Hurricane Katrina

I'm not going to try to pontificate on the devastation of the hurricane or the despair it leaves behind. There are too many others with better vocabulary and journalistic skills than I to compete with.

What I wish to address is the news coverage of this storm and others. Whose idea was it to send people INTO these storms for the sole purpose of reporting them? In the specific case of Katrina, as one flipped from channel to channel, broadcast and cable, there were untold numbers of TV news people standing waist deep in churning waters, wrapped in rain gear, backs to the wind and shouting into their microphones, trying to keep their eyes on rain-spattered camera lenses and telling us how bad the weather was! HELLO! It's a freakin' HURRICANE! Do these people have rights? Do their bosses realize that they're sending their people into serious danger? Do they receive hazardous duty pay?

It's not war. War correspondents jump into the fray at risk of their lives for more than just bringing us the adrenaline rush of combat voyeurism. There's a human story to be revealed in showing men and women, sometimes very young men and women, forced into a situation in which they never expected to find themselves. Sometimes they perform valiantly, and some perform cowardly. Some are compassionate or timid. Some are emotionless and aggressive. Almost all of them have someone back home whom they miss and who misses them terribly. But every one of them has a story. And almost every story can break our hearts.

And in the aftermath of a storm as terrible as Katrina, there are thousands of stories which can touch -- and break -- our hearts. For the story is not the in storm. The story is in the people who lived - and died - through the storm. The story is in the efforts of the cities and their people to get through the aftermath and to rebuild their cities and rebuild their lives. That's where the reporters and cameramen can work true magic.

But DURING the storm? It serves no purpose. The reporter appears on camera, shouting into his microphone to be heard over the roar of the wind and rain, and might as well say, "Yes, Bent Hangnail here on scene as Hurricane Katrina, now a category 4 storm, blows ashore with all her force. Upon the order of city officials to evacuate, everyone has wisely left this very dangerous, very treacherous city...except us." How stupid is that? Why do it? You can't see anything: the camera lens is most likely crapped up with water and dirt; and if the camera man has the time to wipe the lens clean, you still can't see anything because, with the wind and water and debris in the air, visibility is about 50 yards at best, and if it's night time, you might see a traffic signal buffetted around in the distance, but that's about it.

The grand effect of sending those poor, young people into the storm - and I would wager that those people are the most junior on the staffs of their respective stations - is the viewer looking at the TV screen, pointing at it, and saying, "Look at that moron! What an idiot! Get out of there, stupid!"


dassall