and the Wolf”
My observation from the media and all the AGW types is that they wanted it to be bad to prove a point. Just like the Left says that the Right is hoping for a poor economy, really…doesn’t need any help on that front, they wanted this storm to prove a point. That the weather is abnormal for a reason and that reason is a gas that is naturally produced as a part of our respiration. We need to control this gas because they need a narative. They had a general hope of a Category 3 hitting NYC head on led to the hyperbole. It is pretty pathetic.
Anthony,
Just wanted to say that I came here first before I went elsewhere for news.
I wonder how many others do the same.
Steve from Rockwood says:
“At least Obama has a pulse.”
Obama took his pulse with him on vacation, along with his lovely wife who enjoys spending taxpayer loot as if it were her own.
And unlike the vacationing Obama slackers, President Bush took command.
Once again a lot hype. The waves hitting shore were the garden variety Pacific wave.
Feht: “The most terrible thing is that there is practically no cultural alternative to this overwhelming, all-pervasive, hapless idiocy.”
Well said.It demonstrates the dumbing of our society. Folks glued to the de-educating media. Give them a loaf of bread and some cheap entertainment.
Here are some things I found disturbing:
1. NHC Advisory #28 (I think) said (just before landfall in NC) that Irene was not expected to weaken from Category 2 until it made landfall. Relying on that, I made losing bets on Intrade about its strength at landfall.
2. NHC Advisory #30:
74 mph is the threshold for hurricane status. Irene’s maximum sustained wind was 75 mph. If wind speeds fall off drastically away from the eyewall, why was the NHC saying that “HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 125 MILES”?
3. Why was the NHC implying (with “After”) that Irene would not weaken until it passed over NYC and reached New England?
Good it calmed down, now we should look and record then learn, first we have reality, then we have the TV report, compare side to side them think about the rest of the coverage!
It seems that the best man has to offer in climate and weather reading is right here!
Ian H says:
August 28, 2011 at 4:34 am
The “Obama in command” thing is an obvious result of “lessons learned” from Bush’s performance in Katrina. Bush got blamed for his inaction, so the conclusion seems to be that the president has to be seen “doing something” in such an emergency. What the “something” is though, is a little bit unclear. Ten points for effort – but I bet he wishes he’d hung off just a bit longer to see just how bad it was going to be first.
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In the Command Center:
“Whatever shall we do, Mr. President?!?!”
BHO: “I’m sure everyone should be out there doing those tree thingy things they do. As a matter of fact, go ahead and have them do that. Yeah… do that. After that I’ll just follow your lead… uhhh… (checks radar screens)… from the golf course. Doesn’t look too bad out there. I can get in a quick 9.”