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Cable news over-hypes the hurricane
Scarier world syndrome … Know what that is? It’s a free-floating fear, produced by bad news, heard repeatedly and with considerable exaggeration from the news media.
You hear stories about murder, fires and other mayhem every day on TV, and you begin to think murder is everywhere and is practically bound to strike you personally any minute. When, in fact, murders and mayhem are rare. Horrible, but rare.
Anyone watching cable news Sunday as Hurricane Dennis came ashore would have had a near-terminal case of scarier world syndrome. Listening to the wind-whipped reporters on CNN, Fox and MSNBC, you’d think this was a natural disaster of historic proportions.
“This just might be another Andrew!” CNN’s Anderson Cooper shouted into his foam-rubber covered microphone, referring to the killer storm that practically wiped out south Florida in 1992.
Not to diminish the damage and injury that Dennis did inflict yesterday, this storm was decidedly not another Andrew. The meteorologists who occasionally updated the reports from the National Weather Service tried to calm the hysteria — several times remarking that the winds were diminishing and the storm was weakening — but to no avail.
Apparently all the TV reporters were huddled next to the same Ramada Inn sign that was blown down, because every channel had video of the sign and a shrieking reporter/witness nearby.
“I’ve never seen anything like this! Don’t come out in this! Stay home and hunker down!” CNN’s Cooper said repeatedly, warning viewers — who were probably not in a position to watch TV coverage if they were in the vicinity — that this was a horribly dangerous storm that could quite possible signal the end of the world.
OK, Cooper didn’t go quite that far, but the panic in his voice and the hysterical warnings left that impression. Of course, if you were stupid enough to be standing under a sign that’s clearly about to fall, you certainly would be in a life-threatening situation.
But TV reporters were the only folks putting themselves in the middle of the storm and whipping up a big ol’ scarier world to fill the long hours of the cable news day.
Tattoos, piercings, Mohawks … INXS wants you!
Tired of sappy-sweet crooners? CBS hopes to draw crowd with a rock ‘n’ roll competition.
The new reality competition, “Rock Star: INXS” debuts tonight at 8 on KEYE Channel 42. Another episode airs tomorrow night and another on Wednesday night.
In other words, if “Rock Star” isn’t a huge hit, CBS had doomed its prime-time lineup on three nights of the week.
Reality guru Mark Burnett (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice”) is convinced otherwise and presents 15 amateur rockers, male and female ranging in age from 22 to 36. The goal is to find a new lead singer for the Australian band INXS, which hasn’t been popular for well more than a decade.
Guitarist Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) co-hosts the competition with a pretty celeb named Brooke Burke (“Wild On”).
Like “American Idol,” viewers will help the current INXS members pick the winner.
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