
The Media Has Neglected Puerto Rico - ryan_j_naughton
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-media-really-has-neglected-puerto-rico/
======
curtis
I think the quality and quantity of reporting coming out of Puerto Rico has
suffered from both its political status and the fact that it is an island at a
considerable distance from the mainland U.S.

However, I think the situation has been compounded by both the degree of
damage caused by the hurricane and by the kind of damage. Something like 90%
of the cell towers are offline and the landlines have been heavily damaged as
well. So you have this problem where you can't get reporters in and you also
can't get firsthand reports from locals out, either.

It seems like a clear case of no news is bad news, but how is the news media
supposed to report "no news"?

~~~
roywiggins
They managed to keep up 24 hours rolling coverage of a missing plane for what
seemed like weeks. Cable news is really good at filling time with speculation,
talking heads, Wolf Blitzer, and CGI reenactments.

~~~
curtis
Well, yeah. But Maria was the third hurricane in a row. Maybe the news was
suffering from hurricane fatigue combined with a lack of information coming
out of Puerto Rico at the same time.

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javiramos
Puerto Rican here!

In my opinion, these are two very good pieces to learn about Puerto Rico [1]
[https://youtu.be/CesHr99ezWE](https://youtu.be/CesHr99ezWE) [2]
[https://youtu.be/Tt-mpuR_QHQ](https://youtu.be/Tt-mpuR_QHQ)

------
turc1656
While there may be a legit point to this article, let's also keep things in
perspective. In the past few weeks we've had....... 3 major hurricanes
resulting in enormous damage. The NFL anthem/knee controversy. Escalating
tensions with North Korea. The Catalan vote turned into military police
violence yesterday. The largest mass murder in recent American history today.
OJ was released from prison. More Manafort investigations. The protests/riots
in St. Louis over officer Jason Stockley being cleared in the shooting. The
other riots at Georgia tech where a cop car was set on fire of a different
shooting. The discovery that Jared Kushner has used private email for
government business. Developments in the Russia hacking scandal which may
prove involvement in the election. The deadly riots in India after a religious
leader was convicted of rape. A terrorist knife attacker in France yesterday.
Suicide bombers in Syria today. The alleged murderers of Kim Jong-Un's half
brother began their trial.

And that's just the shit I can remember! I'm afraid to think about what I have
already forgotten - and that's really the point. There's really only so much
any one person can focus on to any meaningful degree. I'm not a fan of the
media, but I don't blame them for this one. People were sick of hurricane
coverage and with all that other stuff going on, they curtailed coverage a bit
to focus on some other hot button issues.

~~~
KGIII
The London Tube bombing. I think that was just a couple of weeks ago.

As you say, there is only so much one can focus on. I don't even try to really
retain or keep up with it all. I can't and I don't care if I'm expected to.

I'd say that I also have a finite amount of empathy. It sounds bad but it gets
used up quickly and I have more local things on which to spend my empathy. I
know it is selfish, but that's just how it is.

~~~
turc1656
Yep, forgot about that one.

I totally understand your point. And it is, in my opinion, a very reasonable
position to take. I believe I'm the same way, for better or worse. I can't
recall with certainty but I believe there is a psychological term for what you
describe. Basically, it boils down to your brain compartmentalizing what you
can and cannot have an effect on. That which you cannot affect you tend to
care far less about and reduce/eliminate empathy and other emotional
connection because it can be draining and isn't productive in any positive way
(usually). That which you can affect or which has a significant impact on you
personally is a totally different story. Wish I could remember the term for
it.

~~~
KGIII
As I was typing it, I was thinking there would be a psychological name for it.
It seems like something they've likely classified and tried to measure.

If you'll permit me a vulgarity, my give a damn button is broken. For PR, I
sent off two donations. It's the same as I did for both Florida and Texas. I
don't view it as buying karma, or anything. I view it as being more that I'm
actually obligated to do.

We don't care need to to overly care, do anything, or devote energy. Being
obligated to outrage is a silly social trend. It's unfortunate and it's surely
painful for those most closely impacted, but we are continually bombarded with
news of tragedy.

Selfish or not, I'm pretty sure it's more healthy to just accept it and
acknowledge it. I'm absolutely not saying it wasn't tragic, I'm just saying I
am unwilling to get emotionally invested in it.

I suspect that makes sense, I'm mostly just trying to explain it in more
detail because I don't know of a more precise term for it. If this happened in
my area, I'd be much more emotionally invested.

------
foxfired
Maybe it has something to do with the word Territory as in a U.S. Territory. I
still don't know what it is, but it implies that it is not a state, not a
city. If Hawaii can be half way around the world and be called a state, why
can't we do the same for Puerto Rico?

