There’s a newsgroup that just about everyone who’s in the television news reads daily called “Shoptalk” which is as old as the Internet. They have a host website called TVspy. Today they asked their own readers this question:
Was Hurricane Irene Overhyped?
By Andrew Gauthier on August 29, 2011 11:58 AM
Hurricane Irene dominated the airwaves over the weekend as many stations along the East Coast provided wall-to-wall coverage of the storm as it moved through the area. Since the hurricane proved to be less catastrophic than many had anticipated, we want to know what you think about how local stations handled the storm–leave your thoughts in the poll below…
=============================================================
In the Telegraph, they sure seem to think so, this from today’s newspaper:
Perfect Storm Of Hype:
The Hurricane Irene Apocalypse That Never Was
Toby Harnden, The Daily Telegraph, 28 August 2011
The images summed up Hurricane Irene – the media and the United States federal government trying to live up to their own doom-laden warnings and predictions while a sizeable number of ordinary Americans just carried on as normal and even made gentle fun of all the fuss. The truth is that the dire warning beforehand suited both politicians and journalists. Irene became a huge story because it was where the media lived. For politicians, Irene was a chance to either make amends or appear in control. The White House sent out 25 Irene emails to the press on Saturday alone.
My thoughts on the Irene event are here. You can take the poll yourself at the TVspy website here, since the poll is open for anyone to participate.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
We use the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity Scale and ACE to quantify Hurricanes.
I think we need a new scale, the “MSM Hysterical Fear Mongering Hurricane Driven Scale” and the AAR . . the Accumulated Advertising Revenues to measure the degree of ridiculous media coverage.
Hey, I’m an AGW catastrophist and I agree that Irene was overhyped. The question is: by whom? By scientists or by the media?
[snip – off topic, plus I don’t like South Park – Anthony]
… but at least I didn’t have to hear about Libya any more.
There is a difference between ‘being prepared for the worst’ and ‘predicting the future.’
The emphasis was necessary given the uncertainty of the exact consequences of the storm. To paraphrase Louis Pasteur, ‘Survival favors the prepared man.’
He who hopes for the best and prepares for the worst is never disappointed.
I’m guessing that after decades of AGW hype, the press just sort of got into the habit – alarmism sells papers.
The old observation that ‘the only thing in common among all those who predict doomsday is that thay are all exactly wrong’ seems to hold.
Meteorologists need to decide what the facts of a hurricane are. Then they need to deliver only the facts. The size of the cloud system as seen from satellite is not a fact of the hurricane. As I discovered decades ago, the cloud system can cover the entire state of Florida yet the hurricane can do a tiny bit of damage.
The only time that an eyewitness on-the-scene report is justified is when that report could actually aid people to flee. Obviously, that is never.
People complaining about flooding, loss of power, and similar phenomena were born yesterday. If a hurricane of any magnitude is barreling down on you, expect to have flooding, loss of power, and so on. In fact, expect it from a tropical storm. However, flooding and such items should not be the topics of TV news broadcasts unless the region has not seen a hurricane or tropical storm in decades.
I will make exceptions for the Katrinas and Camilles. However, because every hurricane is treated as a Katrina or Camille on TV, no one watching TV warnings would know that the hurricane under discussion is something special, namely, a Katrina or Camille.
Your new motto: Do Not Frighten the Viewing Audience Unless You Want Them to Be Frightened.
So, the broadcast decision is this: Do we want our viewing audience to be frightened?
That poll feels a bit biased, options are like “bad, bad, bad, other”. Funny thing how few people take the “other” choice, though. Maybe they’re afraid to take the option with no description?
Over the Top Disorder – OTD
Yes, hurricanes are serious business. However the news media seem to have been trained to perform in concert when anything climate-related may occur (weather and climate are confounded). Maybe they actually believe their own propaganda. And now they have to backtrack in an effort to regain lost credibility in order to make people hyperventilate reliably over AGW. All of these episodes make people less gullible and more skeptical over time.
Hudson: You know Fox News is overreaching when Geraldo Rivera is standing in the rain in front of the News Corp building in a rain slicker babbling about the immense intensity of the storm.
