Victor Davis Hanson: Our media hurricane

jewishworldreview.com ^ | Sept. 15, 2005 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Semper Paratus]

Another vanishing quaqmire.

[Steve_Seattle]

So, when you see some rain-swept reporter, look for evidence that it's really raining, and not just a water hose.

Here in Seattle, whenever there's the possibility of snow (surprisingly, not very often, considering how far north we are) all the TV reporters fan out over the countryside looking for the first sign of snow. So you'll see these reporters in these huge, expensive parkas, standing out there like idiots as a few snowflakes harmlessly descend around them. An hour later, it usually turns to rain. People who move here from heavy-snow areas must find this hyper-hyping of one-inch snow "storms" a hoot.

[kabar]

The death toll won't be 10,000 but it will probably be over 1000. That is significant, and it will have lasting political repercussions, regardless of the media's talent for exploitation and sensationalism.

A 1000 in NO? I doubt it. There probably won't be a 1,000 in LA, Mississippi, and Alabama combined. The 34 nursing home deaths were outside NO.

But the bigger significance of what has happened is that a major American city has been heavily damaged. Hundreds of thousands of structures; $200 billion property damage. A disaster of this magnitude hasn't happened in living memory in this country. It compares with the kind of damage a major earthquake would cause (another disaster that we are woefully unprepared for).,/i>

There has not been $200 billion property damage in NO. Where did you get that number from? NO has been flooded numerous times over the past century. It remains to be seen how extensive the propetrty damage is and how heavily the infrastructure of the city has been damaged. NO doubt the local politicians will paint as bleak a picture as possible to get as much money as possible.

[rightinthemiddle]

Thanks...nice to someone else noticed. He's Mr. Excitement, isn't he?

[jveritas]

He is indeed.

[megatherium]

Sorry, the $200 billion figure is for all regions affected by the hurricane. I think that's an estimate by the insurance companies.

The death toll for the entire region yesterday evening was 711. I forget the number in NOLA but the Louisiana number was pushing 500. You might be right, there might be less than 1000 in NOLA. But I gather for the last several days, they've found about 50 bodies per day in NOLA. As the worst-flooded areas of the city are pumped out, I would guess this rate of body recovery will continue -- for perhaps two more weeks. So I figured, several hundred more deaths will come to light. Easily 1000 for the region, perhaps for NOLA.

As for the severity of the damage to NOLA, the hundred thousand homes that were flooded for weeks are supposedly unsalvagable. They will have to be completely rebuilt. Of course, I'm no expert on such things; this may be nonsense -- but I've read nothing to indicate that this is not so.

[kabar]

Sorry, the $200 billion figure is for all regions affected by the hurricane. I think that's an estimate by the insurance companies.

Do you have a source or is it a recollection? I cannot believe that property damage would be that high.

But I gather for the last several days, they've found about 50 bodies per day in NOLA. As the worst-flooded areas of the city are pumped out, I would guess this rate of body recovery will continue -- for perhaps two more weeks. So I figured, several hundred more deaths will come to light. Easily 1000 for the region, perhaps for NOLA.

The operative word is guess and the bottom line is you have no factual basis for this estimate any more than Nagin's 10,000. There has been so much hype and misinformation on this disaster, I am not buying into any speculation, yours or anyone else's.

[TEXOKIE]

bttt

[megatherium]

I am not buying into any speculation, yours or anyone else's.

As well you shouldn't. Hard numbers will be forthcoming in several weeks. I understand your anger: I was extremely upset about four days into the hurricane when it appeared that we were gonig to have a major energy crisis on top of 10,000+ dead. When the Democrats started to attack the Republicans and vice-versa, I was furious at both sides for their negligence and for their political games. I am much relieved that the apocalyptic scale of the event proved to be media/political hype. But we still have a serious economic and political situation in the aftermath of this storm.

The closest thing I found to a source for my $200 billion number was a Yahoo News article quoting Senator Jeff Sessions complaining that with total reconstruction estimates approaching $200 billion, the US couldn't afford the reconstruction bill (not with a federal deficit of $311 billion). (He has a point.) A company called Risk Management Solutions that apparently specializes in this sort of thing gave a figure of $125 billion last week. But I was unable to find the source for the $200 billion figure.

[kabar]

Thanks. Sorry if it appeared that I was directing my anger at you. I am just frustrated by the phony figures being tossed out by the MSM and the politicians with no basis in fact. You are right. We will eventually get the facts, which will be far different than those now bandied about. Unfortunately, the facts will not get the same wide distribution.

I subscribe to The Economist, which has on the latest cover a picture of an African-American evacuee from the flood in NO with the title "America's Shame." Their editorial states that there are thousands of deaths as though it was a fact. I wonder if they will admit to their mistake in this week's edition.

[okie01]

Who was the guy who did his all stand-up reports in waders, standing in the water, when dry land could be seen just 50 feet away in the background?

It's part of the media dress code: waders in a flood, trench coats in a hurricane.

[Cuttnhorse]

"What we did endure instead were slick but poorly educated journalists, worried not about truth but about preempting their rivals with an ever more hysterical story, all in a fuzzy context of political correctness about race, the environment and the war."

Hanson is so right on this and I can't repeat it often enough: the slick journalists are just not the brightest people out there. While going through university, I lived next door to a house full of "J" students and was always impressed by what a bunch of lazy slackers they were. They complained constantly about having to take the most basic introductory science courses and worried non stop about how to arrange their classes so they could have Fridays free for skiing.
They were lazy, whiners, wimps and not very bright.