~~~
pavanred
What surprised me was that almost every news report/pleas on tv shows to help
seemed to mention and emphasize that these people are American citizens. I
didn't see the same thing happen with the other hurricane coverage. Is
awareness about this really an issue?

~~~
bshep
yes. a lot of people are unaware of puerto rico’s status and its peoples
citizenship.

~~~
bshep
one citation, but i'm sure there are more: "Nearly Half of Americans Don’t
Know Puerto Ricans Are Fellow Citizens" \-
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/upshot/nearly-half-of-
ame...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/upshot/nearly-half-of-americans-
dont-know-people-in-puerto-ricoans-are-fellow-citizens.html)

~~~
chrisco255
I wonder if these polls are as accurate as election polls.

~~~
learc83
The polls were very accurate at the national level and within a few points at
the state level.

~~~
chrisco255
The same polls that predicted Hillary would win?

~~~
objectivetruth
Most national polls reflected a preference for her of a few percent. Her
popular vote victory was well within that margin of error.

But you already knew about the statistical peculiarity that was the 2016
Electoral College result, so I'm guessing you're repeating this hoping for
some alt-right points on HN? Or just to demonstrate that public policy polling
and statistics are somehow a big snake oil discipline that you're too
intelligent to fall for?

------
StudentStuff
Hurricane Maria and its fallout weren't heavily covered. From what I hear from
friends down there, power and water are still hard to come by, and the
utilities are not providing things like bagged water, which is mandated in WA
State after a few hours without water pressure.

If what happened in Puerto Rico happened on the West Coast, but from an
earthquake, we would have seen a much larger response and better media
coverage. Partly due to utilities here planning, training and funding
resources for such an event (with water distribution warehouses sprinkled
through Seattle), basics like clean, potable water would be in much better
supply.

~~~
godzillabrennus
It wouldn’t hurt that the west coast is connected to the mainland and its far
easier to transport supplies to without major coordination.

------
ghostly_s
Not that I think the central conclusion is wrong, but after skimming the
article it's very odd that relative number of affected people is not brought
up ('population' isn't even mentioned in the piece). The Houston metro has
twice the population of Puerto Rico. I don't know an easy way to estimate
those effected in Florida, and probably the sum total of human suffering is
greater in Puerto Rico thanks to the island's vulnerability, the state of
infrastructure, and the strength of the storm. Obviously there's no real way
to measure these up but it seems an obvious line of questioning in trying to
explain the disparity.

~~~
joemaller1
The Media is very lazy, they'll cover anything they can drive to. Houston and
Florida got tons of coverage because they were already there. Covering PR
would mean significant personal discomfort for the reporters and crews, with
no guarantee of being able to leave on their own schedule. There just don't
seem to be many reporters of that ilk anymore.

~~~
true_religion
Don't major news channels such as ABC, NBC, Fox already have affiliates or
branches in Puerto Rico? It's certainly a large enough market to deserve a
local news channel.

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dghughes
I was impressed how fast France and the UK sent help to their territories.
France and the UK are about 2,000 miles away from their Caribbean territories
the US is about 970 miles away from Puerto Rico.

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jjawssd
It is not the media that has neglected Puerto Rico

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpwYHAN28As](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpwYHAN28As)

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musgrove
fivethirtyeight.com clearly doesn't include themselves as a member of the
media.

~~~
jdamon96
Did you bother to even open the article? Literally the first sentence is
"While Puerto Rico suffers after Hurricane Maria, much of the U.S. media
(FiveThirtyEight not excepted) has been occupied with other things..."

~~~
paradite
> Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even
> read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article
> mentions that."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
kadenshep
What an absolutely petty and useless rule/standard.

