Hurricane Irene: Was Media Coverage Overhyped? (VIDEO, POLL)

With Hurricane Irene in the rearview mirror, the media is playing its favorite game: examining its own coverage.

Seemingly the entire press gave the weekend over to Irene. On television, there was no escaping the coverage, as networks pulled in their top talent and blanketed the East Coast with correspondents.

But Irene was weaker than expected in many places along the East Coast — especially in New York City, where so much of the national media is located. As the predicted dire effects of the storm failed to materialize, many critics and reporters quickly pounced, saying that the media (and cable news in particular) had overhyped Irene and caused millions needless fear.

The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz led the way on Sunday with a harshly critical column about cable news coverage.

"Cable news was utterly swept away by the notion that Irene would turn out to be Armageddon," he wrote. "...The tsunami of hype on this story was relentless, a Category 5 performance that was driven in large measure by ratings."

The Daily Telegraph's US correspondent Toby Harnden echoed that sentiment, writing that some of the coverage of Irene was "beyond parody."

This argument was quickly praised by many media watchers. It also received substantial pushback, especially from the cable news reporters who found themselves targets of criticism.

"Not overblown to the families of the people who died, or those who suffered damage in the billions," CNN's Soledad O'Brien tweeted to Kurtz on Sunday.

On Fox News, Shepard Smith read out a comment calling the storm a "tempest in a teacup."

"It's not, sir," he frostily responded. Later, Smith tweeted, "Even though it was a weaker storm remember all of those who will be affected by the flooding.

Some outside media watchers also scoffed at the argument. "The more stories I hear, the more flood images I see, the more I think people saying this was nothing are out to lunch," Reuters' Anthony DeRosa tweeted.

On Monday, the "Today" show devoted a long segment to the question. Not surprisingly, the panel the show assembled defended the coverage from the weekend. Al Roker responded to criticism that over-zealous coverage could breed complacency in people, since they might take more serious future warnings with a grain of salt.

"Keep in mind, 23 people are dead," Roker said. "If there's a bear outside your door and I see it and I don't say anything to you I'm irresponsible. It doesn't mean the bear is going to get in and get you."

One channel drawing seemingly universal praise was NY1, the local New York channel. Capital New York's Tom McGeveran said that the channel "managed the neat trick of getting the best footage of the storm and contextualizing it accurately and usefully throughout."

Incidentally, one of the channel's hosts, Errol Louis, was a vocal defender of the broader cable news coverage. "How do you downplay a hurricane heading for 60 million Americans?" he wrote.

What do you think? Tell us in our poll below.

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Did media coverage go too far?

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Comments

[daverusso99]

11:28 PM on 08/31/2011

I was very happy with the news coverage! I'd rather be warned than not.

www.comicdaverusso.blogspot.com

[Mac Williams]

10:20 PM on 08/31/2011

Nothing justified the wall-to-wall hyperventilating that went on. The storm was moving at about 15 miles per hour. A 10 minute update every four hours (or every 60 miles) would have been more than adequate.

Oh, and watching people stand in a driving rain to bring me "the latest on Irene's impact" is just sort of silly. From my perspective, if you can still stand there and talk about how bad the storm is, it ain't that bad. Show me some film from a reporter inside a building while some cars or a few cows go flying by outside and I'll be a lot more impressed.

[Tone67]

02:36 PM on 08/31/2011

When dealing with Mother Nature, i dont really see how anything can be "overhyped"

[TFlint]

10:37 AM on 08/31/2011

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole and die." Mel Brooks

[flipacoin]

10:09 AM on 08/31/2011

Even storms are politicize now. Disasters favor the lib agenda that don't want to waste any emergency with new legistlation to pass including their favorite, global warming. How can we trust them on global warming when they can't tell us the truth on a storm that is right in front of our eyes? It's a good indication what they do behind our backs.

[minty68]

11:25 AM on 08/31/2011

Looks like you are the one politicizing it.

Name one piece of legislation that has been proposed or passed in support of combating global warming since this storm.

[flipacoin]

11:40 AM on 08/31/2011

Minty. There are stories all over the internet on blaming each weather disaster on global warming. This hurricane Irene has been already used in this context. I didn't say right now legistlation...they are on vacation. Wow. Do magicians pull quarters from behind your ear all the time? Concentrate on the correct hand and don't get distracted.

[LMDAustin]

12:17 AM on 08/31/2011

I lived on the East Coast, and still have grown kids in Connecticut.

Good news is one thing and it's necessary. We all depend on the news.

But there was a blackout on the rest of the news, in that there was NONE. Thats too much news about the weather, and not enough about every other part of the world where there's a crisis.

Honestly, I think most ppl on the East Coast who are commenting here and whining are ppl who are spoiled East Coasters and always thinking everything is about *them*. Waaaa...

Hey NJ Guidos, hey GA rednecks, hey FL old people, guess what? There actually ARE other people in the world who have had worse weather than you.

Really. The weather in my state has been much, much worse but no cable news station preempted all other news for 3 days to cover it.

There actually ARE other people in the U.S.

We also have bad weather, often worse than yours this weekend.

I hope you are okay, and I really care. But honestly, some of the hateful comments in this section just re-enforce my idea that you East Coasters think so highly of yourselves, and so little about the rest of us.

The comments/ threads here simply verified what I was thinking. None of the rest of us count; and the East Coast always deserves endless coverage, since they are endlessly special.

[thisoldbroad]

09:04 PM on 08/30/2011

It was good that the media covered Irene so closely.
Preparing everyone for the worst case scenario saved thousands of lives.

