Today Show Canoe
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters use it as a favorite example of how TV imagery can craft a misleading reality.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2016 to 2023.
Why the open web links it
Linked by 10 independent sites, 3 of them widely read in the 2026-10 crawl of the open web, including townhall.com, instapundit.com, root.cz, dakowski.pl, boatered.com.
What it is
An NBC Today Show correspondent appears to row a canoe in deep storm floodwater, though the water is only about six inches deep. The uploader notes it is a misleading depiction rather than intentional fake news.
What people said
Cites ishjoh · 2019-12 · Hacker News · on “How Disinformation Hacks Your Brain”
One of my favourite examples of this is from "the today show" on NBC where they're discussing a flood and a reporter in a canoe is describing the events when two public citizens walk through the shot and the water seems to be less than 1/2 a foot deep. [this video]
Cites munificent · 2023-07 · Hacker News · on “The past is not true”
As someone who has experienced several serious floods, this is my favorite example of imagery's ability to craft a reality: [this video] Floodwaters tend to stir up a lot of dirt and mud, so the water is usually totally opaque. That makes it very hard to tell how deep it is. A lot of overhead views of flooded neighborhoods look completely disastrous, but in reality it's just a foot or two of water that will just go away once the drains can handle it. But, sometimes, flooding really is severe and the damage is monumental. But it can be hard to distinguish those from imagery. Every picture of a flood looks biblical.
Critical exclusiv · 2016-07 · Hacker News · on “Is Facebook Ready to Be the World’s Live News Network?”
You're absolutely right. Our news media is terrible. We have reporters on "respected" shows sensationalizing flooding in canoes! [1] They love to divide us based on race, sex, whatever, but the data doesn't support their claims of crisis. And we gobble it up. [1] [this video]