You're most likely exactly right, but the post-9/11 security environment and the proliferation of NYC-baseed media outlets that have a stake in keeping our adrenaline pumping -- and thus tuned into them -- is the perfect storm for making a mountain out of a molehill.
This has happened before in NY. I remember when I was a teenager on Long Island, what they called an "air inversion" (whatever that may be) caused all the rotten smells from the chemical plants in Elizabeth, Bayonne etc. to waft over the city and then over LI. It was a truly, truly horrible smell that I still have sense memory of today. But back in the late 1980s, we just turned on the radio, heard what was going on, and went about our business. Now it turns into a day-long story.
Yup. I remember these smells growing up too.
But now, these smells can drum up more homeland security money.
Anything that happens in NYC will break instantly by network media because they are based there. Interestingly, their headquarters are not far from each other in Midtown Manhattan, like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, etc.