Why does the broadcast media seem to want to sell every storm as if it were the end of the world?
Asked by
josie (
30934
)
August 29th, 2011
Hurricanes are destructive storms to be sure. If they hit land, it is certain that property and trees and roads are going to be torn up, and some people get drowned or squished.
But it seems like the broadcast media can not resist pumping up the anticipation or expectation that it is Armageddon.
There are all sorts of weather experts out there to discuss the storms. We don’t need ambitious TV talking heads in colorful slickers gasping on camera as they struggle to keep their feet in what is some cases is about a 20 mph wind, which is windy, but not that windy.
What is that all about?
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15 Answers
It gets people watching, the more dramatic, the better.
Point is though, some dopey buggers buy into that shit & mass hysteria breaks out within their little world. We’re such a delicate/vulnerable species….boo hoo ;¬}
Sell is the first key word here. Buy is the next.
I have to be really bored to watch a 24 hour news network. I’m so tired of all of it, except for the occasional Maddow.
William S. Paley, the CEO who built a small radio network called the Columbia Broadcasting System into a media giant, when asked a similar question by one of his news broadcasters, said, “Everything, including the news, is merely filler between commercials. Your job is to make the filler interesting.”
The stress and potential for panic is what creates news. It takes a lot these days to get the attention of the numb struck world at large. What they want to create is a super-storm hype. These days the weather is a big part of the news.
Remember the Hawaii one last year? Courtesy of CNN all eyes were on that beach, right until it turned back to a sun of a beach again!! Discovery Channel and the rag magazines have us all hyped up about what will be “the big one”—- will it be Volcano, Supernova, Earthquake, Nuclear, Tsunami, Alien landing? Do you remember in sports when Howard Cossell, I believe it was termed the phrase “not your ordinary super star?” Well it seems to me that we are almost at the point of prophesizing “not your ordinary super storm”!
Prepping and building us up into ultimate frenzy on Dec. 12, 2012. Frenzied people don’t think, people who don’t think spend money, money gets spent indiscriminately. The big fat industry rakes it in.
Smoke and mirrors – distraction from the information war
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Drama drama drama. The news reporters get their rocks off hoping to be part of the news when shit blows past them while live looking like courageous soles taking risks to give us good TV. Like Rick Sanchez putting polluted storm water in his mouth on live TV.
Ratings. Death and imminent destruction sells advertising like no other news event plus, they had over 65,000,000 captive viewers directly in the path of the storm and took full advantage of it. Plus people will not soon forget this Chicken Little routine either!
Why do corporations want to sell a product? I think they have an obligation to their shareholders, which presents us with the inherent problem with corporate media, in my opinion.
It’s all about ratings, ratings and more ratings.
@woodcutter
…or Rick Sanchez getting himself tasered:)
Don’t tase me bro!
Wonder what ole Rick has been up to these days.
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