Here’s how dangerous the ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ positions are turning out to be…now Rush Limbaugh is now claiming the news around these hurricanes is just histrionics and fake news and designed to make money for the media and grocers and gas stations. Is he putting people’s lives at risk?
“These storms, once they actually hit, are never as strong as they’re reported,” Limbaugh claimed on his syndicated radio show. He added that “the graphics have been created to make it look like the ocean’s having an exorcism, just getting rid of the devil here in the form of this hurricane, this bright red stuff.”
Why would the media exaggerate the threat of a hurricane? Here’s Limbaugh’s theory:
There is symbiotic relationship between retailers and local media, and it’s related to money. It revolves around money. You have major, major industries and businesses which prosper during times of crisis and panic, such as a hurricane, which could destroy or greatly damage people’s homes, and it could interrupt the flow of water and electricity. So what happens?
Well, the TV stations begin reporting this and the panic begins to increase. And then people end up going to various stores to stock up on water and whatever they might need for home repairs and batteries and all this that they’re advised to get, and a vicious circle is created. You have these various retail outlets who spend a lot of advertising dollars with the local media.
The local media, in turn, reports in such a way as to create the panic way far out, which sends people into these stores to fill up with water and to fill up with batteries, and it becomes a never-ending repeated cycle. And the two coexist. So the media benefits with the panic with increased eyeballs, and the retailers benefit from the panic with increased sales, and the TV companies benefit because they’re getting advertising dollars from the businesses that are seeing all this attention from customers.
To state the obvious, these are potentially dangerous comments from Limbaugh, who is based in Palm Beach, Fla. He is encouraging listeners who might be in Irma’s path not to take seriously the official guidance disseminated through the media.
So, let’s see if he stays in Palm Beach for the weekend or if he finds the need to go to NYC or someplace else. Hopefully he has a wine cellar!
“Hopefully he has a wine cellar!”
…Filled with water?
But, he is a big wind-bag so he should float safely.
I just threw that in there because Richard Branson rode out Irma in the wine cellar of his mansion on his private Caribbean island.