View Full Version : George Will implies all the hurricane warnings were just hoopla and unnecesssary
Today on "This Week", George Will was really irritated that the government over-reacted to Hurricane Irene and that it was all just another move on Obama's part to look good and to fill everyone with fear.
Give me a break. I know that many times the local weather people cry wolf about storms, but what was FEMA, etc., supposed to do? If they hadn't made it look bad, and it was worse than it ended up being, then everyone would be saying they were idiots for not preparing.
I'm just glad I'm not the one who has to make these calls. Its damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
Plus, we really haven't heard about all the damage yet.
I know it seems like we're filled with fear about things, but when a culture operates from the position that you can't lose anyone or anything, then it seems like over-reacting needs to be the norm. I'm not sure what the solution is. I just wish people would realize that nature isn't always predictable, and it must be exceptionally hard to prepare for all the worst case senarios.
My life experience tells me that most people that criticize government are usually the very ones that are first in line to take advantage of what government has to offer. Either social programs, business entitlements, government assistance to the states, healthcare, military benefits, and on and on.
As far as critizing Obama by a right-winger - nothing new there.
Peace
He has a vacation home on the coast in South Carolina. I guess if it didn't wreck his house, then it didn't hurt anyone else's.
Had a client yesterday and we were discussing Irene. I said, "Don't you think the forecasters and the government are sort of over the top with all this? Making all those New Yorkers evacuate, closing the subways, etc. Isn't that kind of overreacting?" Her response: "Can you say Katrina?!"
One thing I didn't know about the subways in NYC is that they have pumps running 24/7 to keep water out of them. And that's when the sun is shining.
Okay.....just to clarify my previous statements......I was able to rewatch This Week online and what George Will said was that Journalism has manufactured synthetic hysteria with this tropical storm. He was obviously quite irritated that it all was handled the way it was.
I wonder what George would have done. We all saw the hurricane and how huge it was (as big as Europe) on satellite. So what would George have done? WWGD? haha
So did he say, "government over-reacted to Hurricane Irene and that it was all just another move on Obama's part to look good and to fill everyone with fear" or did he say, "Journalism has manufactured synthetic hysteria with this tropical storm" ? IMO, two totally different issues.
I have given my opinion on the Obama statement already and regarding the "manufactured synthetic hysteria" I tend to agree with that. I watched some of the reports this AM and the one thing I noticed without exception was that it seemed really important for the reporter to be standing in the rain and looking like they were about to blow over. Not sure why that is the standard for hurricanes but I did think it was funny in a few cases because in the background on one there was a kid riding his bike around without much trouble :laff:
I think most of the news channels just love these events and I do tend to agree that a lot of it is hype. Having been through IKE and the Houston evacuation (which was a disaster by any measure) I do take Hurricanes seriously. I've also had wind damage during a hurricane in the 80's so they really are serious business and sometimes I do think that the media might tend to overblown things in the name of "journalism". There have been several stars born from this type of coverage - Anderson Cooper comes to mind.
Peace
So far I think it's like 12 people dead - my ex just got evacuated in Western MA to higher ground because they are having serious flooding problems out there.
I wonder how many would have died being out and about gawking at the hurricane if they had thought little government hoopla = little danger?
Also, if the government had under-reacted, the same people would be out there complaining about it.
They had to make decisions when the storm was a cat 3. If they waited until they were sure what the storm would do there would not be enough time to react.
And I would place more blame at the media's feet - it wouldn't surprise me if TV advertising rates go up during weeks like this. The hype definitely brings in the viewers.
I agree that the media constantly over-does everything, crying wolf many times about the weather and fixating on anything and everything and blowing it totally out of proportion. But how can one disagree with the satellite photos of the hurricane? It wasn't the media that caused everything to be shut down.....it was the info from NOAA that was received by FEMA, the president, the mayors, etc. I think its pretty easy to dissect hoopla from info from agencies like NOAA. If we started hearing "run for your lives!!" from the media, when NOAA was saying a tropical storm at most, then we'd feel okay ignoring the media.
George Will did not say the government did this. That was my mistake. (He dis'd Obama later in the conversation and I made an incorrect statement earlier).
But he was filled with disgust over the "manufactured synthetic hysteria over a tropical storm". He can't just be blaming the media, since it was the government agencies (federal and state) that started all the evacuations, etc., based on NOAA's predictions. And like I said.....how can you argue with a hurricane the size of Europe on the satellite?
The reporters who were out in this were ridiculous. I noticed that Al Roker was chained to a bench next to the ocean, so he wouldn't blow away. One year he was out there and he did almost get blown into the ocean. How stupid so much of the reporting is. But I don't feel that all the evacuations were unnecessary.
As they say....better safe than sorry. And you know if it had been worse and no one had been warned/evacuated adequately, they would have wanted to crucify Obama.
