On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 14:27, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > Howie Kurtz, who I guess did not have a show this morning, dumps on the > media hype of Irene > { > http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/28/hurricane-irene-hype-how-the-media-went-overboard.html > } > > Kurtz gets a huge benefit from the fact that, as a media critic, he pretty gets to wait until the storm is over and then tell people they did it wrong. I wouldn't say that New York dodged a bullet, but it turned out to be a much smaller caliber than it could have been. The prediction was for a category two storm on Friday morning, if not later. If the reverse had come to pass -- that Irene was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm just as it hit NYC but actually was a category 2 hurricane, I'm sure he'd be complaining that there wasn't enough attention being given to Irene before it came and caused billions in damage. And, honestly, when you look at the accuracy of the forecasts for Irene relative to the statistics, the National Hurricane Center (who absolutely everyone relies on heavily when it comes to forecasting hurricanes) did a hell of a job with this one.
Irene got more coverage than it might have if not for hitting New York, but I think that the prediction of a category 2 storm hitting a major metropolitan area would have been big news, even if it had been somewhere like Miami or Houston that would shrug off a less-intense cyclone. By the time it became clear that Irene was going to be somewhat weaker than had been forecast, it was too late to ratchet down the hype machine. Anchors had been called in on a weekend, reporters sent out into the field, satellite trucks rented, etc. etc. so the show must go on and they had to make do with what they could find. I've also gotten the impression that flooding has been much worse in the suburbs than in the city itself, which, of course, means it's ignored. -- David J. Lynch [email protected] -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