A meteorologist clinging to a railing while being blasted with sewage foam is a bit ridiculous.
We can get an idea of the wind velocity by watching the trees sway & bend. There is no need for every big name meteorologist & news personality to rush out for a photo op of being blown sideways by the winds. It adds nothing to the story, except the sewage foam bit - that was funny!

[Jeany]

08:41 PM on 08/30/2011

It's pretty easy being Howie Kurtz, bottom line. Less easy being the people who have to make decisions based on imperfect forecasting. Less easy being the people making decisions with memories of Katrina still vivid. Howie Putz has an easier job than network executives, who know that chair farmers like Putz will sneer no matter what they decide.

[santelmojack]

08:08 PM on 08/30/2011

I live overseas and my sister lives in VA Beach so I was very happy to be able to turn on CNN and see what was going on.

[LMDAustin]

07:50 PM on 08/30/2011

AND I have grown kids in Connecticut and Long Island and even THEY thought it was just too much coverage. Couldn't get any news about the rest of the globe, no word about Europe or any place else. It's a good thing aliens didn't land last weekend, to take over our planet, cuz nobody would ever know.

[Jeany]

08:42 PM on 08/30/2011

Was your Internet broken?

[LMDAustin]

11:33 PM on 08/30/2011

yes.

[LMDAustin]

07:09 PM on 08/30/2011

I've traveled a lot, both abroad and here in the U.S. I've lived various places, too.

I lived on an island in Lago Vista, Texas, more or less a suburb of Austin, Texas. It floods fairly often (drought this year).

A couple times the Capitol building of Texas was flooded, there were pianos, washers/dryers, upside down cars, all floating by the Capitol building.

We were stranded on The Island, no electricity, for over a month. We had to be ferried in to Austin and stayed in a hotel for 5 months.

Why don't you know anything about it?
Because we are not the East Coast.

I think it is important to televise information about Irene, I'm fine with that.

But last weekend there was nothing ELSE on cable news channels.

It was impossible to get any news about Gaddafi, about Somalia, about Europe or UK. No news about anything ELSE.

It's a good thing ALIENS did not land in some other country last weekend, here to take over our planet, cuz our cable news channel's would never have mentioned it.

I even have grown kids on Long Island,and Connecticut and they also said enough!

I care about other people as much or more than anybody, which is why our cable news channel should never cancel news stories about the rest of the world, just because there is a bad storm on our East Coast.

[Jeany]

08:45 PM on 08/30/2011

Why is it that people in Texas don't understand the concept of proportionality when the subject is people rather than acres?

[masterkcb1]

05:45 PM on 08/30/2011

the hurricane wasnt even a hurricane it was downgraded to a tropical storm yet every single news channel was worried about it, people need to learn that cool heads prevail

[TFlint]

10:36 AM on 08/31/2011

One of the ten greatest natural disasters in American history. 40 dead, but you don't care.

[The Internets]

04:09 PM on 08/30/2011

The only way it could have been over-hyped is if the news media had known how it would turn out. The Natoinal Weather Service, NOAA and NASA were all giving the best forecast they could of an inherently chaotic and unpredictable storm. The news media merely reported the best information available. Obama correctly urged the East Coast to prepare for the worst. If Irene had turned into a category 3 storm, and Obama had told everyone to chill out and go about their business, he'd have been rightly accused of dropping the ball. I suspect much of the criticism comes from Enemies Of Obama who have an agenda of making his every utterance appear the ravings of a lunatic. Then there's Eric Cantor and friends, who refuse to pay for the disaster without spending cuts elsewhere. It's vital to the right wing to downplay Irene so they can continue their narrative of bloated government and sensationalistic news media.

[LMDAustin]

07:17 PM on 08/30/2011

obama and politics has/had nothing to do with it.

And yes, I voted for Obama.

The media canceled news from other parts of the world, just to cover our East Coast exclusively and nothing else, for 3 days. No news at all about other places.

There could have been aliens landing in Europe to take over our planet; or Gaddafi shows up; or any number of things happening, we'd never have heard of it here in the states.

You have to learn there's other things happening in the world out there, besides on our East Coast.

[The Internets]

12:18 AM on 08/31/2011

Why do you assume that an alien landing, or similar event, would not have been covered? If the news media are driven by what people want to see, they'd obviously cover the First Contact. Your hyperbole doesn't do your position any good.

Irene was a potential worst-case scenario. It led to the first-ever mandatory evacuation of parts of New York City. It, in fact, caused billions of dollars of damage untold hardship.

My thesis is that Irene was, in fact, the most newsworthy story at the time, everyone in America was interested in it, and it wasn't over-hyped. What's your thesis? The news didn't report an alien landing in Europe that didn't happen?

Thank you for your insights. We are all refreshed and challenged by your unique perspective.

[coreamerican]

03:24 PM on 08/30/2011

Who watches cable news anymore? Just like any business, their number one goal is to increase ratings and revenue, can you blame them for trying to make you scare so you'll keep watching? I say turn off your TV, hide your kids, hide your wives...wait, what am I saying...

[ToxicSludge]

03:18 PM on 08/30/2011

Talk about pissing on the messenger,
Have any of you naysayers stopped for a moment to consider what the final results might have been had we not had the news media to inform us of a major storm such as Irene?
It'd be nice if someone in authority had a direct line to 'whomever it is up there who's in charge of the world's weather' so we could all know beforehand just what was about to happen.