Also, if the government had under-reacted, the same people would be out there complaining about it.
Exactly! Monday... er...Sunday morning quarterbacking is so much easier than having to make the decisions beforehand. It's easier to be a critical follower than someone with authority in an unpredictable situation. With 14 dead and counting, perhaps some of the critics (I expect there to be more than Mr.Will.) would have been happier with a higher death count.
But he was filled with disgust over the "manufactured synthetic hysteria over a tropical storm"
Ask the good people of currently flooded Vermont and elsewhere if it was "manufactured synthetic hysteria over a tropical storm". Perhaps Mr.Will should have waited before jumping to conclusions about the dangers of a mere 'tropical storm'. And as someone above said, all the damage reports aren't in yet.
But, hey, he was on TV and needed to make hay while he could -- making him part of the media he is criticizing.
I watched the national news just a short while ago and there is alot of damage. Apparently the worst flooding is inland. Vermont looked horrible with flooding.
And elswhere roads and bridges are washed away. As is the case with every catastrophe, all the damage doesn't get reported for awhile. Mr. Will spoke much too soon and appeared fairly ignorant of the storm's damage.
Miss Cellane
8-29-11, 7:13am
Two things to consider.
One, hurricanes are impossible to predict exactly. The science has improved a lot, but there are still many variables that can't be predicted accurately days ahead of time. The options are to estimate the worst case scenario and act on that, or to assume the best case scenario and plan accordingly. If you chose the later and things don't work as planned, there are lives lost and massive property damage--one of the reasons the 1938 hurricane hurt New England so badly was that people were simply not warned about the storm. If you chose the former and things aren't as bad as expected--well, there was considerable inconvenience for those who had to evacuate or shut down their businesses, and people ran around boarding things up and putting things away that they didn't need to, but lives aren't lost and damage is lessened. Common sense says to plan for the worst case scenario.
It's like when my brother's pacemaker decided to attempt to leave his body and broke through the skin. The established medical protocol is to assume that there's infection and that the infection has traveled to the heart. Before they did anything else, the doctors treated DB for an infection, because having an infection in your heart is not a good thing. This meant a week in the hospital on IV antibiotics before they did the surgery to remove the old pacemaker, and then more antibiotics over the course of a week before they put in the new pacemaker.
DB was very grumpy. His boss was furious at him. But there were no alternatives. None. There was no way the doctors would skip any of the required steps and no way my brother could just leave--he needed a new pacemaker and the only way to get it was to spend a month in the hospital.
Was all the caution necessary? Maybe not. But imagine the results if there had been an infection and they didn't follow the proper steps. My brother would be dead now. There's an old saying, "Better safe than sorry." I think that applies to hurricanes as well as pacemakers.
Two, the media, of which George Will is a part, over-hype every single little "weather event" these days. In my area, thunderstorms and snow storms, not blizzards--just regular snow storms, are given names. TV programs are interrupted to announce that rain or snow is coming, accompanied by a long list of things to do to prepare for said thunderstorm or snow storm. The crawler line on the bottom of the TV screen is called into use to announce the coming storm.
So when a really big, seriously dangerous storm appears, the media has to go to even greater levels of hype to get people to pay attention. If they didn't treat every little drop of rain as a "serious weather event," maybe they wouldn't have to hype up the truly serious storms as much as they do.
Within two hours of Irene clearing the Boston area, local news people were on TV asking residents if they felt that the government had taken too extreme a stance on the storm. Everyone I saw answered the same way--what else could the government do? There was no way to predict how badly the area would be impacted by the storm, so taking lots of precautions was the only way to go.
I'm sure in the days to come the NYC evacuation will be criticized greatly. But if the evacuation hadn't been ordered and just one person had been injured or killed, the outrage would have been enormous.
George Will is simply another talking head so I don't put any more stock in what he says than any of the others.
As far as the government's course of action I will be interested to hear all the feedback from people in affected areas. From the sidelines far, far out of harms way it looks like they did a pretty good job. Weather events are political dynamite. I can name half a dozen mayors of Denver that lost elections after a blizzard. Those are storms who's effect only lasts for a matter of days and are mostly just a big inconvenience, not potentially life threatening events affecting millions. I think there is no choice but to err on the side of caution. If the storm loses some of its intensity or changes course, so be it. Better to evacuate when it turns out to not be as bad as it could be than to miss it the other way. Like Nella said, "can you say Katrina?"
If anyone is interested in hearing his exact comments:
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/will-rips-irene-hype-journalism-shouldn’t-contribute-manufacture-synthetic-hysteria
And for some written words along the same vein from Newsweek's Washington Bureau Chief, Howard Kurtz:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/28/hurricane-irene-hype-how-the-media-went-overboard.html
For the record, I tend to agree with both of them.
