Exaggerated News Stories

Tonight I got another one from the world news.  I can't believe they really think we are so stupid as to believe this story is as bad as they claimed.


The reporter on the scene was in Chicago to talk about the "horrible" snow storm that is just decimating the midwest.  It must have been a really slow news night as they were talking like these places never get 6 inches of snow in a day.  I'm just not sure how that small amount could be, to use their phrasing, causing chaos.  It is only 6 inches and it is a common thing for most areas that average more than 40 inches of snow per year so why is it such a big news story?  I could understand if they were talking about somewhere like Atlanta, but Chicago?  Why didn't they make a big deal out of the 2 inches per hour for 12 hours that Fulton received a few weeks ago?  I will give you that it isn't as big a city or an important transportation hub but it is a much more significant total than 6 inches in 24 hours!  And I don't think there is chaos based on this 6 inches in Chicago.  I have watched football games where 6 inches has come down in the course of the game.


This "chaos" that they were talking about is the fact that with such a mild winter across the country people have gotten really complacent.  It seems that everyone forgets that this is still February and it does tend to snow in many places throughout the country.  Perhaps this reporter doesn't know what chaos is.  The views of the airport that they showed didn't show people running around like they were crazy.  It showed what I would call normal movement.


This where the title came from for this post.  Whenever there isn't much to report we get stuck with a filler story that is so full of exaggeration that it points out the lack of quality that we are stuck with.  Most of the time it is extremely easy to spot these because they use terms like chaos to describe what isn't really a chaotic scene.  When it snows in a place such as Chicago, people understand and deal with it.  It is a part of this time of year and it isn't something that we can control.


The other side of this is that there was actual severe weather with potential tornadoes that they seemed to just blow off because it was still under investigation.  This isn't a normal time for a tornado so why not talk to climatologists to get their take on why we are seeing tornadoes and warnings for them this time of year?  Oh, that's right, it didn't happen in a major metropolis where they had cameras...