What’s On The News?

Ask yourself this question: what’s on the news tonight? Can you answer it? I bet you can. You are probably thinking that it will be more stuff about Hurricane Katrina. Do you see a problem yet? Here is my problem: the news has become predictable. After awhile, I am going to get tired of seeing the same depressing images of people in New Orleans. Does the media cover any of the other states that were hit by Katrina? Not exactly. So, these reporters have spent weeks in the south covering the same story over and over again. Do you think these reporters really give a shit? Nope! They are more interested in their f**king ratings. While listening to some radio show on some AM station while on my way home the other day, the radio show host was talking about how he would like to talk about something like intestinal gas then Katrina. At least it is something new.

YES….people lost their lives
YES….millions of people were relocated
YES….many pets were affected
NO….it’s not a race thing

The issue is NOT what happened, it’s that I have to keep hearing about it over and over again. Potential comment: "so don’t watch the news". Okay, I watched football games this weekend. All of the games had something about Hurricane Katrina. The NFL devoted the entire weekend to hurricane relief.

Now we have another hurricane approaching the gulf states. Hurricane Rita currently is a category 1 or 2 hurricane as it is passing the Florida Keys and entering the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The current forecast state that Rita could intensify to a category 4 hurricane by the time it hits somewhere in Texas (as the forecast predicts). Now, I do some forecasting at work. Rule number one of forecasting….the forecast is never 100% accurate.

Now, when it comes to hurricanes, we play safe. State and local officials would rather be safe then sorry. I support that. With the damage of Katrina, the federal government steps in because they are not very confident with local officials after Katrina. The current acting FEMA director is recommending that people evacuate. They have already started a mandatory evacuation of some place in Texas. They are definitely being safe, I give them that.

The media now has a new juicy story to cover. The vampires will continue to flock to the gulf states and see if they can suck the blood out of the suffering people to get: THE story. It’s not about the people, it’s about that elusive story. They want that exclusive. They now have hurricane Rita. Some news reporters are the new vultures of the animal kingdom. They are there to pick up all the left-overs from a disaster.

Shit happened, let’s move on. As Ed used to say….BE DONE!