Is the politics of fear spreading?
 

We all know that the Bush administration has used the politics of fear to push their unconstitutional agenda on America and now it looks like others are starting to use the same playbook.

Take the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Back at the start of the 2005 season (May 16th) they predicted a 2005 season that would be just slightly above average. 7-9 Hurricanes when 6 is average and 3-5 majors when 2 are average. There were actually 15 hurricanes and 7 majors last year.

So we now move on to 2006. Guess what? This year the May predictions were for an extremely busy year 8-10 Hurricanes with 5 majors (remember 2 is average). Ohhh hold on to your hats everyone it's going to be a scary year.

Now here we are in late August and guess what? Nadda. The weather service has been denigrated to reporting on depressions just forming off the coast of Africa that could in a week or two become a real storm due to the lack of any real activity to report on.

So what does NOAA do? Revise their forecast and say, "Hey it looks like this year is not going to be soooo bad after all?" Might they perhaps admit that at least a few people who live along the coast of the US might actually survive the year? Nope. That would reflect reality which of course does not support the politics of fear that keeps them budget dollars rolling in. So rather than a statement of facts based on valid scientific observations we get sensationalist headlines like: "Hurricane chief foresees 'mega-disaster'" That's right. Screw scientific observations and theory, and go right to the fear card. Woo hoo that'll get the American public jumping and and down just begging congress to toss you more cash. Well done Mr. Mayfield. Your budget is safe for another season. I can't wait to read your 2007 season forecast, I'm sure it will rank as one the of best fictional disasters stories ever!

Fear sells.

yup, ranks right up there with Y2K. a ton of folks made a killing from the fear mongering built around that...embarassingly, Im one of them.


when a doom prediction fails to be more than a fart in a windstorm, make a bigger windstorm.

..I think that's a different case. You say you "made a killing" out of Y2k. Let me ask you this. What would have happened if the work you competed had never been done? Would the clients systems have crashed or otherwise screwed up come the year 2000? Probably so. The main effect of the y2K bug was eliminated because the hew and cry forced pointy headed bosses everywhere to sit up take notice and free up the resources to fix the problem. If the entire issue had just been ignored then the disaster would indeed have happened. So while the general alarm did in fact overstate the issue, nuclear sites going critial and the like, it did help to solve what was a real issue.

point taken. yes, it would have truly sucked if no one anywhere had done anything at all.
however, I do think a lot more over hyped panic than reality based fear existed for it none the less.

Totally agree. In fact, that goes for all of TV news except PBS for me.

CNN is doing this really messed up news segment called 'Target: America'. It's so blatantly fear mongering that it's sad. That and Amanpour's 'Tracking Bin Laden' pieces are agonizing. The ads for these shows are everywhere.

And then after those ads come the drug ads which scare you some more...
;)

Im with ya. from now on its cartoon channel or nada. :D

It's funny that you said that because for me it's all about the animated shows on TV and TCM, Fox Movie Channel or AMC.
:)

I stick to the Daily Show. Seems as valid a news source as any and rather than try to instill fear, they just try to make me laugh. I appreciate that.