The following article by Dino Grandoni was posted on the Washington Post website September 7, 2017:
This week, one of the most popular radio hosts in the country issued a dire warning about Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm barreling its way through Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Though it could diverge from its predicted path, modeling from meteorologists says the storm will most likely crash into South Florida over the weekend.
The ominous warning from conservative fire starter Rush Limbaugh was this: Don’t trust those meteorologists.
On his daily syndicated radio show Tuesday, Limbaugh claimedthat forecasters and the media alike were overhyping the hurricane in a bid to juice retail sales at stores in South Florida.
“The reason that I am leery of forecasts this far out, folks,” Limbaugh said, “is because I see how the system works.”
Limbaugh went on to explain that this is a “symbiotic relationship.”
“The media benefits with the panic with increased eyeballs, and the retailers benefit from the panic with increased sales,” he said, “and the TV companies benefit because they’re getting advertising dollars from the businesses that are seeing all this attention from customers.” Continue reading “Why climate change deniers mistrust hurricane forecasts too”