In The News Today...

Quote: Evenbob

He said the local reporting is always geared
to panic everybody into buying out every
store in town long before they know the
storm path. He's lived in S FL for 20 years,
he should know. He was deelighted today
at how his words were all twisted around
by the MSM to say things he never said.

The same lamestream media like to make people who do prep for things look like paranoid fools. Keep your pantry full of enough soup and canned goods to last a month, keep enough water to last a few days, if in FL keep the plywood to cover the windows. Do all of that and they would love to run a story about the crazy guy waiting for the world to end. And of course they would find the "crazy guy" was a Trump voter. Or whoever (prepper types skew right in voting by a wide, wide margin.) They would run the story when times were good and quiet.

Limbaugh is correct that the news media has a bad habit of overhyping these storms and the media definitely has an unhealthy fixation with fear ("If it bleeds, it leads"). Anything scary and exciting is good for ratings. Ironically, Michael Moore makes a very similar argument in his movie Bowling for Columbine (this scene about deadly escalators and Halloween candy tainted with razor blades).

The glaring problem with Limbaugh's argument is the particular example he uses to prove his point: Hurricane Irma. This storm might be the rare anomaly where the media's hype is actually warranted!

Quote: Rush Limbaugh

The local media, in turn, reports in such a way as to create the panic way far out, which sends people into these stores to fill up with water and to fill up with batteries, and it becomes a never-ending repeated cycle. And the two coexist. So the media benefits with the panic with increased eyeballs, and the retailers benefit from the panic with increased sales, and the TV companies benefit because they’re getting advertising dollars from the businesses that are seeing all this attention from customers.

If we accept Limbaugh's premise that the TV news' motive is to help drive foot traffic into grocery stores to sell emergency supplies (bottled water & batteries) this contradicts Limbaugh's other point: that the storm coverage is also climate change propaganda. TV stations don't make their revenue by selling grocery store ads. On the contrary, TV stations make their revenue by selling automobile ads. And the car companies make their biggest profit margins on their biggest SUVs. If anything, Ford, GM and Chrysler would prefer not to discuss climate change.

Is WoV done? I haven't been able to even
bring the page up for days, let alone view
it. Are the new owners fixing it or has it
been abandoned.

Quote: reno

This storm might be the rare anomaly where the media's hype is actually warranted!

You can tell with storms. If it hits and many people were prepared, well and good.

How about epidemics? If the government issues recommendations like avoiding public places like malls and restaurants, and the media hypes it up, and then the outbreak fizzles, what happened? Was it a weak strain that would have fizzled anyway, or did the precautions made it fizzle?

Quote:

TV stations don't make their revenue by selling grocery store ads. On the contrary, TV stations make their revenue by selling automobile ads.

TV stations make revenue by selling ads. An ad for GM and an ad for Walmart in the same show probably generate the same revenue each. If there are more car ads it's because car companies buy more ads (simple, yes?)

But one could study the ads during news about hurricanes and see whether grocery stores have more ads than usual at such times. I'd bet all I own that Limbaugh hasn't done that analysis.

Quote: Nareed

TV stations make revenue by selling ads. An ad for GM and an ad for Walmart in the same show probably generate the same revenue each. If there are more car ads it's because car companies buy more ads (simple, yes?)

There are probably more car adds because I don't need a new 60k vehicle, so they need to try and sell me one. When I get hungry the sale is already made, I just have to find where.

Quote: Evenbob

Is WoV done? I haven't been able to even
bring the page up for days, let alone view
it. Are the new owners fixing it or has it
been abandoned.

I have been on it every day, multiple times a day, and have not had any problems other than it running a little slower than before. I know other people have been having all sorts of problems. and only get in occasionally.

Quote: DRich

I have been on it every day, multiple times a day, and have not had any problems other than it running a little slower than before. I know other people have been having all sorts of problems. and only get in occasionally.

+1. I visited the other day, nothing unusual.

Quote: Evenbob

Is WoV done? I haven't been able to even
bring the page up for days, let alone view
it. Are the new owners fixing it or has it
been abandoned.

It seems to be fixed now. No problem for me today.

Babs has Droid (as do I) and we've both been unable to access via phone. I still can't and I expect she is the same. PC works, though it is quite slow.

More than 5,000 out-of-state voters may have tipped New Hampshire against Trump

For those who wonder why I am so against same-day voter registrations!