The crisis of hysteria

According to polling from Rasmussen Reports, 81-percent of Americans followed the media coverage preceding Hurricane Irene, with 63-percent the reporting favorable reviews. At face value there appears nothing but positives in these poll numbers. But should sensationalism and hysterics warrant positive marks from the public?

Hurricanes are one of nature's most potent forces and ignoring them is unquestionably foolish. Therefore it was perfectly sensible for people to keep an eye on Hurricane Irene, especially if they or their loved ones were in her path. Yet, there's cause for concern when 63-percent of the public believe the coverage of Irene wasn't -- pardon the pun -- overblown.

Playing Monday morning meteorologist isn't difficult. But even the slightest attention to Irene's pre-landfall progress revealed that she was never the catastrophic storm the news and weather media billed her to be. Irene wasn't gaining strength as she tracked north. In fact, she was steadily weakening. By the time she struck North Carolina's Outer Banks she was a Category One storm, rather common as hurricanes go. While the track may have been unique, there was no need for the newsroom panic that accompanied Irene's approach.

Certainly Irene was no simple summer squall. A hurricane is a hurricane. To the people who lost their property, or their very lives, Hurricane Irene was serious business. But the reports on Irene's pending destruction sounded as if the storm was the offspring of a weekend rendezvous between Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Katrina. So it goes when the media gins up a crisis of hysteria.

No matter the coming attraction the media will present its potential danger as the end of civilization as we know it. Hurricane Irene was merely the latest illustration of the bombastic partnership that exists between the media and various governmental bodies. The two form an unholy alliance with a track record of sensationalizing harmful situations and fostering public fear.

According to an article titled "Refugees Escape Ravages of Climate Change" (the Journal of Environmental Health, 2003) global warming and environmental destruction would produce 50 million climate refugees by 2010. Entire island chains would disappear beneath rising seas. Zafar Adeel, of the United Nations University, echoed the dire prophesy in December 2006. Where are those 50 million climate change refugees now? What islands have disappeared? The UN's prediction of mass refugees resulting directly from global warming proved to be -- if you'll pardon another pun -- hot air.

Disease is another catastrophe routinely manipulated in media and governmental circles. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) surfaced in Asia in early 2003 and was immediately treated as the Black Death reincarnate. News viewers were inundated with nightly videos of Chinese people cowering behind facemasks. In reality, the only thing pandemic about SARS was the media panic. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed only 8,098 SARS cases worldwide and 774 deaths, mostly in China. Influenza and tuberculosis killed more people than SARS.

If the SARS scare was the only example of the media over-dramatizing microbial threats we might grant them a pass. But the story is too common to dismiss as a singular mistake in reporting, or even an instance of poor judgment.

Bird flu was the dread du jour in 2005. Before anyone knew how serious the strain was, or would become, the media compared it to a 1918 flu outbreak that killed 50 million people worldwide and half-a-million in the United States. Government organizations, notably the World Health Organization (WHO), joined the media cacophony. The public was berated with prophesies of widespread suffering and death. But bird flu's reality never lived up to the hype and the threat dissipated just as quickly as it came.

Swine flu was another crisis that never quite materialized. World Health Organization flu expert Keiji Fukuda warned that a H1N1 pandemic could infect up to 2 billion people worldwide. The panic was on. Media outlets filled space with ominous predictions of widespread suffering and death. The world seemed poised for a plague of Biblical proportions. But, like SARS and bird flue, swine flu didn't cooperate with the doomsayers. It was soon discovered that swine flu wasn't as serious as first reported. Thousands, not billions, were infected and relatively few died.

While diseases and natural disasters are nothing to ignore, they're also nothing to manipulate for ratings and political advantage. Yet potential threats to humanity, of which we should be aware, are routinely exaggerated to the point of absurdity. The reason is clear. Crisis benefits both the media and government. Sensationalism sells news and promotes fear. Under the threat of possible harm people will exchange their liberty for government's oft-empty promise of security. The worse a looming disaster appears the more people will hang on the media's reports and demand government action. Hysteria breeds ratings for media outlets and dependency on government.

There's nothing wrong with reporting potential disasters or planning for unpredictable scenarios. Preparation is common sense and people should be aware of imminent or possible threats. However, journalism and bureaucracy have a long history of blowing biological and meteorological threats completely out of proportion. Informing the public of anticipated events is mundane. Thus cataclysmic crises are created whether or not they exist.

The language used to report possible harms, whether in the form of disease or natural disaster, can be a greater threat to public safety than the dangers themselves. The so-called experts have cried wolf so often that their credibility is shattered. The media and governments bear a responsibility to maintain the public's trust. That bond has been sacrificed to the pursuit of ratings and authority.

The next danger will surface soon enough. Maybe it will be another hurricane, or the tropical rainstorm drenching the gulf coast. Flu season is just around the corner. Whatever the source, the media and government will the treat that threat like a combination of Pompeii and the Chicago Fire before it reaches a serious level, further eroding the public's trust. When a crisis worthy of widespread hysteria does arise, will anyone pay attention to their warnings?