Greetings from the Dothan, Alabama, bureau of the Poynter Institute.

Just last weekend, I was in Vermont with my wife for one last quick getaway before the election. While we were hiking and taking in the gorgeous autumn foliage, a monster hurricane was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and setting its sights on the west coast of Florida.

For those who don’t know, the Poynter Institute is located in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Hurricane Milton churned toward the Tampa Bay-Sarasota part of Florida, many of us at Poynter packed our pets and personal belongings and headed out of town.

My wife and I landed back at Tampa International Airport from our Vermont trip at 2 p.m. Monday afternoon, and by 4 p.m., we were driving north. Our expected six-hour drive from St. Pete to Dothan ended up taking 11 hours, but we made it safely. The parking lot of our hotel was nothing but cars with Florida license plates. We met weary Floridians in the lobby checking in at 2 a.m. Central time after being on the road for 15 hours.

My Poynter colleagues, many of whom superbly took care of this newsletter while I was away, also headed out of town to places such as Orlando; Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. A few not near the water decided to follow the mantra of “run from the water, hide from the wind” and hunkered down in their homes across the Tampa Bay area.

I’m writing this Wednesday evening just as the storm approaches landfall. By the time you read this on Thursday morning, we’ll just be in the beginning stages of assessing the damage. We’re preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. We have no idea just yet what Milton leaves behind, and how long it will take for life to return to normal.

In the meantime, our goal is to carry on with the Poynter Report newsletter each day. But please bear with us if there are any delays, or if some days, the newsletter is a little shorter than usual, or doesn’t come out at all.

So with that, on with today’s Poynter Report.

Local and national hurricane coverage

Here’s an observation from afar about hurricane coverage. While I appreciate national coverage on cable news networks, as well as The Weather Channel, nothing is more valuable than the information from local news outlets.

In this case, as someone who is concerned about friends and family who hunkered down at home, as well as nervous about the condition of my home, I spent most of the day Wednesday watching TV stations from Tampa Bay and reading the Tampa Bay Times.

Again, the national outlets offer good coverage, although there has long been a question about whether the national networks hype up storms and make them seem worse than they are. I’ve never really subscribed to that theory. If a reporter is standing in knee-deep water or The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore is getting blown around by 100 mph winds, then that’s what they are experiencing at the moment.

I watched CNN for a good while Wednesday, and found its coverage to be encompassing and sobering, but not necessarily alarmist or overwrought. And it did give an excellent sense of what was going on. CNN’s Boris Sanchez was especially impressive, often co-anchoring and conducting interviews while standing outside in Tampa and being pounded by high winds and rains.

In the end, the national outlets give those from around the country and world a pretty good sense of what’s going on in the impacted areas. As someone who lives in that area, I can tell you the reporters from national networks, especially CNN, certainly passed along useful information and had a good handle on the various cities and towns.

If you’re someone who lives in New York or Minnesota or Texas and you want an all-around sense of what’s going on in the Tampa Bay-Bradenton-Sarasota region, then CNN or The Weather Channel does the job.

But if you’re someone from Tampa Bay or Bradenton or Sarasota, you’re turning to local outlets from Tampa Bay and Bradenton and Sarasota. They go from telling you what is going on in the various cities and towns to telling you what you need to know in specific neighborhoods of those cities and towns. They also provide a sense of community for those watching because, as Denis Phillips, chief meteorologist for WFTS/ABC Action News in Tampa Bay, said on the air Wednesday, “We live here, too. We’re your neighbors, and we are in this with you.”

How true. This is one of those times when local reporting is far more valuable than national reporting for those personally affected by, in this case, a hurricane.

So while I spent a little bit of time checking in on the national networks Wednesday, most of my day was watching and reading local news from Tampa Bay.

One more thought: When it comes to storm coverage, TV has an advantage over newspapers and text-focused websites. For two reasons. One, TV has meteorologists. Most stations in major markets have several. And, two, TV can offer live, in-the-moment coverage.

Many stations have apps you can download so you can watch coverage from either far away or in the storm, if you happen to lose power. Meanwhile, some local newspapers across the country now deliver news through text messages to those who sign up, offering some of the latest up-to-date information about critical news such as immediate weather threats, various emergency warnings and other vital information to keep people informed and safe.

In addition, I was receiving updates via email on Wednesday evening from the Tampa Bay Times.

Fascinating moment

An intriguing moment played out on live TV on Wednesday. As the storm approached, CNN’s Isabel Rosales talked to a Tampa man named Joseph Malinowski. He is known locally as “Lieutenant Dan” and lives on a 20-foot sailboat tied down to a dock in downtown Tampa.

Despite Tampa police telling him he was going to die if he stayed, Malinowski said he was going to ride out the storm on his boat, adding, “I believe in my heart that God wants me to stay out here until this is all over.”

CNN reported, “Malinowski said he lost his leg at 16-years-old in a scooter accident, survived cancer, survived an opioid addiction, and survived Helene in his boat less than two weeks ago. He insists he’ll survive Milton.”

Even Rosales pleaded with Malinowski to leave, telling him on air, “I really hope that you evacuate because people died from Helene in situations exactly like this. People drowned.”

Hillsborough County, where Tampa is, had 12 shelters available where Malinowski could go.

