Dave Foulk Internet Flyer

    I watched some of the television coverage of the arrival of hurricane Katrina this morning.   At least, it was called television coverage.
    Mostly, I saw reporters playing in the rain and high wind.  Some of them were leaning into the wind, others were hanging on to fences along the waterfront.   At least one goofball was standing outside wearing a pair of goggles.
    At one point, one Fox reporter said the hotel where they were staying had locked their doors and they couldn’t get inside.  Good.  Darwin at work.
    I am not making these comments from a position of inexperience.  I have covered three hurricanes.
    The real story is not how much wind and rain you can stand before getting knocked down.  It is telling the story of people who are holed up in shelters waiting for the storm to end.  I saw very little video from places like the Superdome, or any other shelter.  Perhaps the network folks should consider staying with the great unwashed in shelters, rather than hotels.  They story is with the people who are suffering.

    The real story is not in spectacular video of an anchor in a torrent of rain.  It is in the fear in the eyes of children riding out the storm, in old people who worry they will not have anyplace to return to.
    During one hurricane, I was the last civilian on Tybee Island, and reported on the desolation after the evacuation.  Then I got to a shelter, and talked to all kinds of people, from relief workers to evacuees.
    If you want to do stunts- get on a reality show.  If you want to cover a news story…please..more reality.

And leave your goggles at home.