It was an interesting weekend, news-wise, wasn't it? The Tina Fey look-alike that's the Republican VP nominee announced that her teenage daughter was pregnant, and instead of covering the beginning of the Republican National Convention, all the broadcast and cable news operations sent their anchors to New Orleans, hoping to cover the "devastation" caused by Hurricane Gustav.One problem: Nothing happened.
Well, that's not entirely true. The storm did hit rural areas west of New Orleans, and hit them pretty hard. But most of the Big Easy was spared. There was some minor flooding, some overflow of the leeves, and Geraldo Rivera bringing us "dramatic" footage of a "person!" in the water ... who was wearing a life jacket and tethered to what looks to be a Coast Guard boat. But that was about it. It makes a person wonder if the networks were disappointed there wasn't more destruction.
Think about it: all three broadcast networks pre-empted their convention coverage -- because of some Gustav-related shuffling by the Republicans, there wasn't much to cover, anyway -- with hurricane coverage, and all three main anchors reported from a very dry New Orleans. All three spent the hour trying to cover stories that linked this non-event with Katrina: how the evacuation and preparation was different than it was three years ago, how the city is still affected by that devastating storm, etc. etc. On NBC, for instance, Brian Williams climbed a leeve, and Keith Morrison reserved his most folksy narration for the story of a hospital that's still closed after being devastated by that previous hurricane. But Gustav? It was a non-story. Must have made news directors across the land tear their hair out, wondering why they pulled people out of St. Paul to chase the storm.
Of course, we got all the requisite "bent-tree" coverage from the cable networks, with reporters in windbreakers and baseball caps getting smacked in the face by wind, rain, and debris. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post has a good commentary on how this silly storm coverage is unlike any other on-the-scene news coverage out there, and he's right. It's amazing how we love to see reporters risking life and limb to show us... the weather. Wow.
At this point, maybe it's time for both the broadcast and the cable networks rethink how they cover potential disasters like this; yes, it's hard to predict the path of a particular storm, and the story of how New Orleans prepared for Gustav three years after Katrina was a compelling story by itself. But Katrina should have taught the networks that they need to be nimble and cover the storm in all the areas affected, and that showing some wind-blown debris and reporters getting soaked isn't cutting it with the American public anymore. We want to know about the aftermath of a storm like Gustav and its human and economic impact. Geraldo and his overreactions can stay in the studio ... or in his apartment, for all we care.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-02-2008 @ 11:50AM
Claire said...
it would make more sense for those reporters to move to the small towns that actually got hit hard. because there is more to the gulf coast than New Orleans. i'm sure some of those residents are getting tired of the new orleans-centric hurricane news.
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9-02-2008 @ 11:54AM
erik said...
It's so true. All the reporters in the field were having a hard time trying to make things more dramatic then they really were. And I just read that the G.O.P. has resumed all planned activities and events for the convention this week. Now the Obama loving media will have to pick up their disappointed selves and truck on up to St. Paul and cover the convention they were hoping the Hurricane would cancel.
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9-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
RadioScott said...
The worst (or best) moment I saw was Stephanie Abrams on the Weather Channel reporting live from somewhere that got hit by the eye of the hurricane. She implored viewers to gather the family around the TV because she was about to show some "extraordinary video." Fortunately, I didn't take her advice. The video was a before-and-after shot of a street with some tree limbs down. I kid you not. It could have been any street in the country that's ever been through a severe thunderstorm.
I'd like to think she was being sarcastic, but I don't give her that much credit.
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10-04-2008 @ 12:36AM
Morgan City said...
She is an idiot. I can't believe that she did such a piss poor job covering Gustav in Morgan City. I was glad when the electricity went out b/c I didn't have to watch her anymore. Getting us excited about watching something and then showing nothing. I will never watch her again and if the TWC doesn't get there act together, I'll stop watching them too.
9-02-2008 @ 12:55PM
Kronos said...
Of course they were disappointed - the ratings were horrible (I'm guessing.)
That's all TV is about these days - ratings. Who can hold the viewers the longest? And, sadly, nothing says ratings like a disaster happening to other people. Or buildings being ripped apart on live TV just across the street from the TV crew. Did we honestly need a continual radar loop of the hurricane on the lower right corner of the screen? Yep, that's a hurricane, and yes, they rotate. They'll do that you know. So here, we'll show it to you over and over again in case you forgot. All day.
