I'm covering this tornado, as well as others, in my other diary right now. I'm putting out the call for help -- I can't do this by myself. If anybody can help, please do so. Thanks.
A tornado emergency is in effect for Raleigh, NC, with a large wedge tornado moving through the downtown region as I type this. The local Raleigh stations, the NWS in Raleigh, and multiple other agencies that disseminate information to citizens in the city are all taking shelter right now, and having a hard time getting the word out.
What are MSNBC, FOX and CNN doing right now? Absolutely fucking nothing. MSNBC has a murder documentary on (what's new?), CNN has pre-recorded news footage, and FOX News is running news masturbating over the Republican 2012 contenders.
What the fuck is wrong with these stations? Homes are being destroyed, people are more than likely dying, there is debris raining down on the capital of North Carolina, which is home to 400,000 people, in an area home to more than 1.7 million. I am so god damn angry right now that I cannot contain it. These ignorant, irresponsible stations are so concerned about commercial advertising and their own little documentaries that a major wedge tornado going through a city isn't good enough? Fuck you! These stations need to pick up the responsibility of protecting citizens during emergencies, not just dramatically reporting on them afterwards.
There are people on the ground under these storms. When I post the radars, when I post the warnings, when I post pictures of damage, I realize this. That's why I do it. I get excited over the radar, but I know what these storms do to people. This large tornado going through Raleigh is destroying lives. We need a massive overhaul of our country's news media, because it's pretty fucking obvious they've long forgotten this.
Mary Mike reminded me of this in the comments, and I've been mindlessly watching them without realizing almost everyone has it, but the Weather Channel is doing a bang-up job at this. I still have a problem with their cutting to commercial and the local forecast 5 minutes out of every 15, but they're covering it the best they can.