I just heard CBS News call hurricane Harvey the "worst natural disaster in American History." Huh? It may be the worst flooding in a major city, or maybe not. I surely isn't the worst natural disaster. Just in Texas alone, there was a hurricane that hit Galveston around 1900 the killed nearly 7000 people. THAT was a terrible disaster. Harvey is causing a lot of damage; of that there is no question, but the worst disaster is a stupid overstatement of the sort that the mainstream media just cannot resist.
The truth is that right now, we just don't know how bad it is or will become. It's still raining, and the floods will just continue. People are being rescued, but we don't know how many, if any, are getting caught in flood waters and drowning. We also don't even know the full extent of the property damage.
The media coverage of Harvey reminds me of how the media covered Katrina over a decade ago. I remember Anderson Cooper and Geraldo Rivera (on different networks) standing in the French Quarter of New Orleans reporting on the rapes and murders that had occurred in the "lawless" mess that was the relief station in the local domed stadium. They railed against the authorities' lack of caring about the people in that stadium. Of course, they had never been in the stadium or had someone from their network check it out. They just reported the rumors as facts. When it turned out a few days later that there had been no rapes and no murders, the story was buried. The whole thing had been a lie, but most people never heard the truth.
Someone asked me yesterday why the media doesn't report on how the storm is hitting the average homeowner in Houston. When I told him that the reason was because the media just doesn't know the answer to that question, he got angry and told me that it just could not be. Sadly, however, it is exactly that. We get stories of a boat rescuing some people or of another anecdote. We never hear what percentage of the homes in Houston are underwater. Think about it. The media doesn't know and can't report how many homes and businesses have been affected, not even in rough numbers. Nevertheless, they report that this is the worst disaster in American history. What does that tell you?
The truth is that right now, we just don't know how bad it is or will become. It's still raining, and the floods will just continue. People are being rescued, but we don't know how many, if any, are getting caught in flood waters and drowning. We also don't even know the full extent of the property damage.
The media coverage of Harvey reminds me of how the media covered Katrina over a decade ago. I remember Anderson Cooper and Geraldo Rivera (on different networks) standing in the French Quarter of New Orleans reporting on the rapes and murders that had occurred in the "lawless" mess that was the relief station in the local domed stadium. They railed against the authorities' lack of caring about the people in that stadium. Of course, they had never been in the stadium or had someone from their network check it out. They just reported the rumors as facts. When it turned out a few days later that there had been no rapes and no murders, the story was buried. The whole thing had been a lie, but most people never heard the truth.
Someone asked me yesterday why the media doesn't report on how the storm is hitting the average homeowner in Houston. When I told him that the reason was because the media just doesn't know the answer to that question, he got angry and told me that it just could not be. Sadly, however, it is exactly that. We get stories of a boat rescuing some people or of another anecdote. We never hear what percentage of the homes in Houston are underwater. Think about it. The media doesn't know and can't report how many homes and businesses have been affected, not even in rough numbers. Nevertheless, they report that this is the worst disaster in American history. What does that tell you?
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