Anthony – it is on the subject of whose “overhyping’ you choose to highlight. Is saying a hurricane is a message from god not “overhyping?”
In addition, there are a constant stream of comments here about “communists” and the like – political comments that are tangentially related to topics of posts.
For example:.
Please explain why my comment was any more “off-topic” or “politics not media” than the following that you allowed:
REPLY: Because your comment was not only offtopic, but intended to threadjack, and no matter who was saying it “was a message from God” I’d delete it because we have a policy on the issue, along with discussing HAARP, bigfoot, UFO’s and other such garbage. Get over it. -Anthony
The media managed to frighten the Mayor of New York City. He is a tough old bird. But he closed the subway system. Does anyone know what that means to people who live in Manhattan? It means that the vast majority of the public has no transportation for the time that the subways are closed. Closing the subway system in Manhattan is comparable to forbidding, under penalty of law, driving in St. Louis.
Lots of flooding going on. A good number of my coworkers who work from home not working today because of the damage. I don’t know.. can you really overhype a hurricane? I’ve been through a couple in my life, seen the damage caused and probably not a good idea to treat this as a ho-hum event. I’m just assuming people are upset there wasn’t more gore (no pun intended) and destruction or perceived, but those affected greatly probably are thinking much different.
Ok, fair enough. I could just re-post without the names, but let’s just let that go.
OK. Pat Michaels isn’t a “coward” because he uses his own name when he writes a comment about only 8 bodies being “coughed up?”
Gaffe? Really? You call that a “gaffe?”
And I think that “scrubbed” is more accurate than “correction.” Did he make a statement about his original phrasing, or was his post just silently edited?
REPLY: Scrubbed would imply removal. Correction is changing words/spelling. Now if you have something to discuss about TV media, then discuss it, otherwise take a hike. I get tired of your thread jackings here. Note the policy page. Note there I state WUWT has a low tolerance level for people using taxpayer funded resources to spout snark from the comfort of anonymity. – Anthony
I feel for those who have had losses due to Irene. However, the media and the weather elites have a responsibility to state clearly what they know and to qualify statements or projections about which they do not know with a great deal of precision.
It’s not good to ignore any hurricane, but neither is it helpful to claim that something is the ‘biggest, baddest, worst’ when it simply is not.
Our family had a chuckle when a Weather Channel reporter in Virgina Beach was outside, but stressed he was under a hotel awning for safety reasons, blathered on about “safety, stay inside, only professionals should be out, etc…” when a group of about 6 young guys in nothing but swim trunks danced behind him! Quickly followed by an SUV that stopped, rolled down the passenger window and calmly took a cellphone pic of the reporter who was zipped up and covered head to toe!
Hilarious! I love regular Americans!
Yes, it was over-hyped. If you build your town on a floodplain then floods will happen.
In Texas my mom had to be pulled out of a flash flood that was trying to sweep her away by my granddad but there was no 24/7 cable news industry back then to go nuts over everything that might affect them in the slightest like that “great” 5.8 earthquake they just had.
My brother in Columbia, Maryland: “The devastation. There are leaves down on my lawn. There are also leaves on my deck”. My sister in Va. Beach, a block away from the ocean, ignored the media.
I think some well deserved ridicule is in order.
Thousands in the Midwest have homes flooded every Spring. And did anyone on the East Coast hear of Joplin, Missouri?
It is my hope that adults take back science and the media, but it might take a number of generations.
Anthony, Noted! but I thought the similarities were strikingly similar and on topic 🙂
I won’t say anything about Monday morning quarterbacking…
JMS says:
August 29, 2011 at 11:03 am
>>>Ralph,
My sister won’t be able to live in her house for months. Maybe it might even be condemned but thanks for caring. Just FYI, lack of empathy is the sign of psychopathy.
==============================================================
JMS, I can’t speak for Ralph, but we all do care, and I hope your sister’s home is redeemable. So, yes, there are examples of personal loss and tragedy related to this storm. That said, did the flooding of your sister’s home warrant shutting down the entire eastern shore? Wouldn’t it had been better if we had concentrated on the areas that may have had significant difficulties?
