Was Hurricane Irene over-hyped?

Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: Was Hurricane Irene over-hyped?

Here we go again. Was the hurricane over-HYPED?

The New York Times described Irene as “an overweight jogger just holding on at the end of a run.”

When storms aren’t as bad as predicted, the news media feel cheated.

I know that in lower Manhattan Anderson Cooper felt cheated:

“There is actually no rain right now going on, a little bit of breeze.”

It was a long morning for Anderson.

So, no, hundreds were NOT killed, — sorry to disappoint so many reporters — but are we going to blame government officials for evacuating people because it turned out not to be necessary?

Figure it out: After Katrina, where hundreds were killed because they didn’t or couldn’t evacuate, government officials are going to err on the side of getting people out.

And the blogosphere, being in this competition to see who can be the most cynical, missed the real story which is: it’s a GOOD thing that Irene was NOT as bad as expected. We are HAPPY it didn’t kill hundreds of people!

It’s like people who ridicule the TSA because “when was the last time a terrorist brought a plane down?” Hey — I’m GLAD they haven’t brought a plane down.

We should be CELEBRATING that the evacuations were unnecessary and that some of the coverage ended up being lame. And actually not all of it WAS lame: especially 5-year-old Jane Haurbrich of Doylestown, Pennsylvania:

“It is really raining. The wind has picked up. This is the biggest ever has it been. This is my last report because it’s my bedtime.

Subscribe to The Dave Ross Commentary podcast