Rush Limbaugh Got One Wrong

I enjoy listening to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, a mix of news items and entertainment which, for the most part, gets to the heart of issues which need to be discussed openly; political issues, social issues and plain and simple entertainment. Today he went on and on lambasting the media regarding what he considered fear mongering; the media’s coverage of a potentially deadly tsunami, the result of Chile’s huge earthquake.

“Why am I going on and on? Because this is a teachable moment of how manipulative the scientific community is. "But, Rush! But, Rush! There was no harm done, because what if it were bad? This could have saved lives." Yeah, I know, but at some point you have to realize it's not happening. I mean, if nobody can prove to you it's out there. The larger point, though, is look at how easily we all fall prey to everything that's a crisis. "It's going to kill us! It's going to be disaster and panic." Everybody just lock, stock, and barrel starts acting like lemmings….”

Sorry Rush, this time you are flat out wrong to criticize those who carefully considered a potentially hazardous situation, one which gave folks sufficient time to react, a chance to preserve lives with the least amount of intrusion. The fact that the tsunami never generated devastating or catastrophic waves, the kind which killed thousands in Southeast Asia several years back is of little if any importance. Had these warning not been given; then there would have been reason to blow your horn, to belittle and castigate.

I found considerable relief, having a live feed from Hawaii showing public service personnel in place, not because there was a lack of wave action; but because I have a sister living in Hawaii. I’d spoken to her earlier and was glad to know she was out of harms way, as were my parents. The fact that no huge waves crashed down on Hawaii at the projected times provided a form of relief; in my mind came the thought, “Thank goodness, we dodged a bullet”; the news feed made that possible.

Perhaps a good portion of the viewing audience who tuned into the live emergency feed had what I refer to as the “stock car race mentality”, a frantic desire to see destruction; blood and chaos flash before their eyes. The news media certainly makes more money from chaos and disasters than it does from non-events; heck, they’re still making money off of Hurricane Katrina and that was, what, four years ago?

Unfortunately, when a person of prominence tells folks that such warnings are just a bunch of rubbish, someone like Rush Limbaugh who sets his track record for being right 98% of the time; some folks might not listen to the next warning. That next warning could be for a tsunami, hurricane, tornado, flash flood or winter storm warning. There might be a reluctance to hit the alarm switch for fear of being ridiculed by a national radio host, enough to delay that alarm being issued past the point of it being useful.

Mocking those who must make the call, the person holding the “red telephone” so to speak, belittling them for disrupting an otherwise serene day because they interpreted the data in a “worst case scenario” frame of mind is not only unwise; it shows the same kind of elitism you so heartily make fun of in other areas of your show.