Last weekend's coverage of Irene proved that a hurricane isn't just a meteorological event, it's also a huge media event. The most dire media predictions for the storm's impact didn't come to pass, causing some to say the storm was over hyped by the media. Brooke talks with the New York Times' Nate Silver, who says the numbers show that Irene may have actually been under-hyped.
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Comments [3]
It wasn't that it was over-hyped. The warnings saved lives but our forecasters cannot predict the future now matter how hard we try to believe they can.so, as most media outlets are learning, focus on accountability in the aftermath is as essential!
What I find striking about national overreactions is the difference between urban and rural effects. Coverage only became 'hype' when urban areas seemed to be spared. Meawhile, however, much of upstate New York, and all of Vermont has been devastated. I live on a badly damaged road in Vermont and am still unable to drive out in either direction, and one direction is largely a canyon where had once been a road with a mild mannered brook beside it. That aint hype.
Even on as apolitical a subject as the weather, OTM has to charge at the Fox News windmills?
They really can't help themselves, can they?
How quixotic of them. And not in a good way. No, rather in a foolish and embarrassingly predictable way.
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