Krehbiel Commentary

Does anyone else get the sense that NBC Nightly News for Dummies simply can't wait to report on another hurricane destroying a U.S. city?  While they were spending approximately 20,000 hours reporting on The Long Road Back from Katrina, they must have put a lot of hurricane disaster reporting resources in place, because they sure are anxious to tell us about these things now.  This year, they're building up fear and drama about hurricanes before they're even hurricanes.

A while back, Brian Williams gave us a breathless report about Bertha's potential for destruction ("it's just gotten a lot stronger... a major storm with a well-defined eye...") long before it was anywhere near the U.S. (followed a day later by a slightly exasperated admission that Bertha in fact would not cause any destruction at all).

A few nights ago we got a full report of dire warnings about Dolly, but not once did they mention it was barely even a Category 1 storm at the time.  One of the most memorable quotes in this story, from a terrified resident:  "We're gonna have a lotta water comin' down this way."  Stay strong, brave soul.

Last night we saw the report about Dolly making landfall, where intrepid reporter-turned-voiceover-artist Don Teague actually said, "They expected Dolly to make landfall... but what they didn't expect was this:  Ferocious winds."  Um... hello?  Hurricane?  You know, the thing with the ferocious winds?  The best example of devastation they could get on tape was... a window breaking.  And it didn't even happen on camera.

Nice work, guys.  Better luck next time.