Storm Daredevils

They throw themselves into the floodwaters and are nearly washed away by Hurricane Sandy: U.S. television reporters try to outdo one another capturing dramatic pictures. Audience figures and advertising income are on the rise — at least in those areas that still have electricity.

While ABC weatherman Sam Champion stood comfortably on the southern tip of Manhattan prior to Sandy’s arrival, his colleague Matt Gutman was clad in a full-length raincoat and stood on a North Carolina beach describing how waves were “exploding” against the pier. Meanwhile, he nearly disappeared from view because his cameraman couldn’t dry off his lens quickly enough.

The images weren’t all that dramatic — it was readily apparent that the U.S. media weren’t able to do much more than get their reporting teams into position before the big event. As early as the previous weekend, there were special programs with titles like “Halloween Superstorm”; ABC fielded their “extreme weather team” to keep viewers permanently aware of unfolding events — regardless of what happened.

On Oct. 26, a U.S. Twitter user posted that it was unusual that media reports were saying some people were actually hoping Sandy would be a huge storm. Now Sandy has hit and proved to be every bit as destructive as some had hoped. For the U.S. media — and especially for the television networks — Sandy proved to be more than just a natural disaster: It produced a tense competition to come up with the most exciting images and thrilling commentary.

Storm reportage by U.S. television wavers between serious-looking commentators in the studio and the above-mentioned reporters outdoors, trying to get as deeply into the chaos as possible. The CNN reporter reporting live on the evacuation of Atlantic City is barely recognizable as he is buffeted back and forth on the windswept street. But this often degenerates into the realm of theater of the absurd, such as in the case where a group of dancing young men suddenly appeared in the background behind the embattled reporter.

Meanwhile, images of genuine destruction were available but uncertainty of when Sandy might arrive Monday evening didn’t make life easier for broadcasters. A media blog in the New York Times sneered that anyone regularly tuning in trying to get information in the affected areas must have had the feeling they were watching a sequel to the movie “Groundhog Day” — just a repetition of the same old images of devastation.

Still, the dramatization seems to have reached its limits. A few of the broadcasters so enamored of lurid headlines began to abandon cliches like “Frankenstorm” — among them CNN and the Weather Channel. This storm wasn’t to be trivialized. But a few cliches persisted, such as Christiane Amanpour’s “It’s really the monster storm from hell.”

It’s all about numbers and competition, certainly, but it’s also about information for those affected. That’s why a few media concerns like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal announced that they were deactivating their paywalls and would provide all online storm information free of charge.

Ignoring the Caribbean

Above it all, one heard the sound of cash registers ringing up advertising revenues flowing in to television networks. Businesses recognized the opportunity to make money off the storm. The Weather Channel was full of spots for emergency generators and other useful equipment. In addition to its regular programming, the Weather Channel has been broadcasting on YouTube and its own website since Sunday evening. In this online version, advertising spots for insurance companies alternate with offers from a battery manufacturer that included free batteries delivered by truck to devastated areas.

Other companies didn’t have to come up with new advertising campaigns — the money flowed to them anyway. The online movie streaming firm Netflix reported that demand from the eastern seaboard was up 20 percent above normal. Those trapped at home by the storm and unable to do much else needed some kind of diversion — provided they were lucky enough to still have electricity.

For some, the U.S. media’s reportage has a connotation other than the chance for grabbing advertising and publicity. While the focus was primarily the impact on the eastern seaboard of the United States, the impact on the Caribbean was largely ignored. The organization, Green Left, complained that the broadcaster WFSB in Connecticut reported the first U.S. death attributable to Sandy on Oct. 30, days after the storm had already claimed 51 victims in Haiti alone.

This disparity has also been the subject of many tweets, but is hardly surprising: The last major study from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism reported that only about 3 percent of airtime is allocated by the major U.S. media outlets to international events that lack any direct impact on the United States.