There was some confusion as to what happened after that. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a news conference, “The Tampa Police Department, this morning, just saved Lieutenant Dan. He has been rescued, and he is now in a shelter as well. If we can get Lieutenant Dan to go to a shelter, we can get anybody to do that.”

Then there were reports on social media that Malinowski returned to his boat. Later, during an interview on CNN, Castor seemed to hint that maybe police would force Malinowski off his boat. When asked if he would be arrested, Castor said, “Well … Baker Acted.” The Baker Act is a Florida law where authorities can detain those “who are impaired because of their mental illness, and who are unable to determine their needs for treatment.”

Speaking of CNN …

Vice President Kamala Harris called in to CNN on Wednesday and blasted Donald Trump over his comments about the federal government’s response to the recent storms.

As The Hill’s ​​Alex Gangitano wrote, “Trump has amplified claims that the government is diverting disaster response funds to aid migrants and has shared other untrue claims, including that those impacted by Hurricane Helene are only receiving $750 in assistance and that there are no helicopters to rescue people in North Carolina after the storm.”

In addition, Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene even ridiculously suggested that the government can control the weather.

Harris talked to CNN’s Dana Bash about all of it, saying, “Well, I’ll tell you, I have spoken with local officials who have been struggling, for example, by Hurricane Helene, and they are doing an extraordinary job in trying to combat the misinformation. And I’m talking about sheriffs. I’m talking about mayors. I’m talking about local officials. I don’t even know their party affiliation, by the way. But leaders on the ground who know that it is not in the best interest of the people living in those areas to not know their rights, not to know what they’re entitled to, and to be afraid of seeking help. It is dangerous. It is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who would consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled. And that’s why I call it dangerous. And we all know it’s dangerous and the gamesmanship has to stop. At some point, the politics have to end, especially in a moment of crisis. … We know the desperation and the fear that the folks who are attempting to evacuate Florida are experiencing. The last thing that they deserve is to have a so-called leader, make them more afraid than they already are.”

President Joe Biden also talked about it during a virtual briefing on Wednesday, saying, “The claims are getting even more bizarre. Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congressman with Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather — we’re controlling the weather. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop.”

He said Greene’s conspiracy theory was among the “reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies” over the past few weeks.

As far as Trump’s false claims about FEMA, Biden said, “They’re saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more. That’s simply not true. They’re saying the money is needed for this crisis is being diverted to migrants. What a ridiculous thing to say — it’s not true.”

Watch this

Hurricane Milton is the second punch of a one-two combo, hitting Florida just a couple of weeks after Hurricane Helene skirted up the west coast and caused major flooding. Both storms rapidly intensified in a short time. Coincidence? Probably not. Check out this alarming video from The New York Times as climate reporter Raymond Zhong explains why a hurricane can go from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 in less than a half day, and why we might see more of this in the future.

Another debate?

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in images from their presidential debate on Sept. 9. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Fox News is making a pitch for another presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The network sent letters to both camps on Wednesday, proposing a debate in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 27. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would be the moderators.

Following the first debate between Harris and Trump on Sept. 10, Harris’s camp, perhaps buoyed by her strong performance, immediately called for another debate. CNN offered to host another debate on Oct. 23, and Harris accepted. Trump, however, declined, saying some mail-in ballots had already been sent out and it was too late for another debate.

With that excuse, wouldn’t Trump then turn down a debate on Fox News? However, since it would be on a network that generally offers favored coverage to Trump and conservatives, perhaps Trump would reconsider.

Actually, scratch that.

Trump posted on his Truth Social later Wednesday, “There will be no rematch.”

Media tidbits

• Unlike what the CBS News editorial staff thought about “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil’s contentious interview last week with author Ta-Nehisi Coates, Shari Redstone (the chair of CBS parent company Paramount Global) said during a panel at Advertising Week in New York on Wednesday, “I think Tony did a great job with that interview. I think he handled himself and showed the world and modeled what civil discourse is. He showed that there was accountability, that there is a system of checks and balances, and frankly, I was very proud of the work that he did.” CNN’s Hadas Gold and Liam Reilly have more with “Shari Redstone says CBS leaders made ‘bad mistake’ with handling of Ta-Nehisi Coates interview fallout.”
• Meanwhile, Washington Post associate editor and columnist Ruth Marcus with “Tony Dokoupil’s tough questions on Israel were good journalism.”
• The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake with “How Kamala Harris’s media blitz went.”
• TheWrap’s Raquel “Rocky” Harris with “Oliver Darcy Says Breaking the Olivia Nuzzi-RFK Jr. Story as an Independent Journalist Was ‘Terrifying.’”
• NBC News’ Kat Tenbarge with “Posts encouraging eating disorders were recommended to X users.”

Hot type

• Vanity Fair’s Hillary Busis with “‘Breath of Fire:’ The Unbelievable Story of the Elizabeth Holmes of Yoga.”
• The Washington Post’s Ben Golliver with “Caitlin Clark is box office: 10 charts that illustrate her WNBA impact.”
• The latest episode of PBS’s “Frontline” with “The VP choice: Vance vs. Walz.”

More resources for journalists

• It’s time to apply for the Leadership Academy for Women in Media
• Dynamic, in-person, five-day workshop for new newsroom managers.
• Understand U.S. Immigration From the Border to the Heartland — Start any time.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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