All eyes on Hurricane Milton

The news media tends to latch on to dire adjectives during major storms.

Unsurvivable. Catastrophic. Apocalyptic.

Meteorologists and other weather experts use such terms to warn audiences about worst-case scenarios. Journalists repeat them. And, in many cases, those terms fortunately turn out to be overblown — at least for those lucky enough to escape the worst of a storm’s extent.

Hurricane Milton, now a Category 5 storm heading directly toward the most populous cities on the Gulf Coast of Florida, would appear to deserve many of those terms.

Denis Phillips, the suspenders-clad ABC Action News Tampa Bay meteorologist with a rule about staying calm (“Rule No. 7: Don't freak out unless I'm freaking out”) posted to Facebook about Milton: “Scary. No other way to describe it.”

NBC 6 South Florida hurricane specialist John Morales choked back tears as he realized, on air, how powerful Hurricane Milton had grown in a short period of time — a process called rapid intensification.

“It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped …” he paused, his voice choking. “It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours. I apologize. This is just horrific.”

Milton approaches Florida just weeks after Hurricane Helene skirted the Gulf Coast and flooded coastal homes with record-breaking surge before making landfall in the Big Bend portion of the state. Many residents in Milton’s path are still cleaning up from Helene. Streets remain piled high with waterlogged furniture, drywall and personal belongings — objects that could become projectiles in hurricane winds or dangerous obstacles in a high surge.

Local and national media are stepping up to keep audiences informed about the storm, which is expected to start reaching Florida late Tuesday, with a landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday.

The Poynter-owned Tampa Bay Times (which recently updated its hurricane coverage plans, as Poynter’s Amaris Castillo reported) dropped its paywall to keep local readers informed. Coverage Monday night included hurricane preparation checklists, a warning that sewage plants could be turned off and updates about traffic jams for evacuating residents.

National outlets worked to put Milton in context.

“Milton is the strongest Gulf storm since 2005,” The New York Times reported. “The Category 5 hurricane now has winds of 180 miles per hour, which only eight Atlantic storms on record have matched.”

NBC News reported that Milton’s rapid intensification is part of a climate-fueled trend: “Global warming is boosting the intensity of storms by providing the ingredients necessary for them to strengthen, including warm sea surface temperatures and high levels of moisture in the atmosphere.”

And The Washington Post framed the threat to a region of Florida that, at least in recent memory, has largely been spared direct impacts from hurricanes.

“Forecasters warned where Milton will make landfall is uncertain, but there was increasing alarm that the storm will strike the Tampa Bay area, which has not suffered a direct hit from a major hurricane since 1921,” the Post reported. “The region is home to more than 3 million people and is one of the most vulnerable metropolitan areas in the United States to storm surge.”

Meanwhile, Phillips, the ABC Action News meteorologist, urged calm as the storm approached.

“Now is NOT the time to freak out. It's the time to step up and do what needs to be done to protect you and your family. We have work to do. We have plans to make. We have people to care for and nurture. We have neighbors to check on. Times like this will require the best in ALL of us.  I have faith we will rise to the occasion as we always do. #FloridaStrong.”

By Ren LaForme, managing editor

On a personal note …

Poynter’s headquarters are in St. Petersburg, Florida, directly in Hurricane Milton’s path as of Monday evening. Many of our colleagues are preparing for the storm’s approach. Many others have evacuated. Please bear with us over the next few days as we hunker down and wait for the storm to pass.

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CBS News did not meet standards in heated interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates

A CBS News executive told staff Monday that “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil did not meet the network’s editorial standards in a heated interview with acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Coates appeared on the show on Sept. 30 to promote his latest book, “The Message,” in which he explores racism and colonialism in the United States and abroad. Coates takes a critical look at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, in addition to examining South Carolina and Senegal. Dokoupil interrogated Coates over his framing.

“I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards, the acclaim, took the cover off the book, publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” he said.

Coates responded to Dokoupil’s critique without flinching, but the questioning raised eyebrows inside and outside of CBS.

“The gripping interview — intense by the often cozy standards of morning television — has since been viewed many millions of times on streaming websites,” CNN’s Brian Stelter and Hadas Gold wrote. “But for all the praise and attention the interview received, it also stirred dissent inside CBS News, according to several sources with knowledge of the matter.”

They continued, “Multiple correspondents and producers felt that Dokoupil betrayed bias toward Coates, and some suggested Dokoupil had a history of charged on-air comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dokoupil has written publicly about converting to Judiasm and has said publicly that two of his children along with his ex-wife live in Israel.”

