Incorrect News Reports on Local Storms
By an edhat reader
Not long after the storms began last week, some small and big time news publications were running with a wildly inaccurate story about the local area.
"14 Dead in Montecito," titles stated. It was really 14 people died throughout the state and Montecito was entirely evacuated, but no one died here thankfully.
I assumed local media would pick up the story but everyone was pretty busy during the storms. I asked around and others said they had read it too, one even said a local official had been contacted to give statments on the multiple casualties in Montecito.
The reporting ranged from the dredgery of TMZ all the way to MSNBC, allegedly. The stories have since been corrected or taken down but below is an audio clip from TMZ's "reporting."
Thought others would find is interesting.
21 Comments
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Jan 21, 2023 12:17 AMLots of positives about the debris basin in the Randall Road area, but I'd be interested to learn about areas in Montecito where people have had problems. The reporting I've seen makes it seem as if all is totally fine in this area, but I've heard from people who are in dire straits. Remember: Every one in Montecito is not a zillionaire.
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Jan 18, 2023 10:23 AMWe should note that the attention paid to Montecito is out of proportion altogether. It is only because "celebrities" live there. This community is rich and can care for its needs without charity or government subsidy but both are disproportionately evident. It would be nice if the people of that community donated some of the largess to the less fortunate nearby (maybe the local farm workers). PS I was a resident of Montecito for decades so this suggestion is founded in experience.
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Jan 20, 2023 02:19 AMCelebrity is not the only reason. The destruction and the deaths of 23 are the main reason for the attention. I have some experience too, living here for six decades.
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Jan 18, 2023 09:08 AMThis is why it's incredibly important to have outlets like edhat and other local organizations who do their best to report accurate information as it becomes available. Support local!
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Jan 18, 2023 08:51 AMI just googled "14 Dead in Montecito" and found some articles that were about "14 dead in California, evacuations in Montecito" etc. I suspect the erroneous headline might have been related to some algorithm that creates the headline based upon story content. Ironically, the top hit was this Edhat story.
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Jan 18, 2023 12:56 PMGoogle can reindex headline errors pretty quickly. Doubt a corrected story from over a week ago would pop up in any search engine now.
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Jan 18, 2023 08:33 AMOH MY GOD!!!! THE AXIS DECLARED WAR ON THE U.S.!!!! THIS IS THE START OF WWII!!!!
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Jan 18, 2023 07:10 AMRelitives in England called.. they had reports of major damage and deaths in montecito and Santa Barbara.
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Jan 18, 2023 04:33 AM"The reporting ranged from the dredgery of TMZ all the way to MSNBC".
Consider the source.
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Jan 18, 2023 04:17 AMPersonally, I am currently living outside of California at the moment and have lived outside the USA in the past. Believe you me that this story has made it into local small town radio news in the Deep South, in the northern Midwest, Australia, New Zealand, other pacific islands, and probably other places as well. People who know that I used to live in the area have been asking me about people I have lost. Thankfully there are none.
To quote Charles Spurgeon, ‘A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.’
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Jan 18, 2023 05:00 PMLuv- Ummmm like you just did? Yikes! Disparaging people you have no clue about is terrible. It goes both ways...
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Jan 18, 2023 07:28 AMI think people in places such as the Midwest and Deep South really, really want to believe anything bad about California, to their way of thinking, "Land of the fruits, nuts and flakes". They'd hate to think that the miseries they live with are often due to the leaders they elect and way their disease-enhancing choices such as inadequate exercise and poor diet. It's a classic example of making yourself feel better by putting someone else down.
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Jan 17, 2023 08:26 PMThats called click bait, and sounds like it worked.
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Jan 17, 2023 07:00 PMFigures going for the big scare big bucks story doom sells more than gloom It’s nuts just had a family member in Montana calling to see if we were ok boy it’s scattered news a week late and still trying to profit Nuts just nuts
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Jan 17, 2023 06:07 PMThe same thing happened way back when after the big rainstorm in January 1914.
“Tidal Wave Kills 10,000 in California!” Several European papers reported that everywhere from San Jose to Los Angeles was underwater and 10,000 people had been swept away by a tidal wave.
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Jan 17, 2023 04:56 PMIn all the time I spent looking at news online in the past week, I never encountered that headline or a similar story.
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Jan 18, 2023 12:54 PMI had relatives from the East Coast call because they also read a news report saying 14 Dead in Montecito. Google can reindex pretty quickly these days so a corrected story from last week won't pop up on search engines now.
Ask Mayor Randy Rowse, he was apparently fielding calls from major news networks asking about the deaths.
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Jan 18, 2023 12:43 AMMe neither, Patrick. Not in NY Times, Washington Post, SF Gate, news aggregators and local news.
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Jan 17, 2023 08:27 PMAgreed, didnt see this headline either. But not surprised it could have run
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Jan 17, 2023 06:55 PMSame, never saw anything about that. Glad it was corrected!
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Jan 17, 2023 05:00 PMTMZ had a headline but changed it after someone complained or corrected them I assume.