Hurricane Irene has hardly passed over New York and already many are complaining about the hype that heralded its arrival. One of my friends who lives in Manhattan suggested that the media be punished and fined for its constant and over-hyped coverage.
My response: “Actually they will be rewarded with viewers and advertising revenue.” And “What exactly did you expect from them?”
This same friend had never complained about the media hysteria over WMD that propelled the country into war. He had no complaints about a media that suggested Terry Schiavo was smiling at her parents, eyeing a bouncing balloon or eating puddings. An autopsy proved what almost every doctor said: that she was blind, was in a persistent vegetative state and had massive and irreversible brain damage. Her brain weighed 615 grams, half the weight of a human brain. No problem. Pack up the truck doing live shots at the hospital and move on to the next story. Anyone still care about the so-called Ground Zero Mosque? Wasn’t it all the rage (double entendre intended) just last summer?
At least the potential for Hurricane Irene to cause greater damage actually existed. Which is more than I can say for WMD in Iraq or Terry Schiavo’s brain or danger from a downtown community center.
There is no exactitude in science to predict exactly how a hurricane will play out or in which direction it will proceed. That’s why they have a ‘projected cone’ for its path and not a straight line with an arrow. And the hurricane did do damage and did kill people. 61 people, including babies had to be rescued by boat on Staten Island when five feet of water filled their homes. Electricity is out for tens of thousands and the cost for storm damage will climb into the billions. It was a C ride at Disneyland, not an E-ticket (and if you’re not old enough to remember what that means, look it up!).
That’s what the media is about these days: selling E-tickets for C-ticket roller coasters. The hype itself becomes an emotional ride. My favorite moment of coverage involved the Fox reporter who was covered in the remnants of raw sewage and described it as crunchy and not tasting great. Give that boy a raise!
FOX REPORTER IN SLUDGE
Did every station have to have every second of coverage concern the hurricane? Even when the information was repetitive? Well, of course not. Did Anderson Cooper have to be everywhere covering the storm? Not really. But this wasn’t about hurricane coverage. Its about catering to viewers who might tune in briefly for a wrapup, satisfying those core viewers who have the TV on all the time and branding Anderson Cooper as the go-to guy when disasters strike. And if you appreciate profit driven news with a first priority to increasing shareholder value then you should be content with that. It wasn’t much different a hundred years ago when NY papers doggedly hyped the evils of Spain so newsboys could have a great headline to shout .
Besides its August. Congress is out. Obama’s in the Vinyard. Many of the top names in broadcasting go on vacation. August is commonly known in the business as a slow news month. When White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was asked why the administration wasn’t presenting it’s case for war during August of 2002 he replied “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” Remember what happened afterwards?
Or after the slow news month of August 2001?
Maybe its not the slow news of August we should worry about but the news that awaits in September…
