For two weeks we were "captivated" by the story of Delta and Dawn, mother and child humpbacked whales "lost" in the Sacramento River delta more than 100 miles from the open ocean. Held captive by the news stations is more like it. Seldom has their been a less interesting story milked longer than this one-- unless you count the "crash" of the real estate market. Both are stories about non-events. Both are media-inflated. Both are made into "news" because reporters and the editorial staffs that direct them have become basically lazy in reporting true news and would rather regurgitate something the public can latch on to in a mere sound bite. Too bad-- the news used to serve a valuable purpose keeping us informed as a society. Now we're reduced to this-- two weeks of "WHALES IN CRISIS IN THE DELTA" as our morning wake up call rings. What crisis? There was no crisis!
My bride informed me within hours of seeing the story exactly what was happening and it was plainly apparent from there that this was no "crisis" story-- this was merely a warm and endearing story about natural instincts and man's determination to get in the way of nature! She reminded me that whales are mammals-- and mammals have a natural instinct to protect their young from danger. Sensing that something was wrong with her calf, mama whale detoured from the predatory open ocean to the safety and tranquility of the delta to give her offspring a chance to heal, strengthen, and prepare for the rigorous journey back out to sea in search of food with the remainder of the herd. Baby whale was simply ill-equipped to survive in the open ocean for a period and needed time to get well before moving on. And mama whale's instinct to protect and nurture her calf led her to take a two week freshwater holiday before finishing the long saltwater commute! Nothing more. No crisis. No imminent death of the whales... no traumatic interruption in their genetic programming to lead them off-course! Just a timeout to heal, strengthen, and prepare for what comes next.
The news crews made it out to be a "death watch" and reported hour-by-hour the lack of progress. Agencies with jurisdiction tried various methods to "herd" the whales back out to sea-- I mean c'mon, fire-hoses sprayed on the water to try and lead them to the open ocean? Get real! My tax dollars have to have some higher purpose than that, don't they?
But no... the story persisted long after interest waned until finally mama and calf escaped in the relative obscurity of night underneath the Golden Gate and disappeared by the Farallons. Mercifully, in about a week this story may go away-- after all the de-briefing, digesting, and re-hashing of what 'could have happened but thankfully did not' has been edited and sound-bited into sheer Action News banality a little longer.
Why? Easy. Because milking a story too long is easier and cheaper than finding another story angle and developing it. And because we'll still turn on the news and watch whatever they throw at us. Too bad-- we used to be such a bright people.
Delta and Dawn are gone. It must be time to start re-hashing the crash of our real estate market again. Funny-- two houses on my block listed in May and both have "SOLD" signs on them as I write this today. Not "Sale Pending" signs. SOLD.
Maybe the little correction we were being fed through the news for all those months was nothing more than a brief little respite for the market to heal, strengthen, and prepare for the rigorous journey ahead. You believe what you want to believe but I'm sticking to the notion that the whales were healthy, albeit tired, and needed a little vacation break to rejuvenate themselves and keep from being attacked by predators. And taking a break was a natural instinct. And I'm taking that same line of reasoning as I look at the housing market.
And one final thing: I'm turning off the news and judging things for myself by what I observe. In my area, the market looks pretty strong. Certainly healthy enough to journey on....
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