When is it news?: I heard a great talk show rant about what is news and what isn't? Some stories merit some attention, but we have become a nation that sits on the edge of our seats for news that really has absolutely nothing to do with us. Take the miners in Utah, a terrible thing to be sure, but why is it breaking news when the second holed drilled to reach them finds nothing? Please don't get me wrong, this is a tragedy for all of the families involved and is news for that community. But we have CNN taking us into the mine, giving hourly updates as the progress of the drills, and daily press briefings by the mine operator. During all this same time a mine disaster happened not too far from here in Indiana where three men died. Again sad, but it was a footnote on the days news and we move on.
I subscribe to CNN's Breaking News service so that when a breaking news story comes out I get alerted via SMS. Cool feature, but it is amazing what they consider breaking news. Just this morning I have see a breaking news story about Presidential Advisor Karl Rove resigning and a new tropical depression forming. Rove's resignation is certainly newsworthy, but I am not sure that I would characterize it as breaking news. Unless you live in the White House, this isn't necessarily significant. The Bush haters are cheering, the rest are shrugging this off wondering who the replacement will be.
The formation of the tropical depression is being hyped because the numbers are so low this year and they need to be high to justify the forecasts against global warming. It is now mid August and we are a solid 3-1/2 months into the season and have yet to have a hurricane. In 2005 we already had 3 hurricanes, and this week would show us the 4th, plus 5 other named tropical storms. Certainly a busy season, a part of the busiest. But the next year (which was to be the worst yet) didn't provide the first hurricane until August 24. Interestingly to me, they had to add an "unnamed storm" after the season as if to justify their existence.
Now if this is the first of the many, many hurricanes that are to hit the United States, then it is news. If this develops into something serious, we need to take note. But when it is 5 days until it hits the Caribbean and at least 9 days to hit the US, how is this breaking news?
I subscribe to CNN's Breaking News service so that when a breaking news story comes out I get alerted via SMS. Cool feature, but it is amazing what they consider breaking news. Just this morning I have see a breaking news story about Presidential Advisor Karl Rove resigning and a new tropical depression forming. Rove's resignation is certainly newsworthy, but I am not sure that I would characterize it as breaking news. Unless you live in the White House, this isn't necessarily significant. The Bush haters are cheering, the rest are shrugging this off wondering who the replacement will be.
The formation of the tropical depression is being hyped because the numbers are so low this year and they need to be high to justify the forecasts against global warming. It is now mid August and we are a solid 3-1/2 months into the season and have yet to have a hurricane. In 2005 we already had 3 hurricanes, and this week would show us the 4th, plus 5 other named tropical storms. Certainly a busy season, a part of the busiest. But the next year (which was to be the worst yet) didn't provide the first hurricane until August 24. Interestingly to me, they had to add an "unnamed storm" after the season as if to justify their existence.
Now if this is the first of the many, many hurricanes that are to hit the United States, then it is news. If this develops into something serious, we need to take note. But when it is 5 days until it hits the Caribbean and at least 9 days to hit the US, how is this breaking news?
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