By: Benjamin Smith
Tea Party Tribune
We just went through a hurricane that was big and yes there was damage. This is not about the storm or its victims… It’s about the Media handling of the message.
They got it whipped up into quite frenzy didn’t they? It was just another day in Wilmington, NC, prep for a small Cat 1 is business as usual. There was more talk about the media’s coverage and how something was wrong with the media, weather service and governance. They know better.
The ‘end of the world scenario’ the media painted seems crazily overdramatized. Think about the world stage for a moment… by watching our news coverage of the storm, what would you think if you were looking on from another country?
Let’s look past the fact a large storm was indeed hitting the east coast and focus on the fear in the anchors’ voices and their demands and pleas for evacuation. It was sickening to me. They were freaked out!
My inner monologue went something like… “Who gave the microphone to the crazy guy in the room?” Anyone deciding to stay in their houses were mocked as stupid or downright crazy.
Anchors, weathermen and other experts used words and phrases like ‘killer storm’ and ‘catastrophic.’ They likened it to the power of a nuclear blast and told us to ‘escape while you still can,’ ‘catastrophe is imminent…’
Listen to Jim Cantore (He is a Legend in his own mind; a has-been who never was!). He tried to command as authoritative and tried to exert leadership – acting like we must heed his every word… Just because he is a Meteorologist with muscles, doesn’t make his forecasts for impending doom correct… the weather channel seems to have sold out to the Main Stream Media? Big Government? It got sensational.
Down here on the Eastern seaboard, residents know what to look for and know what’s going to happen. Based on past knowledge, we know not to panic and realize what to do in order to be ready. Our experience allows us to stay calm and not panic and make the best deduction as to our proper course of action. As a town preparing for an event like this, we are self-reliant and know what to do as a community to get through it. We have a plan.
The fear and frenzy interviewers and producers wanted was not being portrayed in the general populous around most areas. If you noticed, interviews became less and less with the people who have been in hurricanes because they were relaxed and prepared, they were also properly predicting the storms downgrade.
Now look at the aftermath. Is the damage proportionate to the threat the media touted it to be?
My heart does go out to the families who lost loved ones and those out of power and who have lost property and fortunes. But the fact still remains, the media freaked out!
The media is supposed to watch out for us, represent us and be a watchdog to the government.
It is common knowledge that the Main Stream Media is a lacky for the administration. Do they have our best interests in mind? Rhom Emanual comes to mind with his divulsion of a strategy that is evident “NEVER LET A GOOD CRISIS GO TO WASTE!” Could this be happening here? Departure from self reliance to government reliance?
But for the entire weekend, people in other states had their news bombarded by a storm that didn’t live up to the hype and other important media coverage suffered. All national news was on the hurricane, my mother was in California (a place that has no hurricanes) and she had to turn the news off because there was nothing else on other than the impending doom.
As a country, are we as scared as the authorities and media sounded or are we being misrepresented?
For news outlets, knowing the weekly news cycle and how stories are buried at the end of them (thank you Beck for educating us on that), what else happened in the world?
I remember mention of Libya (we are in a non-war there right?) Yemen (more non-war?) I remember Isreal got attacked and fought back, haven’t heard anything sinse hurricane coverage started. Significant news was breaking in Libya, Yemen and other places. I heard something about Libya – Quadaffi’s gone. Wasn’t there things happening in Yemen? I even believe Israel was attacked and they retaliated pretty harshly… did we hear anything about that (not to mention the Tea Party Express bus tour started…)
Who’s really deciding what stories get covered and what gets hyped or not? Who’s feeding the American people the news they ‘need’ to hear and who is calling the shots?
