DC Alerts – Breaking News: “The Sky is Not Falling!”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Brandon Kopp

Sorry to go on a bit of a rant but man this week is dead. So…I like many others have signed up for DC Alerts to deal with severe weather, crime, terrorism (God forbid) and I’ve been noticing that they are seriously abusing the use of “Breaking News”. For example just yesterday they sent one out saying:

“Breaking News from Alert DC: EAST COAST SNOWSTORM NARROWLY MISSES THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA – RESIDENTS ARE REMINDED TO BE PREPARED”

This is breaking news a full day after the storm missed us? And the storm missing us isn’t exactly breaking news. “Breaking news: Everything is perfectly normal!” I also got a “Breaking News” alert saying a preparedness flier (or something like that) was going to be printed in Spanish. I think that’s great, but hardly breaking news.

Alright, sorry for the rant, it’s just been driving me crazy. Plus I’ve been drinking…