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hurricane maria

1 chart shows what's wrong with how the media covered the week's 2 big news stories.

Puerto Rico might not drive ratings, but it deserves our attention.

Hey! Remember Puerto Rico?

There was a big hurricane back in September 2017 that knocked out the power to the whole island leaving a bunch of U.S. citizens in the literal dark and without safe drinking water. President Donald Trump even went there to throw some paper towels. It was a whole thing.

Ring a bell?

This week, we learned that the government's estimate of 64 hurricane-related deaths was off by, oh, 4,600 or so. Unfortunately, you might not have heard about it.

You might be thinking, "Wait, how? I keep up with the news. How did I miss this story?"

The answer: Most cable news outlets barely covered it. For the most part, the story was overshadowed by coverage of ABC's decision to cancel "Roseanne" following a racist Twitter post by the show's star.

Media Matters, a liberal-leaning media watchdog group, looked at how the three major cable news outlets — Fox News, CNN, MSNBC — covered the new report on Puerto Rico compared to Roseanne Barr's tweet and subsequent firing.

Using data from May 29 and the morning of May 30, Media Matters found that Roseanne's story got more than 20 times as much coverage as the Puerto Rico report.

Here's another way to look at that data. Clearly, we're not seeing the full picture.

Photos by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images, Mario Tama/Getty Images.

We cannot forget the people of Puerto Rico. The tragedy was horrible, and for many, it's not over. There are still ways we can and should help.

Organizations like All Hands and Hearts, Direct Relief, Americares, Hispanic Federation, and Habitat for Humanity are still on the ground helping people rebuild their lives. We owe it to our fellow Americans to help, to never forget the tragedy that hit them, and to no longer let the rapid-fire pace of the news cycle bump these types of stories from the front of our minds.

Our news media owes it to us to give as much attention to the thousands of lost American lives as it gives to whatever the daily bit of Hollywood drama happens to be. (Admittedly, we wrote about the Roseanne drama earlier this week, as well.)

I don't know if there's something we, as a whole, could have done differently to help the people of Puerto Rico in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

But I do know that it's on us to honor those lost as the result of the storm and apply whatever lessons are to be taken from this horrific event to reduce the damage of future disasters.

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, he was looking for ways to help out.

Dallas Mavericks point guard J.J. Barea recently asked his boss, Mark Cuban, for a huge favor. He needed to borrow the team plane.

Without hesitation, Cuban gave Barea the go ahead and with good reason: Barrea needed to get to Puerto Rico to help his family and bring supplies for others stranded on the hurricane-ravaged island.

Barea celebrates a basket during a 2015 game. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images.

Carrying along 32 generators, 7 tons of water, 5 tons of food, and 1.5 tons of medical supplies, Barea set off for his home of Puerto Rico the morning of Sept. 26, 2017.

Surveying the damage from the air and on the ground, Barea was shocked by the level of devastation left by Hurricane Maria.

"It's like a bomb exploded," he told the CBS affiliate in Dallas with tears welled up in his eyes.

[rebelmouse-image 19529465 dam="1" original_size="450x253" caption="GIF from CBSDFW/YouTube." expand=1]GIF from CBSDFW/YouTube.

Originally, Barea and his wife, Viviana, set out to crowdfund assistance for people on the ground in Puerto Rico — something people who want to do can still donate to. However, when the opportunity to make the trip down there himself came up, he jumped at the chance. His mother and grandmother, both on the island when Maria hit, rode back in the plane with Barea as did some friends and even a few complete strangers in need.

He's planning on making another trip in the next few days to drop off more supplies and offer on-the-ground assistance of his own.

[rebelmouse-image 19529466 dam="1" original_size="750x355" caption="Barea lands in Puerto Rico. Photo via CBSDFW/YouTube." expand=1]Barea lands in Puerto Rico. Photo via CBSDFW/YouTube.

Puerto Ricans are our fellow Americans, and they need our help.

The majority of the island's 3.4 million residents were still without power as of Sept. 26, and many still don't even have access to clean drinking water. Our president doesn't seem entirely invested in getting them the help they need, and a number of bureaucratic hurdles — such as the Jones Act — exist that prevent those of us itching to help out from doing so.

Some, like Barea (via Cuban, of course) and Pitbull, have access to private planes they can use to help out during the crisis, but most of us don't. Thankfully, Melissa Locker over at Fast Company put together a quick list of things you, personally, can do and organizations you can support if you want to help those whose lives have been devastated by the storm.

[rebelmouse-image 19529467 dam="1" original_size="450x253" caption=""Puerto Rico, for me, is everything." GIF from CBSDFW/YouTube." expand=1]"Puerto Rico, for me, is everything." GIF from CBSDFW/YouTube.

Watch the Dallas-Fort Worth CBS news affiliate's report on Barea's trip below.

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Heroes

Trump tweeted 80 times since Maria hit Puerto Rico. Guess how many were about the storm?

Since the outer bands of Hurricane Maria began whipping Puerto Rico on the evening of Sept. 19, President Trump has published 80(!) original tweets. The vast, vast majority of them — as you may have guessed — were not about the deadly storm or his administration's response to it.

