Full
of hot air
Page 3
As for the other cable
channels, Fox News was surprisingly fair and balanced. MSNBC was
unsurprisingly oatmealy bland.
Viewers should question the mission of non-stop hurricane coverage.
If it’s education, then the cable channels do a fine job,
interspersing up-to-date wind speed and eye location with explanations
of storm surge and the Saffir-Simpson scale. If it’s entertainment,
they perform marvelously. Watching perfectly coiffed anchors get
the crap kicked out of them by 100-plus mph winds is mildly amusing.
But if it’s public service, then the networks fall short.
When a hurricane hits, high winds quickly knock out the power. If
the people in danger don’t have electricity to click on their
television, the people who most need the information can’t
get it. That leaves only people who have evacuated, friends and
relatives of those in affected areas, and most likely, people just
looking for a quick hit of infotainment.
r
illustration
by joshua love
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