New York State of Mind

I have a rule about hurricane coverage. I never, ever, watch the local television channels when a hurricane is imminent. I've found that they are full of hyperbole, and love to scare the crap out of us. I have made it a policy to only get my hurricane information from the Weather Channel, the internet, and the national news media because they would never lie to me just to sell bottled water, and plywood.

The problem with hurricane Irene is that it was heading straight for New York City. NYC is the home of ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS, and although the Weather Channel, and CNN are headquartered in Georgia, much of their programming also come from the New York City area. Apparently all these news organizations lost their minds anticipating Irene. They behaved like a bunch of local yahoos, trying to out hype each other. Breathlessly they told us that lower Manhattan would be under twenty feet of water, the entire upper east coast was to be ripped to shreds, and millions of people would drown in the subways.

It was a category one hurricane. I don't even put up all my shutters for a category one. By the time it got to New York it was a tropical storm. In other words, a rain storm with a brisk breeze. I was totally shocked that national news organizations would lie to me, would blow a news story out of proportion, would try to make something more out of it than it was. Up until late Saturday I actually believed them. By Sunday it was apparent that it wasn't the storm they anticipated. Now I have to ask myself, could they be telling me lies about other things? Could the Tea Party really not be the big deal they say it is? Is John Boehner really not orange? Could the president really be a Muslim, illegal immigrant, socialist? Is Glenn Beck actually the messiah? Now I have so many questions. From now on I think I'll just get my news from the internet. At least I know that shit is all true.