Big Government Calls Hurricane Irene "A Big Rainstorm"

Wayne Allyn Root, a right-wing propagandist for Andrew Breitbart's hack site Big Government recently took to the conservative blog to make yet another attack at the media, this time focusing on the recent news regarding Hurricane Irene barreling up the east coast.  Root dismissed the storm as nothing more than "a big rainstorm" and believed the media and politicians were over-hyping the hurricane for political gain.

Media and politicians need big catastrophes and emergencies to burnish their images and make them seem important. They need to brandish words like “the worst ever” “the biggest ever” “the most deadly ever.” The media loves these bigger-than-life headlines because they are highly profitable. The bigger, the better- it’s all good for business. The more hysterical they can make the public, the higher the ratings. Catastrophes SELL!  

Politicians also need catastrophes and emergencies- to show they are in charge, looking out for us helpless little people. Politicians desperately need high profile platforms to showcase their leadership skills, to shout “Get out now, or you’ll die. I’m saving your life. I’m the only thing that stands between you and annilihation.” Emergencies allow politicians to bully, intimidate and threaten citizens, and to prove how obviously more important and brilliant they are than the lowly citizens. And, of course, if the politician is right, and the worst happens, they’ve got a platform to shout about how much we need them and how indebted we should be to them  

.But what if they’re wrong? Shouldn’t they be held accountable for pulling a false alarm? Shouldn’t they be called out for needlessly scaring citizens, shutting down entire cities, entire states, the entire Eastern Seaboard for…a big rainstorm? Shouldn’t they pay the consequences for threatening and intimidating their own citizens to abandon their homes and businesses…for a big rainstorm?

Root cries about the big commotion over the hurricane costing average citizens and businesses billions in lost wages and revenue.  He accuses politicians for needlessly shutting down America's largest city, New York City, over some rain.  Ignore the fact that current figures place damage caused by Hurricane Irene over $7 billion.

Root may feel pretty cozy in his Snuggie sitting in front of his television located in his freedom bunker watching Fox News but here in the real world, Irene was a big deal.  This author's family and friends located in New York and New Jersey were evacuated from their homes due to flooding and power outages.  Root likes to talk about lost income for businesses and wages for workers who were supposedly needlessly evacuated but it makes it hard for a business to operate when there is three feet of water flooding the streets.

I also want to point out something else regarding Root's little piece - his constant mention of the media fear-mongering.

Media and politicians need big catastrophes and emergencies to burnish their images and make them seem important. They need to brandish words like “the worst ever” “the biggest ever” “the most deadly ever.” The media loves these bigger-than-life headlines because they are highly profitable. The bigger, the better- it’s all good for business. The more hysterical they can make the public, the higher the ratings. Catastrophes SELL!   

Remind you of a particular cable channel that constantly pushes such stories while simultaneously pointing to their high viewership numbers as proof they are legitimate?  Sounds more like they found a working equation for selling catastrophes.