I heard a few very interesting Sandy related comments today on NPR. [View all]

[MarianJack]

They were from people who didn't evacuate because they'd heard news media calls to evacuate before when the hurricane turned out to be not so bad. Some described themselves as "stupid".

It made me think of some of the media coverage related to some of the weather disasters since my first such experience, which was with hurricane Gloria in September of 1985. The news media had us convinced that we were all going to be on the roofs of our houses waiting for the National Guard boats to rescue us.

As it turned out, Gloria developed into one hell of a rainstorm with just about the worst thing to happen was that several Atlantic City casinos had to replace carpets. There was OUTRAGE!

I'm sure that we can all think about several instances of the news media WAY over-reacting to possibilities. Remember Y2K? One of my favorite examples was when we were being told that some pandemic or another during george w turdhead's 2nd term. On CBS This Morning, Hannah Storm was interviewing a talking head from the administration who told us in one breath that we needed to have plenty of flashlights, candles and batteries for WHEN the power went out. In the next breath we were advised to have plenty og DVDs available to keep the kids entertained...and Hannah Storm just let it go.

Please understand that I am not for one second saying that people shouldn't be made aware of the actual dangers of natural disasters. However, to me this seems to be the reactions of people who've heard "wolf" a few hundred times too many. I can only wonder what would happen if the news media were to go back to the notion that their job is to INFORM, not to incite panic.

I remember back in the 80s, my father made th comment that the American Cancer Society had lost it's credibility because when EVERYTHING causes cancer, than NOTHING causes cancer.

Perhaps the medis should learn that when EVERYTHING is worthy of panic, than NOTHING is worthy of panic

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

BTW, where re the taxes, willard?

PEACE!