My favorite recent example of this: I don't mean to minimize the damage and deaths that Milton caused, but right after the storm it felt like nearly every newscast led with the visual of the tattered roof of the Tampa Bay Rays stadium.
It made for a good, scary visual. All the newscasters where oohing and ahhing about the damage. But the only thing torn was apparently the garbage-bag like cover on the roof (I'm joking, but only slightly - the roof cover was only a thick vinyl). I would have been surprised if that roof hadn't been torn to shreds. It was poor journalism IMO because it just made me think "if that's the worst they can come up with, it must have been really mild", which wasn't true (Milton did cause less damage than anticipated due to where it landed, but there were still a bunch of deaths, many caused by spawned tornadoes).
It made for a good, scary visual. All the newscasters where oohing and ahhing about the damage. But the only thing torn was apparently the garbage-bag like cover on the roof (I'm joking, but only slightly - the roof cover was only a thick vinyl). I would have been surprised if that roof hadn't been torn to shreds. It was poor journalism IMO because it just made me think "if that's the worst they can come up with, it must have been really mild", which wasn't true (Milton did cause less damage than anticipated due to where it landed, but there were still a bunch of deaths, many caused by spawned tornadoes).