Latest Headlines, Eye-popping Articles and Editorials
| News Article |
| PURVEYORS OF PERIL 2/20/2008 PURVEYORS OF PERIL
 THE PORTLAND OREGONIAN’S scare-mongering tactics, including this photo of
model-sized Seaside being destroyed by a fake wave, have hurt coast tourism. When it’s time to report on issues that concern the coast, the Oregonian and other valley media outlets aren’t doing us any favors. In fact, their jaundiced coverage can often inflict significant damage to the coastal economy. In a recent editorial titled “Preparing for the Unthinkable,” the Oregonian cautions against the next major earthquake that will occur on the Cascadia subduction zone and the tsunami that will surely follow. The Cascadia subduction zone is a major fault line that stretches from Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in California. The last major event occurred in 1700, and the resulting 30 ft. Tsunami wreaked havoc on Native American coastal villages in present-day Oregon and Washington. It also informs readers that the coast shouldn’t expect much help in the aftermath, as the valley will be dealing with their own problems caused by the earthquake. News? Hardly. Lincoln County Commissioner has been saying the same thing for years. From on high, the Oregonian also tells us we need “a small army of tsunami coordinators” to go door to door stressing preparedness and evacuation routes. That has already been done in Newport and Depoe Bay. Printed materials on the same subject have been available for quite some time. And, if a picture is worth a thousand words, the Oregonian drove the tsunami stake deeper into coast hearts with a photo of a Lego version of Seaside being destroyed by an approximation of a tsunami in a Mickey Mouse wave tank at OSU. And, if that's not enough, the Oregonian warns residents of the I-5 corridor that they’d better pay attention because when the next earthquake strikes, “they may be among the tens of thousands of visitors who can be found on any given day all along the Oregon coast,” that’s a great way to silence coastal cash registers. Scare mongering about the coast in the Oregonian is nothing new. Who can forget the damage they inflicted with their so-called “Dead Zone” articles in August of 2006? The furor over the “Dead Zone,” a naturally recurring phenomenon that is beneficial to the marine ecosystem, effectively killed the charter fishing business at the height of the summer season, and cost other businesses the money that would be spent by visiting anglers. And where the Oregonian leads, the rest of the mindless valley media surely follows, particularly the TV news readers. Given the attention spans of viewers, they believe they must strike quickly with supercharged copy to get people to pay attention. And, given the size of the Portland market, our local “talent” is third rate at best across the board, barely better then Boise, Billings and Butte. If they were any good at all, they’d be in the major markets or with the networks. They do their worst damage with their scare tactic coverage of weather events. No other media can halt coast visitors in a heartbeat like the news readers. The Beacon recently received a phone call asking if Hwy. 18 was still closed, 10 days after the last snow event. When it comes to covering the coast, locals should tell the Oregonian, or the “Pearl District Portlander” as we prefer to call it, thanks, but no thanks. Author Name Beacon Editoral Staff - news@depoebaybeacon.com |
