Surprised at lack of mainstream media coverage of Helene

[notanothernamechange24]

Is anyone else surprised by the lack of media coverage following the hurricane in America a week ago?
The images coming out of western North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Florida are really shocking.
Multiple towns destroyed. Roads washed away. Power lines down. Trees and debris everywhere.
Over 200 people are known to have died. 1400 more are still listed as missing.

But barely any mention on the news? Or am I just missing it?

Same with the flooding in Nepal. Mentioned once and then barely anything since.

Especially as they are now about to be hit again by a Cat 5 Hurricane !

I just can't wrap my head around why it's not deemed more newsworthy. Under what other circumstance would an event in the USA where quite possibly there's been over 1000 deaths not be newsworthy?

It's quite strange. Sky News ran a brief page on Hurricane Milton and the evacuation and said:

"The storm comes less than a fortnight after Hurricane Helene caused widespread damage and killed more than 200 people."

... yes. A lot more than 200...

It should be news all over the world, the scale of destruction across 5 states is incredible. But here in the US those coping with it are also having to deal with a massive campaign of partisan lies about the federal response. It’s truly disgusting:

x.com/mplskerrbear/status/1842953528433692935?s=46&t=07irvRIuPBrhCCUZNE1FeQ

Over the weekend, parts of Thailand were hit by the worst storms and flooding the country has seen in decades. Huge destruction and loss of life.

Severe flooding hit central and Western Africa a couple of weeks ago and impacted 4 million people.

Are you concerned about the lack of mainstream coverage about these events as well? If not, why? It’s a genuine question. We (society) deem disaster and loss of life in some places as more newsworthy than others which says a lot about the value we place on some lives and cultures above others.

I’m also pretty sure that if the UK was hit but a devastating storm it would barely register in the US. I’ve read a lot about Helene as I subscribe to the NY Times online. I didn’t expect to read or hear a lot about it in the UK press though.

Yeah I thought the lack of coverage was odd too, it seems like the BBC only really covers politics and war in any depth these days. There was a bit about the aftermath of hurricane Helene but it seemed somewhat downplayed considering the devastation it caused.

Are you concerned about the lack of mainstream coverage about these events as well? If not, why? It’s a genuine question. We (society) deem disaster and loss of life in some places as more newsworthy than others which says a lot about the value we place on some lives and cultures above others.

the USA is a longstanding ally of the UK with close political, economic, cultural and historical ties.

So yes, it is more newsworthy, IMO.

Yes, yes I am. And in fact I didn't know about them which shows the lack of reporting on these matters.

The difference I guess is that I have family in the US so I am aware of events there even if they go unreported /underreported in our media.

Plus, as I understand it, part of the shock of Helene is that it has so deeply devastated an area (NC) that was perceived as a good place to live to escape the worst excesses of climate change

the category 5 is on the bbc headlines today

Milton is going to make Helene look like a playful puppy 😬. This absolutely should be on our news.

I’ve read lots about it on mainstream media online so I’m not sure where you read?

100s of deaths happen daily in developing world due to natural disasters or human made that no one here or in the media gives a shit and certainly dont start threads about it.

The upcoming storm in Florida is the third news item on the bbc. Most people spend more time on tiktok and youtube than proper news sites these days so hardly surprising.

Wow.

But former colonies where brown people live are disposable. I guess they are used to it being so poor.

It's terrifying. These are the real time impacts of climate change

Yes, I am.

The news isn't reporting on these for a reason, and it's because these are the real life effects of climate change.

Hurricane and storms have always happened. For thousands of years. Far more deadlier. We can blame climate change but ultimately these are also a natural occurring storms.

Generally UK news is reasonably good on world news, it's a legacy of empire ironically with people here having links to lots of other parts of the world. However there are blind spots. I knew about the Thai floods (FWIW Thailand is not an ex-colony) because I have a relative who lives there but the bulk of the English language news about it seems to be focusing on the rescue of some elephants. It was the same during the pandemic, Peru had the worst death rate in the world by quite some way but we heard nothing about it, generally we get very little news from South America.

Wow.
But former colonies where brown people live are disposable. I guess they are used to it being so poor.

dont be so hyperbolic.

prioritising some news over other news doesn’t make any sort of statement about people being more “disposable” or not

America is a former colony where brown people live. 🙄 Especially in Florida - currently in prep for storm Milton.

The whole point of this thread is that USA news isn't loud enough, hence why I am
pointing out other news is not even news. Disposable, unimportant, irrelevant whatever.

I knew this would get derailed into a "but what about a disaster in x country, do you not care about non white people" argument. Knew it.

And no I hadn't heard about the flooding in Africa (and I used to live in Africa, so it's not like I don't give a shit about it), so yes I'd agree there should be more coverage about that too.

I think what potentially makes what has happened in the USA though more surprising from a lack of coverage isn't about a white people vs brown people newsworthiness. But from a developing world vs developed world pov. Sadly natural disasters, etc with lots of people affected are more common place in the developing world - doesn't make it right, but that's a fact. The news will often focus on stuff which is unusual, uncommon.......and I would say that what has happened in the USA is not only unusual but the lack of help from the world's supposed superpower to it's own people is unusual.

Well, anyone labouring under the illusion that we have a first world forcefield that can just shake off the effects of climate change with more robust infrastructure and an effective emergency response might be quickly re-evaluating that opinion had we had any coverage on these rapid fire storms experienced by America. Instead we have more column inches filled by blue haired soup throwers.

@Lovethatforyouhun no you misunderstood what I mean. US news is perfectly loud enough generally here in the UK. And is certainly louder than that from lots of other places.
So considering that US news is usually readily available it seemed odd to me how little coverage this specific event has got.

I think there’s going to be quite a bit of coverage about Florida in the next day or so depending how badly it gets hit. Maybe it’s area dependent? A place that uk people can relate to like Florida will make the news but the “hillbillies” in NC the news broadcasters assume we don’t care?

Don't worry, conspiracy theorists are already on it, colleague this morning was saying the storms are engineered and planned. Lithium is under the towns/population that have disappeared..and it was 'obvious' that it's all part of 'the plan'..its not in mainstream because they don't want it being questioned..blah, blah..

In some ways our infrastructure here in the west could be our undoing in these sorts of circumstances here in the west. We have become so used to being able to rely on it that many would really struggle to cope if it was no longer there. Look at the supermarket chaos at the start of covid. In all seriousness how well would many people cope if say we had a major power outage that lasted for say a week or two?
Whereas those who live or have lived in the developing world with less secure access to many of the services that we are so accustomed to, will perhaps be much more resilient in dealing with these issues.