Conservative commentator and columnist George Will has excoriated the media for spreading “manufacturing synthetic hysteria” over Hurricane Irene.
According to FoxNews.com:
Observing such was George Will on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday who told his fellow panelists, “Whatever else you want to say about journalism, it shouldn’t subtract from the nation’s understanding and it certainly shouldn’t contribute to the manufacture of synthetic hysteria that is so much a part of modern life”
Will also added:
I have a home on South Carolina’s Atlantic Coast. I know that the Atlantic Ocean generates hurricanes, and they can be dangerous and unpredictable. That said, this too must be said: Florence Nightingale said, “Whatever else you can say about hospitals, they shouldn’t make their patients sicker.” And whatever else you want to say about journalism, it shouldn’t subtract from the nation’s understanding and it certainly shouldn’t contribute to the manufacture of synthetic hysteria that is so much a part of modern life. And I think we may have done so with regard to this tropical storm as it now seems to be.
Looking at scenes out of New Jersey, upstate New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, one wonders how George Will likes his crow served up? If nothing else, the press under-reported the damage that was done to North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Was the press responsible in its coverage of Hurricane Irene? Many of those reporters were out there in harm’s way, hanging on for dear life just to bring us the news. The hurricane will cost upwards of 10 billion dollars and 40 people lost their lives. Who wants to help George Will eat some crow?
George’s Will’s comments that the media were creating hysteria over a hurricane (!) were despicable, vile and disgusting.
He seemed out of touch with what was really going on. I never watch him and had forgotten what stuff shirt he is. His accent seems so affected.
I had some thoughts on this, but now I feel as though Starry has really wrung the sponge of intelligence dry on this topic. One could wax on and on about the tug of war between what could have been with Irene if it had only retained a little more strength and what turned about to be a little over-dramatic. One could gloss for hours over the real unpredictability of weather models, etc. But now, what would be the point? I think everything of value that could be said has been said in post #1. I stand in awe!
The problem with the glib attitude is that we are actually dealing with a serious issue here. Did the media blow things way out of proportion or did they save lives?
You are right about weather being totally unpredictable. How do we prepare? The same thing was done with Katrina. Many people just didn’t listen and thought they knew all the answers.
Here, let’s take a peek at post 27 from the Bachmann joke thread:
Starryflights sat on a commode and produced:
“A presidential candidate laughing at victims of natural disasters is vile, sickening, repulsive and disgusting.”
and here, we have “despicable, vile, and disgusting”
Now I’m going to have to point out that we’re just a tad formulaic, here!
I see we left out “sickening” this go-round. Are we not sickened, as well? Are we not repulsed?
Starryflights is a master fisherman who knows how to throw out the bait and some poor fish will reliably nibble each time.
As there’s been more building on the shores weather info has become more important. The government and news media can’t win. People will bitch if not warned and people will bitch if there’s too much coverage. Draw the obvious conclusion.
The hurricane was big enough, close enough, and the potential was there for that thing to be a real bear. The media almost lost their minds when Katrina approached, people didn’t listen, and everyone blamed Bush. Irene caused enough problems in the Northeast with flooding and power outages as it was. I believe that the media pretty much did what they had to do. As for me, when I didn’t lose power, I was too grateful to think the media was over hyping the hurricane. Also, I don’t think they knew (or could know) that Irene would weaken like it did. I mentioned before the hurricane got here that I’ve seen them completely disintegrate within the space of five miles when I lived in Mississippi. Irene was close enough to really bad to deserve the warnings. Look at it this way. A bunch of not-to-bright people ignored the warning during Katrina, and this is what we get. The best part of Irene…..Ray Nagin was on TV giving hurricane-survival tips. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
not-too-bright. I corrected it after I hit submit, but of course, it didn’t take.
I was more prepared than I needed to be — how can I get the precious few moments that it took me to run water in the tub and two large stockpots and gather flashlights, lantern and propane burner at the ready? It must have taken me all of 30 seconds to put the ipad and cell phone on the charger. Then there are the 15 minutes it took me to deal with things in the yard that might fly away.
Same prep as for Hurricane Isabell, when the power was out for 4 days, but this time the power never went out. I feel cheated.
My godfather who lives in Vermone doesn’t think so, nor do the 36 people have died. This just in folks, weather is unpredictable. I, for one, am happier being over prepared then stuck in the dark.
I thought this storm was predicted fairly well – the track of the hurricane was almost perfect. But if you looked at the winds reported by the hurricane hunters and surface observing network, the storm did not even meet the definition of a hurricane after landfall at the OuterBanks. Even though there was damage and loss of life, it was nowhere near what would be expected from a powerful hurricane. The damage/human toll was more a testament to poor locations and building standards than anything else. Several of the deaths (i.e. surfing) were clear examples of human Darwinism.
@Kelly, in this case of this danger, I will always come down on the side over exposure rather than under exposure. Would that the people had listened to the katrina forecasts and had gotten out of dodge.
Err on the side of caution.
George Will is a stuffed shirt.
George Will is wrong. It is not the first time.
As for anticipating the path and strength of a storm and being concerned about it, I refer back to my previous remark on another thread about a typhoon on the Philippine Sea. As any good naval crew would do, we made our preparations for the worst and hoped for the best. We did, however, make one misjudgement. We thought we might be able to outrun that storm. We couldn’t. Good thing we had made those maximum preparations. George Will, on the other hand, might well have kissed the thing off and then met Mr. Davey Jones. Don’t mess with Mother Nature. She is bigger and stronger than we earthly runts.
Totally agree, Wolverine. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best is the safest way to fly. (or float) Will was definitely wrong. I hope he feels foolish.
FEMA did a good job this time, much better than Katrina. But the Repugs want to defund FEMA, putting us all at great risk to natural disasters.
@Starry
Does FEMA cover man-made disasters?
Is there such a thing as “oversaturation”? While I appreciated the news coverage and the bravery of the reporters who were “out in it”, I think thre was simply too much of a good thing. My best example is CBS–local WUSA TV 9. They moved their regular programming to their weather channel and moved their hurricane coverage to their regular channel so that their reporters could have more face time regarding the hurricane. There was so much coverage that people began to ignore how significant the storm was and forgot that hurricanes are not only about wind–they are about rain–lots and lots of rain.
@Starryflights
Please show proof that the GOP wants to defund FEMA. Otherwise, you are….being factually challenged.
Plenty of individuals who are Republicans have spoken out about dissolving FEMA.
@Cargosquid </a
Here's a good start Cargo:
http://www.politicususa.com/en/tornadoes-gop
Have you been at the whacky tabacky again?