http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle...flood.aspx

I can't help but think if this happened in Haiti or on the border of Arizona it would get much more attention.

Maybe, but maybe not. Floods that come and go rarely grab the national media attention. Shoot, many tornadoes that can be as devastating (at least in terms of lives lost) don't get that kind of attention. I know the flash flood from a tropical storm in Richmond, VA 6 years ago (not as many dead, but significantly devastating and tall over flood stage) was visually impressive, but also didn't draw the media attention.

No, unless it's something like a major river like the Mississippi, with days to build up to it and last, I don't see the media ever really getting on board it. Just doesn't fit in their playbook. Even if it was in one of the other places you suggested.

(05-06-2010 08:06 PM)gsloth Wrote:  No, unless it's something like a major river like the Mississippi, with days to build up to it and last, I don't see the media ever really getting on board it. Just doesn't fit in their playbook. Even if it was in one of the other places you suggested.

The only reason last year's "500 Year" flood in Atlanta made the national news is because the Weather Channel broadcasts from here.

(05-06-2010 07:03 PM)Mademen Wrote:  http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle...flood.aspx

I can't help but think if this happened in Haiti or on the border of Arizona it would get much more attention.

The Nashville flood is tragic, but I don't see a parallel between it and the Haiti earthquake that killed 200,000 people.

I think a better comparison would be the April 14 quake in China, which has killed 2,000 people. US reporting on that has been extremely limited. I think I remember it being reported, but I'm not sure.

When I search "Nashville flood" on Google News, I get 4,500 hits*. For comparison, "China earthquake" turns up 3,300 hits. And those flood articles have all been written in the last 5 days, whereas there have been 3 weeks for earthquake articles to be written (in my experience, articles stay on Google News for about a month, so I'm guessing that none of the early earthquake articles have cycled out of the search results; if they have, my comparison could be way off).

*The author of the article only got 2,400 hits on "Nashville flood". The only explanation I can come up with is the possibility that he actually searched on "Nashville floods", which is currently giving 2,700 hits.

I wouldn't even know about the flood except that my friend had to cancel lunch plans on Monday because of it. (His corporate office is in Nashville.) Heck I didn't even know it was still a problem until seeing this thread.

I don't get his premise, because I've seen pictures and weather coverage of the flood all the time while either online or watcthing TV?

I guess the point I'm making is it seems to me that immigration and an oil spill are political footballs while a flood is not.

(05-06-2010 08:34 PM)JOwl Wrote:  

(05-06-2010 07:03 PM)Mademen Wrote:  http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle...flood.aspx

I can't help but think if this happened in Haiti or on the border of Arizona it would get much more attention.

The Nashville flood is tragic, but I don't see a parallel between it and the Haiti earthquake that killed 200,000 people.

I think a better comparison would be the April 14 quake in China, which has killed 2,000 people. US reporting on that has been extremely limited. I think I remember it being reported, but I'm not sure.

When I search "Nashville flood" on Google News, I get 4,500 hits*. For comparison, "China earthquake" turns up 3,300 hits. And those flood articles have all been written in the last 5 days, whereas there have been 3 weeks for earthquake articles to be written (in my experience, articles stay on Google News for about a month, so I'm guessing that none of the early earthquake articles have cycled out of the search results; if they have, my comparison could be way off).

*The author of the article only got 2,400 hits on "Nashville flood". The only explanation I can come up with is the possibility that he actually searched on "Nashville floods", which is currently giving 2,700 hits.

The US news is much more focused on the US, to my casual observation. When you are in Europe they seem to me to have much more coverage of events around the worls that do not get a second on US tv news or a paragraph in US news magazines. Just my observation. Maybe they know their audience?

I'm up here in Nashville attending law school, and we've kind of wondered about the lack of coverage ourselves. FWIW, we had to contend with the latest candidate for "World's Stupidest Terrorist" in New York and the BP oil spill.

One Nashville journalist did write that while he was disappointed in the lack of coverage, he was proud of Nashvilleans for not doing anything to bring negative attention. Everybody around here has been very quick to lend a helping hand.

For the record, the wife and I are fine. No trouble at all.

(05-06-2010 08:06 PM)gsloth Wrote:  Floods that come and go rarely grab the national media attention.

In the mid-90's there was some bad flooding in Des Moines. Pres. Clinton visited, took a photo op or two. Seems to me that helped get national attention for the flooding. But there were not the same alternative news stories then, so maybe not apples to apples.

JWN,
Glad to hear you and your wife are doing well!

I got worried about my little cousin when I remembered that Belmont is in Nashville, but then I checked her Facebook page and she was psyched that her anatomy final was cancelled. She appears to be doing fine.

The Nashville floods kinda remind me of Tropical Storm Allison back in 2001. After refreshing my memory on wikipedia, it looks like the damage could be similar (in Houston, 20-some people died from Allison and there was about $5 billiion in damage; I assume the Nashville damage estimate will climb to that level over the next few months).
Allison really sucked -- my car (6 months old) was totaled and the office where I worked flooded and it took months to get back to normal. Fortunately, my apartment didn't take on any water.
On the plus side for Allison, the dude kayaking down 59 made for a pretty classic picture ( http://www.lesmatthews.com/galleries/allison.asp picture #2)

(05-11-2010 12:28 PM)JOwl Wrote:  JWN,
Glad to hear you and your wife are doing well!

I got worried about my little cousin when I remembered that Belmont is in Nashville, but then I checked her Facebook page and she was psyched that her anatomy final was cancelled. She appears to be doing fine.

The Nashville floods kinda remind me of Tropical Storm Allison back in 2001. After refreshing my memory on wikipedia, it looks like the damage could be similar (in Houston, 20-some people died from Allison and there was about $5 billiion in damage; I assume the Nashville damage estimate will climb to that level over the next few months).
Allison really sucked -- my car (6 months old) was totaled and the office where I worked flooded and it took months to get back to normal. Fortunately, my apartment didn't take on any water.
On the plus side for Allison, the dude kayaking down 59 made for a pretty classic picture ( http://www.lesmatthews.com/galleries/allison.asp picture #2)

Thanks, JOwl. And while "Kayaking 59" is classic, Nashville's "School Building Floating Down I-24" was pretty impressive too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5gYhLKwSp4