by James A. Bacon
by James A. Bacon
It turns out that the “October surprise” of the 2024 election wasn’t some political machination but an act of nature — Hurricane Helene. Unprecedented flooding in the mountains of North Carolina and neighboring states (including Virginia on the margins) have created a Hurricane Katrina-scale disaster. Paralleling the political fallout from Katrina, the response of federal authorities is fast becoming a hot political issue.
When it comes to forming narratives, there are three important differences this time. First, the victims in New Orleans were overwhelmingly poor and Black; in the mountains of Appalachia they are overwhelmingly poor and White. Second, the president of the United States in 2005 was George Bush, a Republican. This time a Democrat, Joe Biden, is running the country. Third, the mainstream media monopolized the narrative in 2005; today, given the power of social media, it cannot.
Two things are predictable. The Mainstream Media will play a very different role than it did in Katrina. Back then it blamed the horrors of the hurricane aftermath on systemic racism, and it relentlessly criticized the response of the Bush administration. This time around, most victims are MAGA sympathizers, which will create cognitive dissonance in the MSM: what’s happening to those mountain people is tragic… but they’re not a “marginalized minority” so the disaster cannot be framed as a social-justice issue. Furthermore, the MSM can’t allow the horrors unfolding in North Carolina to harm Kamala Harris’ bid for the presidency, so the gut instinct is to quash critical “disinformation” and defend the Biden administration.
On the flip side, western North Carolina is red-state country. The users of social media have every political incentive to blame the horrors on FEMA and the inadequate response on federal authorities and senile Joe Biden. Take a look at social media, and that’s exactly what many are doing.
The truth is likely to be the first casualty.
