Weather sensationlism

I remember a time when the nightly news was a rather boring affair.
As boring as it was everyone took the news as truth and it had very high credibility back then.

Fast forward to today. Let's take Hurricane Florence. Yes all hurricanes are horrible, but they way they have weathermen half blowing away in the rain and wind is getting crazy. It's like the viewing audience has become completely bloodthirsty. It doesn't matter if what you are showing them is true, or good, as long as it is entertaining. The news tells the audience not to go outside, and then all they do is show weathermen outside and other people outside. Have we lost all our marbles?

There were people on social media that seemed genuinely disappointed that it was downgraded to a Cat 1. What the?? Isn't this good news???

On another note. If the news wants to put anything useful out there they need to tell the audience to not drive in the water, it will not end well. Cars are not boats. I saw so many people in Florida think they could just drive through deep water, it was crazy. Don't people know these things? The other thing, do not play in standing water. It makes me sick every time the news shows kids splashing in basically sewage!

If it bleeds it leads.
And if it doesn't, they'll find a way to make it.


All to keep you "informed" of course.

As far as the coverage of Florence goes, I have to wonder about the whole weeks worth of coverage, talking about it being the strongest hurricane since the 50's, made people disappointed when it dropped to a Cat 1 when it landed.
So much Hype.

But yeah, I agree. Like everything else they report, Accuracy is no where near as important as ratings anymore.

they hype the storms up almost as if the want people to panic. i guess that insures they will continually tune in for updates. seriously what is with the all of a sudden naming winter storms? strange that they never needed names before, typically being referred to by "remember that storm in (place year here)"? but nothing gets more hype and people in almost hysterics like hearing "storm (place name here), is going to hit". it seems that by naming such storms more people will tune in for updates. it's also interesting to note that there were in fact TWO big storms going on this week. yet you only really saw anything about one of those storms in most western media. now it does in fact make sense that they would spend a bit more time on a storm that is local. but why almost completely ignore the even bigger storm? that is until the Hurricane in the US severely weakened. then they decided it would seem that since that storm was pretty much a wash out for mass devastation. that they would actually report on the Cat 5 super typhoon currently getting ready to hit Luzon, before moving on to hit Hong Kong. it would seem that at least with this other storm they will get their devastation to boost their rating on it.

friends of mine were generally surprised earlier today when they learned about the even bigger storm getting set to hit Luzon, since they had heard nothing about it. they had been hearing all about the Hurricane for almost a week, with all the attendant fear porn about it. yet all of a sudden there was this bigger super typhoon that to them appeared out of nowhere about to cause devastation, when the hurricane became pretty much a nothing as tropical storms go.

You should see the Daily Express in the UK. We're not even in the hurricane zone, but all their stories are about Florence. They even have links to live webcams, spaghetti maps, satellite photographs and videos. With other weather, we have warnings of thundersnow, arctic freezes or Saharan heatwaves.

a reply to: generik

There was a story that said Hurricane Florence a Category 6 storm???
It is just getting stupid!

In the winter we had a normal snow storm, they were hyping it and called it snowmageddon, that was crazy too.
It was just a normal snow storm.

My biggest fear is that they are crying wolf too much, and when the real thing comes on we'll all be too desensitized to it.

a reply to: generik

I know what you mean. I'm here in central NY, and in the winter we'll get all these winter weather warnings and watches for a couple inches of snow. When I was younger you'd never hear such a thing unless they were talking feet of snow.

a reply to: JAGStorm

In Miami the news hasn't been boring since channel 7 ramped up the tabloid news back maybe in the 80's with Rick Sanchez.

And our weather news has been that way for ever. There's always some poor guy down at the beach trying to stand up in the wind.

a reply to: grey580

That is the exact timeframe in my mind, it changed sometime in the early 80's.

Thank "climate change" for this.

Every time there's a storm, the media uses it as an excuse to go apes# about "climate change".

There's your explanation for "weather sensationalism".

You're killing the planet, see?

a reply to: JAGStorm


I just woke up. Is North/South Carolina still there? God I hope so!

originally posted by: DAVID64
If it bleeds it leads.
And if it doesn't, they'll find a way to make it.


All to keep you "informed" of course.

And some would say mis-informed

originally posted by: Chance321
a reply to: generik

I know what you mean. I'm here in central NY, and in the winter we'll get all these winter weather warnings and watches for a couple inches of snow. When I was younger you'd never hear such a thing unless they were talking feet of snow.

and we can't forget about all the "dangerous heat alerts" that are all the rage now. for the same temperatures we had when i was a kid. and most people didn't even have air conditioning either in homes or cars at the time. now it's dangerous, to be in those very same temperatures, in the very same places.

How about the space weather

SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Approximately once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 18% since 2015:

a reply to: JAGStorm

The viewers determine content. The media exists due to advertising dollars, no dollars no media. They give us whatever draws the largest audience and fluffy kittens don't pay the bills. It really is that simple and if we look for someone to blame, we must look in the mirror.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Well if public sentiment is any gauge the sensationalism works. "One of the most Deadly _____ EVER!" is a common phrase uttered every day, week, year, during every season and for almost every reason....which is vaguely accurate and therefor a great mechanism to continuously build hype without blatantly lying.

With weather in particular, the hype is a cog in the global warming machine designed to spit out regulation and legislation (increased government authority over environment).

Just more evidence the media is propaganda and absolutely nothing more....

The big problem I see as a conspiracy nut seems to be that everybody talks about the weather but nobody except HAARP does anything about it.

a reply to: Sly1one

CNN: "STORM OF A LIFETIME!"

Maybe so, for really young people.

irrelevant

Don't cover the hurricane enough and people complain.

Cover it too much and people complain.

What is the CT approved level of coverage for a storm that has already killed people and is going to do millions of dollars of damage?