Blown away

Hurricane Irma has nothing on the gales whipping through the local Twittersphere.

During election campaigns, it is wise not to venture an opinion on any issue. Raise your head above the parapet and someone is likely to blast it off. It’s best to stay quiet until September 24, because passions have been aroused and they range well outside politics.

I’ve been trying to lie low, but recently a Newshub reporter rang me about Hurricane Irma, which was devastating vast tracts of Florida. He asked what I thought of the television journalists shown, often up to their waists in water, being buffeted by the wind as they reported on the storm.

I said I thought they were nuts – chasing ratings by using amateur dramatics. An hour or two later, a cameraman showed up at my home to gather my pearls of wisdom for that night’s news.

A quick perusal of US news coverage showed hordes of TV journos wading through surging waters or tying themselves to balconies to stop being blown away while doing a piece to camera about how awful it all was. One animated reporter, deep in the tide at a rainy, windy city intersection, was upstaged by a pair of joggers passing happily behind her.

A waterlogged CNN reporter stood at another intersection in front of a construction site telling the presenter back in the studio that it was extremely dangerous because nails from the half-built structure would travel like bullets in the hurricane. The question arises, why stand there and risk being speared?

I should point out that my online search found no US newspaper story that featured a picture of a reporter standing in waist-deep water. Nor did I hear any radio reporters saying they were up to their neck in it. The theatrics are a silly show-off TV thing.

The mistake I made was to voice that opinion on the telly. Browsing Twitter after the news programme, I noticed someone called Lainey saying, “They send reporters to war zones; why wouldn’t they send them to hurricane zones … #Newshub.”

It’s a valid point. But I wasn’t saying the reporters should have stayed away from the storm, just that they should avoid danger. Few reporters in a war zone deliberately put themselves in the line of fire. By all means, they should go to where the action is, but without unnecessarily exposing themselves for the sake of a more dramatic shot. Most pieces to camera from war zones sensibly feature the reporter behind cover, not standing in the open in front of the enemy.

Weatherman Philip Duncan replied to Lainey, “I was surprised @BillRalston was so upset about it too! Who cares if they want to risk themselves? We let people jump out of planes:)”.

If a reporter leapt from a plane,

I’d hope they had a parachute. But I was beginning to get upset at the suggestion that I was supposed to ignore reporters stupidly risking their lives for a story.

I was preparing a Twitter response when Lainey returned with, “Who cares what he even thinks.” That was enough to make me turn the computer off. Who needs a Twitter pile-on?

It’s just not safe out there on social media at the moment. For the next week or so,

I’m forecasting a complete lack of rationality in online and talkback debate.

Treat it like a hurricane with 200km/h winds and driving rain. Take cover.

One animated reporter deep in the tide was upstaged by a pair of joggers passing happily behind her.