Posted on 08/28/2011 6:01:33 PM PDT by RaceBannon
Okay, we all know Hurricane Irene was hyped to the gills.
WHY?
Was it slow news? Was it media infatuation with Obama at the helm of FEMA?
I think they wanted to make it seem like a huge event so that they can make a big deal about how quickly and efficiently Obama’s responds to it. Then they’ll contrast that to how the Bush administration reacted to Katrina, blaming everything bad that happened on Pres. Bush, of course.
Because a hurricanes hitting not just one, but two major cities head on is very exciting.
I totally agree that “be prepared” is the best motto. However.....what I witnessed in the MSM AFTER the worst had passed was disgraceful. I read several posts on here that they witnessed the media FAKING the severity.
My son and I were watching the Weather Channel this afternoon (around 3pm) from NJ. The ‘idiot on the spot’ was there on the coast on a walkway. He was dressed in rain hoodie and hat. Camera zoomed in on him and he was grasping his head, holding his mic in a wide-footed stance. Then the cameraman panned back to show people walking along, casually......hardly ANY wind and NO rain and NO ONE was covered in rain gear. My son had his mouth open. I said....”This is theater of the ABSURD!!!!” Then people realized they were on camera and started waving. LOL!
You could just imagine his producer saying: “John? John? We’re getting a close-up. Look like you are struggling. Hold your hat.” Then after the pan-out.......he stopped ‘striking the pose’. It was HILARIOUS!!!!!!
Exactlly. Here in my little part of the rural West we had a 6.3 earthquake a few years back with barely a mention on the news; 100 winds that toppled trees and took roofs off of homes and businesses - dead silence; and a flash flood last year that knocked cars and simi trucks off the road closing the main highway with four feet of mud for four days. I listened in vain to hear anything about it on ABC Radio News.
Because it could have easily been this:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/x-photos-from-the-devastating-new-england-hurrican
Read this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2770158/posts
We have the luxury of advanced satellite forecasting, but we still have no way to predict what a monster storm will do. And all hurricanes are, by definition, monster storms.
What you call “hype” was merely prudent planning. Thanks to the leaders of those affected areas for doing their jobs.
And thanks be to God it wasn’t worse.
It is simple really. First there hasn’t been a hurricane to hit the US for a while and they were looking for a disaster to report. Second, they were hoping to blame it on globull warming. Third, it is pretty rare for a hurricane to go up the eastern seaboard like that.
Agreed that much of the media coverage of this storm was just silly. It always is.
Much of the problem this time was that it was a weekend and they have hours of airtime to fill. And nothing happening in Washington, which is a good thing.
They created all the hype and could not back off or lose face, and be held liable for all the economic and other damage they caused.
3) They hyped a disaster so they could prepare “certain groups” for the looting.
That is very true...even the great Joe Bastardi thought it was going to stay a cat4 to NY. That would have been serious.
But by 7:30 am Saturday when it hit NC, it was fairly obvious it was going to be a non event.
So why not declare victory and tone it down?
I guess zero needed to look important. He is STILL trying to hype this nonevent.
His inner circle might think its helpful to him but it makes him look like a real idiot. [A Great Good Thing!! LOL]
It changed the subject from Obamas two-jet vacation, from the promise of obama’s proposal of a plan which did not exist, from the repetetive buisness reports of the worsening economy, from the crass executive order to import 300,000 immigrants in opposition to the pubic will as well as that of congress. Misdirection is often the tool of liar democrat (sorry to be repetitive).
My Thoughts:
1 Obama knows we are getting tired of his vacations
Probably would have been back earlier from MV,but MO said no)
2 Needed to take charge of whatever to show leadership.
3 By the time he showed up,the storm was losing strenght.
Now we know he’d look a fool if he was in charge of a Tropical Storm.So all his cronies had to keep building this Storm as a Big one,or he’d be a laughing stock. NC took the punch out of this Storm.So it was The Big One until it hit NJ and NYC.And low and behold a rain maker.
What he looks like ,take your pick.
I know you folks up in that area don’t get Storms like this,like we do here.But I read most of the threads on this Storm and watched the Times Square Cam.People we’re walking around with umbrellas.Something was’nt adding up.
Watch out for the water,it’ll kill you before wind will.
All Hype.
Just my 2cents.
“Okay, we all know Hurricane Irene was hyped to the gills.
WHY?”
______________________________________
It is big bangs for the buck, or maybe big bucks for the bang.
