The prediction before the Great Blizzard Blowout of 2015 was to "be afraid, be very afraid."
When the snow did not materialize over New York City, the media did not miss a beat. They shifted the fault to other people, as though other people were at fault for believing the hype. See Matt Flegenheimer, "Leaders Defend Shutdown For a Blizzard That Wasn't" p. A1, col. 5 (New York Times Nat'l ed., Wednesday, January 28, 2015).
Leaders were not the ones who predicted a blizzard that was going to be so bad, we have never seen the likes of it before.
The media did that. The weather forecaster failures did that. And it is not so much their failure to accurately predict the weather that is a problem here. Everyone makes mistakes.
It is rather that these people did not have to hype what they were saying especially when the responsible thing to do was simply to say it accurately. That would have been enough to get attention.
Maybe they thought we were not paying attention.
Maybe now they think we forgot how they blew things way out of proportion. And that we do not realize how they are trying to shift the blame to other people who made the mistake of relying on what they said.
They have not bothered to apologize for the way they told us about what dangers they thought might be coming our way. Instead, beginning on the day after, they have tried to shift the blame because they, not other people, failed to be responsible when the rest of us counted on them.
Shame on them.
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