On Monday morning, CBS News executive Adrienne Roark “said an internal review determined that the interview was not in line with the network’s commitment to neutrality. She added that the matter has been ‘addressed’ internally, without providing any specifics,” The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr wrote. “‘We all must conduct ourselves in a way that avoids raising any questions about our journalistic independence and integrity,’ said Roark, who did not mention Dokoupil by name. ‘We have to check our biases at the door.’”

Stelter and Gold wrote that Roark’s words “pacified some employees who had objected to Dokoupil’s tone during the segment with Coates. But it offended other employees who thought Dokoupil’s interview was appropriately tough.”

Among them was CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford, who said that Dokoupil “prevented a one-sided account from being broadcast on our network.”

By Ren LaForme, managing editor

Harris gets ‘60 Minutes.’ Trump declines.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris appeared on “60 Minutes” Monday night. Former President Donald Trump did not.

Correspondent Scott Pelley laid out why.

“It's been a tradition for more than half a century that the major party candidates for president sit down with 60 Minutes in October. In 1968, it was Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. This year, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump accepted invitations. Unfortunately, last week, Trump canceled.”

Pelley said Trump’s campaign “offered shifting explanations” for his cancellation. First, they complained that “60 Minutes” would fact-check the interview (“‘60 Minutes’ fact-checks every story it broadcasts,” Pelley said). Then Trump demanded an apology from correspondent Lesley Stahl over a 2020 interview.

“Trump has said Harris doesn't do interviews because she can't handle them. He has declined to participate in a second debate with Harris,” Pelley continued. “So the Monday night election special may have been the last opportunity between now and Election Day for a national audience to hear from both candidates on a range of issues, including the economy, immigration, reproductive rights and the wars in the Middle East and Europe. Both campaigns understood this special would go ahead if either candidate backed out.”

Harris did appear — part of a media blitz this week that also includes “The View,” Stephen Colbert, Howard Stern and the “Call Her Daddy” podcast — and spoke with correspondent Bill Whitaker about a variety of topics. Read the full transcript here, and check out some highlights here.

By Ren LaForme, managing editor

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Media tidbits and interesting links

• One year after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, the Committee to Protect Journalists writes, “Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has exacted an unprecedented and horrific toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape. At least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed — more journalists than have died in the course of any year since CPJ began documenting journalist killings in 1992.” CNN’s Hadas Gold also wrote about the war’s “unprecedented toll” on journalists.
• Welp, you knew it was coming. Just weeks after ESPN senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski announced he was retiring and joining the men’s basketball program at St. Bonaventure as general manager, Shams Charania announced on X that he would become the next senior NBA insider for ESPN. Poynter’s Tom Jones previously suggested Charania might be up for the role.
• New York Magazine’s latest cover depicts a gallery of members of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration who have been raided, resigned, fired or indicted. It’s about as effective as a magazine cover can be, though New York contributing editor Andrew Rice does suggest one improvement: “Maybe we should send out tiny ‘resigned’ stickers to subscribers so they can live update at home.”
• Winnie Dortch, a reporter for 19 News in Cleveland, Ohio, was shot Monday in what the station called “an apparent domestic incident.” “The 19 News staff is heartbroken for Winnie and her family,” the station’s digital news team wrote. “We are wishing her a quick and full recovery.”
• Daniel Thomas, James Fontanella-Khan and Ivan Levingston of the Financial Times write “New York Sun owner Dovid Efune closes in on £550mn deal for UK’s Telegraph.”
• The Nutgraf’s Chatwan Mongkol writes “North Carolina student journalists rush to cover Hurricane Helene aftermath.”
• CJR’s Lauren Watson has “How a small paper in Western North Carolina covered Hurricane Helene.”
• And, finally, this incredible story about Asheville’s iHeartRadio station: It’s Sarah Honosky from the Asheville Citizen Times with “Helene trapped Asheville broadcasters in their station. They've stayed on air ever since.”
• Poynter’s Barbara Allen with, “Hurricane Helene threatened to derail their leadership academy. The attendees had other ideas.”
• Finally, have you checked out the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast” yet? It features an interview with Poynter president Neil Brown about a report with surprising findings — the narrative about the news business crisis might be in need of a rethink.

More resources for journalists

• It’s time to apply for the Leadership Academy for Women in Media.
• Check out our dynamic, in-person workshop for new newsroom managers.
• Try our free Grant Writing for Journalists self-directed course.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].