[beyond the sea]

But they decided not to warn about the tsunami "out of courtesy to the tourist industry"

Amity Island (Jaws) politics! (Don't tell them about the shark. Don't close the beaches....... it's the season.)

This is despicable.

[jwpjr]

But they decided not to warn about the tsunami "out of courtesy to the tourist industry"

This is not as uncommon as some might think! I worked in radio in the 60's and 70's and it was common practice at country stations not to report anything to with tornado's, out of courtesy to our sponsors, many of whom were mobile home dealers. We had a policy to stop all advertising for these sponsors for a day or two after a mobile home park was struck by a tornado, just as we stopped all airline ads for a couple of days after the crash of a major carrier. We weren't even allowed to broadcast tornado warnings or watches at some stations where mobile home accounts were a large part of the advertising revenue for the station. Seems pretty hard to believe now, 30 years removed from the experience, but I can attest to the existence of such thinking.