QotD: Disaster Reporting

I think the disaster coverage of the world's media has become a little too efficient. It is a mixed blessing, progressing by small increments into a curse. The good it does, is to get relief supplies moving faster and more copiously. The evil is that it gives a skewed impression that disasters are becoming more frequent, when really they are just being more prominently reported.

Why is this an evil? Because it feeds public demand for obnoxious and intrusive legislation, to "do something" to obviate risks that are, in the main, beyond human power to avoid. Our media have, both wittingly and unwittingly, bought into a "Kyoto syndrome", that feeds on junk science, and exploits paranoia.

David Warren, "Disasters", davidwarrenonline.com, 2005-10-12