The Associated Press via MSNBC has the early lead in making what appears to us to be the most extreme and inflammatory statement by leading this morning with this story:

Hurricane could leave 1 million homeless
Experts warn of ‘incredible environmental disaster’ of biblical proportions

The center’s latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the district’s iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.

Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city’s houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.

“We’re talking about in essence having — in the continental United States — having a refugee camp of a million people,” van Heerden said.

I don’t work with FEMA nor am I a scientist but putting out a headline about a million homeless prior to the storm actually hitting based on one computer model of one university smacks of opportunism. What do other experts think? Do they agree? If so say so. It appears that the AP got a nice big round marketing number and stopped digging after that.

The media needn’t prematurely pump up the casualty/body count/destruction estimate to make it a story and in fact it works against the best interests of the people in the affected areas when extreme pronouncements are made. If it turns out that 100,000 are left homeless, a catastrophe by any calculation, the survivors don’t need potential charitable donors thinking “we’ll, that’s not too bad, they were expecting 10 times that amount.”

Despite this, I have found the media to thus far be restrained in their marketing of their hurricane coverage. I got up this morning expecting to see flying computer generated logos of things like “Storm Watch 2005,” “Hurricane Smack Down!” and the like a la “Waves of Destruction” and other marketing phrases employed by the cable nets in covering the tsunami earlier this year. Then again, the day isn’t over. Independent Sources is based in Los Angeles, the town whose television media is so self-centered that they report every distant event almost exclusively through the impact it has here (real or imagined). Coverage of the Asian Tsunami was always highlighted with “could it happen here?” and LA media couldn’t even report on the July 7th London Bombings without doing remotes from Los Angeles sparsely used metro system with “Are Los Angeles’ Subways Safe From Terrorism?”

It goes without saying our thoughts and prayers are with the people in the affected areas whether or not the destruction is of “Biblical proportions.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 29th, 2005 at 7:45 am by Insider and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.