One of the problems with sensationalizing these storms is that it will cause people to become immune to the warnings. As many can testify, in the area I live, tornado sirens are so frequent no one pays attention to them any more. I really don’t think we want that in the case of hurricanes.
Now, if you guys really need help, just ask, we’ll be there just as soon as we get this little mess in Joplin cleaned up.
James
People love to watch those live shots, and that’s why they do it – because it attracts viewers. Are you really so elitist that you’d pass judgement on the viewing public for enjoying “goofy” liveshots? Hey – it’s the free market, giving the public what it wants so that widgets can be sold. Is the media responsible for what people enjoy watching? How about “personal responsibility?”
But much of the argument being made is that it was “overhyped” in the sense that the potential for more significant damage was discussed, repeatedly, and the eventual outcome was less serious in terms of the strength of the hurricane.
From your original post:
Not as bad as “advertised?” Is reporting on the potential strength of the storm equivalent to “advertisement?” “Goofy liveshots” were real time – not relevant to the question of whether the potential danger of the storm was “overhyped.”
So I’ll ask again – how do you “overhype” the potential of a major hurricane making landfall in New York City? “Goofy” liveshots don’t cause the mayor of New York to close the subways.
REPLY:Elitist? No, I’m experienced in TV news, you aren’t. No amount of explaining would suffice for you I’m afraid, so I won’t bother. If the TV news industry asking the question of themselves isn’t enough for you, I don’t know what would be. – Anthony
Joshua says:
August 29, 2011 at 11:45 am
Anthony – it is on the subject of whose “overhyping’ you choose to highlight. Is saying a hurricane is a message from god not “overhyping?”
Joshua, this is a kind of stupid question. Look, if there is a crackpot going around saying “hurricane is a message from god”, we learn to ignore that drivel, and we get on with life. neither do the pols make decisions based on that. That is not worth commenting on.
But based on this overhype, Bloomberg shut off subway. I don’t know where you live. But in NYC, that is like you just lost all mobility. That certainly deserves a demerit for the TV gangs.
What irks me somewhat isn’t the question of over-hype (yes it was) – it is the attitude of those who maintain Irene reporting wasn’t overhyped because there was flooding and flood damage and power failures, and therefore no-one should criticise this hype.
Would less hyped-up reports really have led to more flood damage? Or would even more hype have prevented such damage?
And what about next time – will people not tend to disregard such warnings, on the boy-cries-wolf principle? Isn’t that the danger of such quite irresponsible -and often even faked – reporting?
Btw – have the media now become a part of the nanny state? I saw some videos where the reporters, kitted out with goggles, were either warning people to stay indoors because it was so dangerous, or were even cross with people running around in swimsuits or driving in their cars, as if only the intrepid reporters had the right to ‘brave’ the elements in their ridiculous get-ups.
While Hurricane and even Tropical Storms are serious business (we call them Pineapple Express when they hit California), there is a line that gets crossed.
That line is between serious warnings in a timely fashion… and wholesale fearmongering, leading to mass hysteria and panic.
It has been demonstrated that, in a disaster/incident, those who panic have the least chance of survival, and next up are those unfortunate enough to become entangled with the panic stricken.
With that, the MSM was between the line and erring on the wrong side.
In times of emergency, the wrong people are getting air time.
Rick K said:
“Our family had a chuckle when a Weather Channel reporter in Virgina Beach was outside, but stressed he was under a hotel awning for safety reasons, blathered on about “safety, stay inside, only professionals should be out, etc…” when a group of about 6 young guys in nothing but swim trunks danced behind him! Quickly followed by an SUV that stopped, rolled down the passenger window and calmly took a cellphone pic of the reporter who was zipped up and covered head to toe!”
Similar thing happened with Al Roker, who was bundled up tight in his yellow rain slicker with hood, etc etc, with the ocean churning behind him. As he was blathering on, a couple of guys walked by in T-shirts. What a laugh.
No, I don’t mind the coverage, but just don’t make it seem worse than it is. Be honest. Clearly say that the winds aren’t as strong as expected or whatever. Keep down the hype.
Joshua doesn’t understand “goofy live shots”, so he probably won’t understand this one either:
Actually, let me qualify this one, it wasn’t just goofy, it was stupid, and put others at risk too.