HappyHiker
8-29-11, 4:31pm
While we got off easier than a Cat 5, certainly, many towns were flooded, homes totally destroyed, and there were raging rivers and huge waves everywhere on the East Coast. For those of us who went through it, I don't think it was "overblown." In fact, I think many lives were saved by evacuating people...though our home was spared, almost 24 hours of 80-110 mile winds took a toll and our back yard looks like a giant was playing pick-up sticks with our big pine trees, siding is ripped from our house and wind-blown pine cones scoured paint from the side of our car. And we were among the very lucky ones. Media hysteria? Nope, don't think so.
So Alan, do you think that all the evacuations should have been carried out, but just alot less said about the storm on the news?
I'm interested in how a person with your view would have handled the whole thing.
I know there's a difference between what NOAA predicts and how all the news channels might handle it. But I'm having trouble understanding what people like George Will and maybe you feel it should have been handled like. (And I'm not saying this angrily. Just curious).
If anyone is interested in hearing his exact comments:
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/will-rips-irene-hype-journalism-shouldn’t-contribute-manufacture-synthetic-hysteria
And for some written words along the same vein from Newsweek's Washington Bureau Chief, Howard Kurtz:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/28/hurricane-irene-hype-how-the-media-went-overboard.html
For the record, I tend to agree with both of them.
I think you have to consider media's purpose for being - profit. Why should they do anything other than what will bring in the most money? You make it sound like there should be rules or regulations or something :-)
Government entities erred on the side of caution - this time. But not that they knew that's how it would turn out when they had to make their decisions.
So Alan, do you think that all the evacuations should have been carried out, but just alot less said about the storm on the news?
I'm interested in how a person with your view would have handled the whole thing.
I know there's a difference between what NOAA predicts and how all the news channels might handle it. But I'm having trouble understanding what people like George Will and maybe you feel it should have been handled like. (And I'm not saying this angrily. Just curious).
First off, I haven't seen any evidence that George Will, or anyone else for that matter, has criticized the method in which governments reacted to the storm, but rather how journalists reacted to it. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
In the media, news is a profit center and on some cable outlets, the sole profit center. Events such as Hurricane Irene are prime advertising for each particular news brand. Each outlet feels the need to keep us on the edge of our seats lest we tune out. That's why a Category One hurricane ends up getting Category Five coverage.
As far as evacuations, that's a local governmental decision and has nothing to do with the media's treatment of the storm. I think local officials have the responsibility to use their best judgement in that regard, as long as they use real weather forecasts rather than media hype in their decision making process. And on the federal level, if they're using media hype to drive their policies (which I personally believe they do simply to fend off future criticism in case things go wrong), then they're not fulfilling their obligations to the citizens.
If the media had toned down the frenzy just a bit, would it have had a bad effect on those affected by the storm? I don't think so, and that's the view of someone like me, in it's entirety.
Unfortunately I think that if the media ever truly did lower the hype to a level that fit the situation the average person who doesn't think deeply about these sorts of things would see the media not overreacting and think "well, this isn't going to be a big deal. I'll just ignore the evacuation order" And then a lot of people might end up in serious trouble.
I'm reminded of when I was an usher for a summer opera company many years ago. All 3 operas that season were EXACTLY 3 hours long with intermissions. And the orchestra went into overtime at EXACTLY 3:01. So the performances HAD to start on time or it was a several thousand dollar mistake. Which meant that we ushers regularly had to enforce late seating policies that meant that late arrivers would miss the first part of the performance. One of the late arrivers suggested that all performances ought to start late. To which I responded "if we always started late the same people who are regularly late now would figure that out and they'd arrive 5 minutes later than they do now." Her husband, obviously exasperated at his wife for making them late, glared at her and said "yes, you're probably right."
All that said, I agree, the media over-hypes ever single weather event just because they know people will watch. I can remember as a kid how the newby reporter always had to go stand out in the blowing snow at the worst intersection in town (conveniently next to the tv's studio) and talk about how bad rush hour was because of the weather. (and in denver snowstorms are a dime a dozen...) And the reality was that the intersection looked just as congested on a sunny day, but the station knew that the drama of having a reporter standing out in the snow got people to watch.
You know, as a child, I don't think we ever had weather reports. We didn't know when anything was coming! Ignorance is bliss. haha
Growing up in farm country the weather was the only part of the news my dad did watch! His ignorant bliss came from ignoring such non-issues as politics, stock markets, international relations, etc.
I don't know how old you are Gregg, but I honestly don't remember there even being a weather report with the news....except what it was currently outside. This was back in the 50's.
Poor Vermont and other areas of the east coast. Whoever thought Vermont would be the hardest hit? I know New Jersey and upper New York got it pretty bad too. I heard that one place lost 30,000 chickens. They were probably in cages and drowned. :( Seeing those old covered bridges in Vermont being swept away was really sad. Alot of bridges and roads washed away in many areas of the east coast.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.