At least the story broke about the governor's daughter being pregnant (*gasp* the horror!) otherwise they would have had nothing to dissect that evening. The funny thing is, even though the candidates all stated that family is "off limits" (and rightly so) that's all the media continued to talk about. It was as if everyone had never heard about teenage pregnancy before (one third of girls under the age of 20 people - it does happen.)
Recently, whenever stuff like this happens on TV, I think of some Tool lyrics (wow, I don't get to use Tool lyrics very often) from their song 'Vicarious': "Cos I need to watch things die, from a good safe distance / Vicariously I live while the whole world dies"
Oh, and please correct me where I'm wrong - I hate leaving snarky, sarcastic comments with bad statistics and/or data. :P
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9-02-2008 @ 1:12PM
segsig said...
The hurricane "hype" was a political build up to show how much better Gustav was handled versus Katrina. A category one storm that didn't directly hit NOLA made the opening day look good for the repugs. And it buried the weekend of Palin's investigation into troopergate, etc.
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9-02-2008 @ 4:22PM
Cincinnati Mike said...
Smears, conspiracies, and cute names like "Repugs." I hope assholes like Seqsiq realize that they are actually generating sympathy for Ms. Palin.
9-02-2008 @ 1:17PM
Oreo said...
I was hoping the city would be wiped off the map. It's a stupid place for a city and a huge waste of money. Just give the money to the people and tell them to move.
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9-02-2008 @ 8:20PM
StillBash said...
F me I agree with something Oreo said...
Global warming... sea levels are rising. Our reaction? Build higher levees.
Top notch.
9-02-2008 @ 1:23PM
0megapart!cle said...
The teenage pregnant story isn't that much news, if the motherhood of the vice-presidential candidate wasn't such a key part of her resume. But it shows a certain failing on Palin's part (and more broadly on the entire idea of raising someone in a pro-life household with minimal discussion of birth control), and reflects on her abilities as a result. (The McCain campaign is the one that highlighted her "hockey mom" status, as the fact that she is raising 5 children makes up for her lack of governmental experience)
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9-02-2008 @ 2:54PM
Patrick said...
Obviously omegapartic!e has never had a teenage child. You can't possibly be blaming the mother of this 17 yearold for doing what teenagers have been doing since... well... since there have been teenagers. What the heck did that comment have to do with this story anyhow?
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9-02-2008 @ 3:29PM
Oreo said...
The difference is the VP candidate is pro life and isn't for teaching birth control, you just shouldn't have sex. So it just further proves that the mother as a very VERY limited politician is a huge failure. That makes her a perfect match to the new McCain.
9-02-2008 @ 4:42PM
Cincinnati Mike said...
Oreo, shit happens in every family. Rich, poor, black, white, left, right. It even happens to people who try to promote responsibility. When it does, responsible people deal with it. And they are. They're getting married, and the families will support them, and everybody knows it will be tough going.
I'm sure that sounds like a harsh sentence...as Obama put it previously..."to be punished with a baby." And I'm sure that you hope this absolutely ruins Ms. Palin. So it must be disappointing for you to see the "Repug" base, as well as "hypocritical, patriarchal" Christian conservatives lining up to support her.
This episode speaks more to our own hypocrisy than to the Palins'.
9-02-2008 @ 8:23PM
StillBash said...
I don't even want to talk about this part of the new Rep. VP candidate because the actual lack of political experience to me speaks volumes.
The oldest possible candidate with a medical file as thick as the NY telephone book who's most likely to keel over dead at some point teams up with Peggy Hill as a stand-in in case he's unable to fulfill his duties.
I don't really care about anything going on in her life as long as she'll never EVER get the power over the red telephone and the football.
9-02-2008 @ 4:07PM
jeff williams said...
Well well well Mother nature unleashes her fury again and we want to send money to a city that is occupying space own by the sea. Move them all out of NO and rebuild elsewhere, this is not rocket science below sea level means you will eventually be treading water.
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9-02-2008 @ 4:25PM
Jimmy said...
The only hurricane coverage I ever want or need is the live radar and, to a lesser extent, the projected path. The rest is just fluff.
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