In case this somehow escaped your attention, Hawaii no longer exists. It was wiped off the face of the Earth by a giant tsunami just as I was beginning my radio show Friday. Four hours later California was washed into the sea. Now we will never find Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
You’re right; it didn’t happen. What did happen was California and Hawaii were hit by a few 6-foot waves from the earthquake. That pretty much happens during any healthy Pacific storm.
I’m told that the 8.9 magnitude earthquake was the fifth largest since 1900, and the other four happened far from heavily populated areas. How big is 8.09? Scary big. The Japan quake was 1,000 times more powerful than the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti last year.
So, why all this earthquake stuff? To address the nature of the news coverage, that’s why. I’m a confirmed, card-carrying news junkie. Some people are glued to sports channels. I’m similarly glued to news channels. I prefer to learn about things that might actually have an effect on my life. My life will not change one bit depending on who dunked over whom as the buzzer sounded while 10 millionaires ran up and down a court jumping straight up into the air every 24 seconds. My life can be affected by the economic impacts of an earthquake devastating the nation with the world’s third largest economy.
Friday morning the coverage of the actual earthquake and the resulting tsunami in Japan was thorough. Then it suddenly morphed into some “the world is ending” coverage of a tsunami “barreling down” on Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific Coast. Hawaii did get some waves. You wouldn’t have known that 6-foot waves in Hawaii are pretty much commonplace if you had been watching the news channels on Friday morning. They had the viewers and were determined to keep them, even if that meant convincing people that tidal waves were about to shove Waikiki Beach right up Laguna Beach’s ... er ... harbor. One widely circulated sound bite had an “expert” saying that this was going to be the biggest event to hit the West Coast in our lifetime. Really? Is that the way it turned out? There were some large waves in isolated locations and some property damage. One life was lost near Oregon. Perhaps more; but again, nothing more than you would get from a bad storm.
Hyperbole is defined as an extravagant statement not intended to be taken literally. Newscasters, it seems, are trained in this art. That’s unfortunate because it would be nice to take what these newscasters say without running it through a hyperbole filter. Audiences have to be held, though, and if the image of a 90-foot wall of water bearing down on Hollywood will, then go for it! Grab an expert from a Dumpster somewhere and put him on the air! Maybe Michael Moore!
Well, the biggest West Coast event in our lifetime didn’t happen. For the most part it was business as usual on the California coast. The point, though, is that the media held your attention with these scare tactics for hours on end. Japan was the issue here. That’s where the suffering is. Not California.
Now as long as I’m biting the hand that feeds me, let me share my favorite media hyperbole with you. This one is associated with apartment fires. The apartment is destroyed and some talking head will inevitably tell us that “these people lost everything and will have to start their lives all over again.” Does that mean that they’re going to be unable to talk for 20 months? Will they be back in diapers and using pacifiers to calm down after a rough day? Does someone have to feed them? Do they have to go back to school and start again from the beginning?
They’re not even that bad at ESPN.
Listen to Neal Boortz live from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays on AM 750 and now 95.5FM News/Talk WSB.
His column appears every Saturday. For more Boortz, go to boortz.com
