Why The Media Ignored The Nashville Flood
Today’s headline is a bit dated, but I was motivated to learn more about this because of what happened this morning.
My morning ritual involves listening to Kevin and Bean on KROQ during my commute to work. They were interviewing David Spade to promote an upcoming movie, but more importantly to also promote a charity event he was involved in to help raise money for those affected by the flood in Nashville – his Joe Dirt fans, as he called them. Flood in Nashville? I personally think I do a pretty decent job of keeping up with current events, yet I haven’t heard or read about such a thing happening. Approximately $1 Billion in damages, more than 30 people dead and barely a peep about it on national news. David Spade argued that it didn’t receive a lot of coverage going against the Times Square bombing attempt and the BP oil rig leak.
The article by Andrew Romano from Newsweek presents pretty interesting points about the 24/7 news cycle, journalism and the narrative and themes that make stories compelling. It definitely resonates with my cynicism about today’s media.
So here I am doing my part to help spread awareness about this severely underplayed disaster.