A new Hearst Television survey finds people in Baltimore, Boston and Burlington, Vt.-Plattsburgh, N.Y., depended on local stations for their weather information during Hurricane Irene.
Once Irene was gone, the media was hit by a storm of criticism over the build-up to the hurricane. Media organizations defended their coverage, in some cases angrily. Networks took cues from public officials, like when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered unprecedented evacuations and a full-scale public transportation shutdown in the nation’s largest city.
As coverage of Irene went round the clock, media companies gave up millions of dollars from commercials and print ads. By some estimates, Irene became the most disruptive news event for advertising plans since Sept. 11, 2001.
The Weather Channel’s ratings are never higher than when a hurricane is making landfall. And all of the major television networks extended hours of news programming over the weekend; they knew that although some viewers laughed at images of reporters being blown over by winds, they were definitely watching. They were accused by many of overhyping the storm, but as the longtime anchor for NBC’s New York station, Chuck Scarborough, said on air on Sunday, “We’re in the news business. We deal in doom.”
CBS-owned stations in Philadelphia, KYW (CBS) and WPSG (CW) are teaming up once again with the American Red Cross for an emergency preparedness phone bank to help viewers take action […]
