My favorite recent example of this: I don't mean to minimize the damage and deaths that Milton caused, but right after the storm it felt like nearly every newscast led with the visual of the tattered roof of the Tampa Bay Rays stadium.
It made for a good, scary visual. All the newscasters where oohing and ahhing about the damage. But the only thing torn was apparently the garbage-bag like cover on the roof (I'm joking, but only slightly - the roof cover was only a thick vinyl). I would have been surprised if that roof hadn't been torn to shreds. It was poor journalism IMO because it just made me think "if that's the worst they can come up with, it must have been really mild", which wasn't true (Milton did cause less damage than anticipated due to where it landed, but there were still a bunch of deaths, many caused by spawned tornadoes).
While I, as a Meteorologist and formerly involved in the TV business, I agree with you on using visuals entirely to overstate this, the fact that the field in the dome was set up before the storm to house thousands of electrical lineman and relief workers expected after the storm, says that the roof coming off was NOT an expected outcome from Milton, making it a reasonable way to tell the story on the news.
> to house thousands of electrical lineman and relief workers expected after the storm
This was the crux of the story at least locally in Central Florida. I have no idea if that was lost in coverage outside of the area in favor of the visual impacts of the torn roof.
It made for a good, scary visual. All the newscasters where oohing and ahhing about the damage. But the only thing torn was apparently the garbage-bag like cover on the roof (I'm joking, but only slightly - the roof cover was only a thick vinyl). I would have been surprised if that roof hadn't been torn to shreds. It was poor journalism IMO because it just made me think "if that's the worst they can come up with, it must have been really mild", which wasn't true (Milton did cause less damage than anticipated due to where it landed, but there were still a bunch of deaths, many caused by spawned tornadoes).