To get a better sense of the president's priorities, I've collected every original tweet he's published since Maria hit the island (for the sake of simplicity, I'm not including retweets). The storm wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico, leaving over 3 million people without power and wiping out nearly its entire agriculture industry.

As the hurricane hit, he shared a fairly appropriate presidential message of solidarity.

But his attention there didn't last long.

Eight minutes later, he was tweeting about U.N. business.

Two minutes after that, he thanked a random follower.

Another eight minutes went by as he typed out a message slamming the Emmys.

(It sounds like he's still bitter about never winning one.)

The next morning, Maria continued racing toward Puerto Rico. From Trump's tweets, you wouldn't know it.

He was back to the U.N., blasting Hillary Clinton, and praising Fox News.

At the same time Trump began these early morning tweets, Maria's center was a mere 50 miles southeast of Puerto Rico's populous capital, San Juan.

Later that day, Trump tweeted about the GOP's latest harmful, unpopular piece of health care legislation and dissed Rand Paul.

He took time to tweet a plug for his stop in Alabama to stump for Senate candidate Luther Strange.

At about that time, experts estimated it would take several hours for the hurricane to pass over all of Puerto Rico, given how slowly the storm is moving (10 mph) — which was not a good sign.

He also updated followers on his recent chats with foreign leaders.

Shortly after Trump tweeted that, the whole island of Puerto Rico lost power.

He tweeted photos from a luncheon with African leaders, conveniently leaving out the fact that he made up an African country to praise its health care.

Even after Puerto Rico went dark, Maria's wind speeds remained dangerously fast, topping out at 115 mph. Still no word from the president, though he did take time to wish Jewish Americans a happy new year.

Around the time the National Hurricane Center reported there was "catastrophic flash flooding" across Puerto Rico, he went on an Alabama health care bender (again).

About 16 hours after Maria made landfall, Trump's attention finally returned to the natural disaster and he again expressed solidarity with Puerto Rico.

Two minutes later, he went back to sharing more self-congratulatory videos and pics from his U.N. meetings.

He bragged about polls.

He published another vague teaser tweet about the U.N.

He blasted Rand Paul (again).

He called Kim Jong-un a "madman."

He accepted a compliment.

He ranted about "fake news," Russia, and Clinton.

He promoted his Alabama rally. Again.

He shared a U.N. video that seemed more like a movie trailer.

He thanked American Airlines for helping Hurricane Maria victims...

...but failed to specify how the federal government would increase efforts to do so and said nothing about helping Puerto Rico.

He went on and on about Alabama and Arizona.

He put more pressure on Paul (again) and went on and on about Alabama and Alaska.

Four days after Maria hit, Trump was busy attacking Stephen Curry and the NFL.

He boasted about Melania Trump, criticized Iran, and roasted John McCain.

By the time he was attacking NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for not condemning the #TakeAKnee protests, more and more aerial footage from Puerto Rico was being released showing complete disaster across the island.

Still, no formal statement from Trump himself addressing the destruction.

He called Kim Jong-un "Little Rocket Man."

He turned his attention back to pro sports.

He then segued to health care...

...before going back to the NFL.

He talked about making America scared — er, safe.

While Trump was randomly praising NASCAR fans, the complete devastation Maria brought to Puerto Rico came into full view.

But the president still hadn't publicly addressed how his administration would help. He went back to attacking the NFL again.

He talked about tax cuts.

He talked about the NFL.

Finally, six days after Maria first made landfall, he — wait, sound the alarm — tweeted about Puerto Rico! Except...

He didn't so much update Americans on what's being done to help those in need, as much as he seemingly blamed hurricane victims for their poor infrastructure and mounting debt.

Because time is a flat circle, he then went back to blasting McCain.

And talking about Alabama.

And attacking athletes.

And more Alabama.

And more Fox News.

He thanked San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz for essentially thanking him...

NFL. Alabama.

Added a few pics from inside the White House...

...and gave a shoutout to Nikki Haley to cap it off.

All in all, just six of Trump's 80 tweets since Hurricane Maria began pummeling Puerto Rico had to do with the crisis itself. Six.

As The Washington Post reported, it's really not complicated: Trump is more interested in the NFL than saving Puerto Ricans.

The president has a lot of responsibilities, of course. But saving American lives in the wake of natural disaster should be a top priority.

Maria was the third-strongest hurricane ever to plow into a U.S. territory. It's killed at least 16 people in Puerto Rico thus far (but officials fear that number will likely rise). Nearly the entire island still has no electricity or cellphone service. Hospitals are barely functioning.

After facing a barrage of criticism pointing to his lack of response (or, evidently, interest), Trump confirmed on Tuesday that food, water, and other supplies were being shipped to the island and that he plans on visiting next week to assess the damage. One reason his administration was slow to respond? Puerto Rico "is in the middle of an ocean," he explained. "It's a big ocean. It's a very big ocean."

Puerto Rico needs us now. Here's how you can help supply aid to Puerto Rico.