It is just natural to over-hype natural “disasters”, even if they are not so disastrous.
Just look at Katrina. It was over-hyped, and still is to this day, only because the levy broke.
Hurricanes get far more viewers then anything else, short of a nuke going off, but far more then shots of Obozo playing golf.
Fukashima is an example of a REAL disaster.
Natural disasters are an unpreventable fact of life, and
Americans have been damn lucky to have so few.
Look at some of the volcano blowups in history, that wipe out entire civilizations.
Get back to me when Yellowstone pops its cork.
Trying to get away from the hurricane coverage by watching Sunday night football. Not so fast. Brian Williams showed all the hurricane updates from today at half-time.
My rant on this.
I do not wish to disparage the storm here. I love VA Beach and Hatteras, especially Okracoke. Baltimores cool. The others I dont know well anymore, mostly because I dont want to. Well, except for DC/Alexandria and the Beltway. I suppose thats actually a lot of places. (I also need to add in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas to this list).
What I do mind is the hysterics. Where were national networks lined up like flights coming into Reagan 1) at Minot; 2) at the levess and dams that broke/were allowed to break along the upper Missouri; 3) in LA days and days after the midwestern floods; 4) in and around the tornados from OK to TN earlier this year; 5) when the ice storm of a couple of years ago left people from WV west in the dark for weeks; 6) in the land made dry by CA regs to save a smelt (rather than farm them), thus destroying family farms, 100-year old nut trees, and causing at least 18% unemployment; 7) after the hurricane of last year in TX/Galveston; 8) all over the AZ wildfire like white on rice; and, finally 9) in the CURRENT drought catastrophe in Texas/Oklahoma? Wait a minute. Are most of these states red states? And this means wall-to-wall coverage and heave ho lets get er done help is not worth a dime?
I am furious about this flicking away of the rest of the country so that 0bama can take control of Irene. To me, this demonstrates the complete selfishness of East Coast media. Meanwhile, 1) AQ in Iraq has launched scuds into Kuwait; 2) more people have been killed in Iraq (its safe now); 3) Egypt is hiring the bedouin to fight AQ in Egypt; 4) Black Africans are being slaughtered in Libya; 5) the #2 AQ guy in Pakistan is now dead, thanks to us; 6) Zeros EOs give race-based hiring a thumbs upattempting to make minorities in control of the federal govt; 7) The S&P head has resigned courtesy of this fascist totalitarian sh!t Administration; 8) Zeros buddy Mugabe may have Qaddafi; 9) Mexican militarys in the US fighting the cartels; and 10) Zeros approvals tanking like the Titanic, along with our economy. But hey, Irenes worthy of legions of newscasters standing in sewage foam and reporting on missing shingles, some flooding, and NC excepted, the worst thing to happen in decadescomplete with FEMA personnel moved into local motels, playing cards while waiting to help clean things up, at our expense, of course.
All to boost 0bamas ratings and attempt to compare a 200+ MPH cat5 hurricane under Bush, complete with DNC complicity and Blancos/Nagins dereliction of duty to their citizens, complete with collateral damage deaths in an effort to trash Bush. Irene is no Katrina. Never was. But its worthy of a 3D cone of 1) complicit federally controlled media; 2) assistance upcoming (no doubt, a jobs effort to rebuild); and 3) maybe well even see 1930s-style work camps and cook food over campfires communally, sos the Hamptons and LI residents can recoup their former lifestyle. (Sorry. Thats a bit over the top, classist perspective of mine on those with especially inherited wealth).
As to the other things mentioned above, lets give that a mere mote in our East coast eye. The teabaggers being the illiterates they are will never notice. After all, were hicks and all related to each other via 2nd if not 1st cousins. And we can see Russia from our houses, even if theyre in Arkansas.
Usually earthquake coverage is a separate rider. It is on my policy.
Frankly, Obama is grasping at straws to look Presidential. I believe all three Republican front-runners would beat him in 2012, and he's beginning to see this.
~~ Credits to Bikkuri
My wife and I busted out laughing, both of us recalling Jason Alexander, as George Castanza,....."The ocean was angry that day, my friends.....I said, Hold on there big fella....."....Well, anyway, I guess you had to be there.
One reason it was hyped it because the media Holyland of NYC was going to be hit and as we all know NYC people are more important than anybody anywhere else. Also, it was hyped because quite frankly the media is short on subjects to talk about. Congress is out of session, the president is on vacation so a hurricane especially against the east coast is sonething they will hype.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.