"There have always been tornadoes" - a certain prime minister. Can you recall during your childhood how we would occasionally get a news report of "a" tornado somewhere, every now and then two. It would be a big news event. Now the damned things arrive in clusters across multiple states over several consecutive days.
I'm sure every news crew has a story template - what facts must be gathered, what shots are required, what victims to interview and the obligatory questions to be asked. It would quickly become incredibly boring but would give the local kids a chance of network exposure. Oh dear.
It reminds me of Ernie Pyle's report, found in his pocket when he was felled, in which he wrote of the dead, "in such familiar promiscuity that they become monotonous."
I'm mot sure that people have exactly become inured to these weather spectacles, Mound, but they seem to provide, not respect for nature's power and a humbling of our own arrogance, but rather simply a source of what is sometimes called 'weather porn.'
Should the networks be connecting the dots for viewers? Of course, but I think we both know that is not going to happen, for some fairly obvious reasons.
Once again, Lorne, the evidence is all around us.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet lip service and willful ignorance still seem to abound, Owen.
Delete"There have always been tornadoes" - a certain prime minister. Can you recall during your childhood how we would occasionally get a news report of "a" tornado somewhere, every now and then two. It would be a big news event. Now the damned things arrive in clusters across multiple states over several consecutive days.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure every news crew has a story template - what facts must be gathered, what shots are required, what victims to interview and the obligatory questions to be asked. It would quickly become incredibly boring but would give the local kids a chance of network exposure. Oh dear.
It reminds me of Ernie Pyle's report, found in his pocket when he was felled, in which he wrote of the dead, "in such familiar promiscuity that they become monotonous."
ReplyDeleteI'm mot sure that people have exactly become inured to these weather spectacles, Mound, but they seem to provide, not respect for nature's power and a humbling of our own arrogance, but rather simply a source of what is sometimes called 'weather porn.'
DeleteShould the networks be connecting the dots for viewers? Of course, but I think we both know that is not going to happen, for some fairly obvious reasons.