Hurricane Harvey has been amazing in its devastation. All that rain, all that flooding — what a frightening time it must be for those caught within it.
While Harvey’s winds brought in waves and rain and floods, for most of us, far away and snug in our homes, it brought an occasion to donate, and . . . nostalgia.
Nostalgia? It’s not the disaster element so much as an old-time exhibition . . . of journalism. For more than just a few hours, we watched reporters actually report. We saw them stand waist-deep in water. We saw them cover actual events.
And we read them deal in facts . . . like the heroic efforts of the “Cajun Navy.”
Of course, this opinion-free window of media coverage did not last long. The talking heads and Twitter-journos and partisan hacks came flooding back not long after the worst.
Did Trump do enough? Or the right thing?
Did Houston’s no-zoning policy lead to the disaster?
Doesn’t “price gouging” really suck?
Did . . . Enough. It was and is too early for finger-pointing and “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”
Of course, the Houston zoning discussion is interesting. It is worth noting that there are building rules and governments in Houston, as well a national rules that made homes and businesses there less safe. And economists have already come to their usual defenses of “price gouging” and criticisms of disastrous government programs.
Still, the enormous relief efforts remain the biggest human interest story — thousands of individuals taking the initiative and their boats to join first responders and the National Guard in rescuing thousands trapped by flooding.
So, before we explain it all, let’s luxuriate in what remains of the fact-based reporting.
And help.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “The Eye of the Storm”
There is no blame to assess, there are only choices which were made, and the determination of whom the responsibility for them will be allocated.
Harvey is still blowing and the news (press and electronic print, as opposed to they electronic eyewitness variety which is difficult to bias under these circumstances) is already resuming its cyclonic spin. This, according to WaPo, is the third 500 year deluge in Houston in the last three years, and, of course, WaPo posits man caused) global warming, cooling. climate change as the acting force. It will soon recommend draconian environmental restrictions on every human activity generally but never question rebuilding on the same sites or making those who CHOOSE to take the risk to pay the real costs to insure against or pay for the damage – i.e. letting a free and uninhibited market to do it natural regulating.
That people throughout the country are empathetic and rise to the challenge when their very distant neighbors are threatened or hurt is wonderful, and an affirmation of the program inculcated into the human psyche by a power beyond us all.
The factual reporting was refreshing, and notable by yourself for its rarity in the present world. You are correct, it was nostalgic, and short lived.
I’ve often noticed that the talking heads seize on a single term, and repeat it on every network.
The media “buzzword” I saw yesterday was “empathy”, with the universal opinion being that Trump had none.