'All units Irene. I say again, Irene.'

LOVING FILM can be a double-edged sword. In my case, it nourishes the intellect ― and my penchant for cynicism. Watching the waterlogged news coverage of Hurricane Irene, naturally a movie came to mind: Black Hawk Down. In it, "Irene" was the go-signal for a raid to capture a Somali warlord in the dangerous heart of Mogadishu. To all airborne helicopters and ground elements, the command center radioed: "All units Irene. I say again, Irene." Our gung-ho heroes let out a collective "hoo-ah!" Pilot Durant: "Fuckin' Irene!" Pilot Wolcott: "Ireeene!" Things went all Black Hawk Down from there. Anyway, these scenes sprang to mind when I tuned into MSNBC. Does a Category 2 warrant wall-to-wall coverage to the exclusion of all else? Of course not. To be sure, Category 2 is serious wind. But Katrina (Category 3) and Camille (Category 5) it ain't. But the cable news biz is like war in a sense. In Black Hawk Down, "Hoot" (Eric Bana), a Delta Force operator, wryly noted that "once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit just goes right out the window." Same thing for the media: Just substitute "bulletin" for bullet and "common sense" for politics. Anyway, "Fuckin' Irene! Ireeene!"