ABC News wants to know. I thought it was a silly question for the anchor to pose, since the fancy graphics clearly showed the hurricane would barely skirt the eastern states, and certainly won’t suddenly swoop into the midsection of the US.
Years ago, I was asked to apply for a job with Associated Press Radio, a news network based in Washington DC. It was flattering to be asked, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to move to the east coast.
Applicants for the job opening were asked to write a sample newscast as it would be delivered over the radio network. I thought it over and then purposely tanked the exam. I wrote a newscast as I thought one should rightly be delivered, with less emphasis on the mundane political coverage that infects most national newscasts, and more attention to non-political events.
You see, I wasn’t sure the east coast was the place for me. Nothing against the geography or the people. It’s the news media, and the self-perpetuating notion that whatever happens in the nation’s capital is of immediate concern to the entire population outside the beltway. Networks of all brands regularly waste coverage time to inform us of what committees are meeting tomorrow, or what reports will be released. Here’s a news flash: We just don’t care.
Tell us something interesting, or something that we can use in our lives. Give us a report about something in OUR world, instead of assuming your insulated bubble-universe is the center of ours too.
Hurricane Irene is reminding me that I made the right choice all those years ago. Had I written the newscast the way the AP wanted newscasts written, I might have gotten the job and then likely would have spent my life trying to change the east coast bias of the national network news. Talk about a frustrating and futile task.
Terry Moran, one of the co-anchors of ABC’s Nightline program, peered into the camera last night and asked dramatically, “Are YOU ready for Hurricane Irene?”
Who are you talking to, Terry?
Lying on the couch watching the fear-franchising reports from up and down the east coast, I wondered if Mr. Moran believed he was addressing a regional audience instead of the entire US. What will we need to do here in Tulsa, Oklahoma to get ready for the hurricane, Terry? Nail boards over our windows? Bag up a supply of sand?
Where was Nightline when the MidSouth was ravaged by tornadoes this spring? There was plenty of time for the ABC reporters to set up their “team coverage” for a weather system that was accurately predicted by meteorologists – in the same way the track of Hurricane Irene has been charted in advance.
Of course, when the tornadoes touch down the networks scurry in to record the aftermath.
Those of us in what the coastal residents call the “flyover states” have become accustomed to getting the short-shrift when it comes to media attention. NPR calls their afternoon program Talk of the Nation, implying that their talkfest is a summation of the country’s current water-cooler gossip. In truth, with rare exception, what they provide is talk of the Beltway and tangential politics.
No doubt, Terry Moran was well-intentioned when he posed his question to the viewers, thinking in the manner of NPR’s myopic programming that his coverage would have the entire nation hanging on his every word. Mr. Moran has spent his entire life in the vacuum of Washington DC and its politics, with ventures out into the fire-zones. It is easy to be a journalist while holding an airline ticket to anywhere in the world where a disastrous event has just occurred.
The 80mph winds associated with Hurricane Irene are no greater than those visited numerous times over course of this summer through the MidSouth. Sure, Irene’s winds are sustained, but the real danger will come from the storm surge – the water.
The east coast media keep mentioning “Katrina” as a hammer to drive home the significance of the weather system. Okay, it is a hurricane, one taking a fairly rare path toward the populous northeast – but weather events happen across the US daily.
They’re only important though, when they affect Mr. Moran’s drive to work.