About that media hype - Irene hasn't played out yet, and

[hedgehog]

many are accusing the media of overplaying it. What's your take on it?

[BlueMTexpat]

1. As one of those in MD - fortunately inland - I will be very happy

to find that the storm has been overplayed, if such turns out to be the case. So far, it looks pretty destructive with 220,000 people without power and lots of flooding - and that's just in the first state that it's hit.

Better safe than sorry. I'd rather be around afterwards to complain about "hype" than for people not to have taken a real threat seriously.

[classof56]

2. I'm with you!

For the media to "blow this off" (so to speak) as insignificant would be worrisome indeed, given the potential consequences.

Stay safe!

Tired Old Cynic

[TBF]

3. Hurricanes are unpredictable - better to prepare than to have

one hit a major metropolitan area and have a large death toll. I'm still worried about flooding in NJ/NY, other than that I'm very glad Irene has weakened.

[gateley]

7. Exactly. And they said they were giving POSSIBLE outcomes.

Tough imparting the severity without causing panic - I think they and are doing a good job. They're continuing to give current updates constantly.

[RB TexLa]

4. Of course the media wants dead bodies on camera. That's how they get viewers.

[hedgehog]

5. It would seem to me that the best way to get dead bodies would

be for the media to ignore every storm!

[WildEyedLiberal]

6. I'd rather people freak out and evacuate and have it be "overblown"

than have people assume it'll be a piddly rainstorm, stay put, and get wiped out. Why tempt nature? It's far more powerful than we are...

[Dawgs]

8. Because next time they won't evacuate when it could actually be much worse. n/t

[WildEyedLiberal]

10. I don't really buy that logic

After Katrina, people have seen the consequences of what happens if you are in a large urban area when a hurricane hits. I know this is a fun opportunity to bash the media for most on DU, but when you have a hurricane plowing its way up the heavily populated east coast, "better safe than sorry" seems like a sound policy to me. God knows there's enough to bash the media for without criticizing them for reminding people to have an emergency plan in place for severe weather.

[FreeJoe]

9. It is amazing...

It is amazing to see how much press this storm is getting compared with a typical storm in the Gulf of Mexico. When storms like Ike, Rita, or Katrina were coming in, there was little national coverage. I guess storms that threaten cities like Galveston, Mobile, New Orleans aren't very newsworthy compared with storms that threaten Washington or New York.

[hedgehog]

11. Fist off, Katrina got a lot of coverage before, during and after.

Second, this is a man bites dog story, not unlike the national coverage Atlanta gets with every snow flake that falls!

[WildEyedLiberal]

12. Now that I agree with

The obvious east coast bias of the national news media is over the top. I think every incoming hurricane that threatens to make landfall in the US should get a lot of media coverage, because it's a lot easier to get out for a few days and board up your windows than it is to survive a worse-than-expected storm making a direct hit on your house when you thought you could be tough and "ride it out." Most hurricane fatalities are sadly preventable and occur when people think the storm won't be that big of a deal, etc.

[BlueMTexpat]

13. I'm not sure whether I agree with the "obvious east coast bias"

of the media in this instance, although I do heartily concur with you that every incoming hurricane with a potential to make landfall should get a lot of media coverage.

The fact is that the projected path of this particular hurricane follows the east coast, which is still where the majority of those in the US live.

Call that "east coast bias" if you must. I call it simply reflecting the fact that this storm has the potential to affect the lives of a majority of Americans adversely.

[WildEyedLiberal]

14. True, and which is why I'm glad it's getting coverage

A LOT of people are going to be affected/potentially affected, and it's good that people know this is coming so they can prepare and get out.

But then I think about the tornadoes that devastated the South and Midwest earlier this spring, and which didn't get the constant 24 hour "OMG" coverage that Irene pre-landfall has gotten, and it just rubs me the wrong way. It's like tragedies that do happen in more rural areas - even if they cause a tremendous loss of life, as the MS/AL and Joplin tornadoes did - aren't as newsworthy because not as many people live there.

I do realize it's sort of apples and oranges since there's very little advance warning of a tornado, whereas with a hurricane you do have the change to prepare and warn people, etc., but it still seems like America forgot about the 500 or so victims of those tornadoes pretty quickly, and it's not even been 6 months.

[BlueMTexpat]

16. Too true. We seem to have very short memories in this country. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Perhaps we watched a different media...

that said if you said Hawaii, I'd take you seriously. But Rita, Katrina et al... I remember the coverage. Perhaps living out of Hurricane alley I have a better way to gauge, but serious CNN is on a Gulf hurricane like a fly on shit. The ones they don't really cover are the ones that HIT OTHER COUNTRIES.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. My concern is that if there are enough incidences of crying wolf when there is none

that people won't take future warnings seriously. (Or current warnings, for that matter. :()

[benheb]

17. Irene not completely over-hyped

I would argue it was a job well done by both forecasters and media coverage. Ok, so media may have been a little excited... but we should be thankful it wasn't worse, not angry. Here is a good perspective on this story: http://www.bheberto.com/brendansweather.php?id=25

[MrSlayer]

18. The weather people seemed to be the ones upset that it wasn't worse.

I could hear the disappointment in their tone as the storm's power lessened. Almost like they were eager for the destruction that did not happen.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. I'll put it this way... the same exact people

who are upset at the "hype" would be upset if this was the storm of the century and the media (and government, it is a team effort) never warned them.

You'd be seeing things like this.

Bush fiddle while Katrina drowned (which he did), and rightfully so.

Me I will take the impression of hype and people doing what they need to do.

Oh and it is not over for some folks yet.

[Odin2005]

21. It's rather ghoulish to be upset that the storm wasn't as massive as possible.