By Sylvia Gurinsky
It often takes a disaster to remind us what television news is supposed to do.
Viewers discovered that again this week with coverage of Hurricane Sandy. The reports by New York television stations are just what they were by the Miami television stations after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 or the New Orleans stations after Katrina in 2005: A lifeline.
It is only during the last 35 years or so, during the era of live television news coverage, that television news departments have been able to develop this response during crises. For natural disasters, besides the mourning of the dead and treatment of the injured, there are the basics of searching for food, water, batteries, places with electricity and so forth.
When television news often consists of bubbleheaded sweeps stories and election coverage resembling an episode of "American Idol," it's refreshing to know that when it counts the most, reporters remember what they learned in journalism school.
See you next week.
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