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October 22, 2007
Matt Drudge Seems to Enjoy our Fires
There are no flaming sirens on the worlds most popular sortablog, but the Drudge Report has been having a field day over-hyping the already-tragic Southland fires. With all-caps screaming headlines like "HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FLEE SOCAL INFERNOS" to "HELL COMES TO MALIBU", Drudge has taken the dramatic news and blown it up so much that he is almost making it unbelievable.
Those of us here in Southern California know how bad it is, but bro is ridiculous. Yes the hills are on fire. Yes lots of people are being forced to evacuate but people, thankfully, have seemed to have time to leave quickly and safely. And despite the strong winds, the firefighters and other professionals seem to be communicating beautifully and doing all the right things to make the INFERNOS manageable.
The photo of the Malibu surfer casually looking over his shoulder couldn't be more appropriate.
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http://mediamatters.org/items/200710220003?f=h_latest
On the October 22 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, host Glenn Beck stated, "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today." Beck continued: "There are a few people that hate America. But I don't think the Democrats are those. I think there are those posing as Democrats that are like that."
Beck's comment immediately followed his statement that "we're all one America" and "just because I disagree with you doesn't mean you hate America, and I love America. We all love America. We just disagree on how we should function."
Seriously,
Thank you for calling out the over-hype of this Malibu fire.
Living in Malibu, I can assure people that much of the town has not even been touched, no one has been seriously injured or killed, and only 5 houses were lost.
Compared to what is happening elsewhere (mainly San Diego), this fire has been getting some rather undeserved attention.
Things here seem to be under control by all means.
The sun is out here in Point Dume.
Malibu isn't that big a place and people evacuating an area of it is a cause for alarm but San Diego is definitely worse
Joe Gandelman wrote an incredible post on this from the SD point-of-view. It includes a feverish letter to Beck. Check it here.