Now that cynical New Yorkers are grumbling about how they needlessly stocked up on Poland Spring and Clif Bars in preparation for Hurricane Irene--while other swaths of the East Coast remain powerless or under water--a discussion has begun over whether the news media's coverage of the hurricane was more severe than the storm itself.

Irene made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 hurricane on Friday night. But by the time the weakened storm system passed through the New York metropolitan area, where there were unprecedented evacuations, transit shutdowns and alarmingly dire warnings from government officials, the most significant damage left in its wake appeared to be downed trees, electrical outages and flooded basements. The anti-climactic outcome left some wondering whether the wall-to-wall, round-the-clock TV news coverage--complete with dramatic shots of correspondents braving the elements on windswept boardwalks--was all wet.

Our list of stories that should be on your morning media menu:

• Hurricane Irene brought out "media's big guns." (AP)

• Inside the Weather Channel's daring coverage: "The audio engineer wrapped his battery pack in a condom to keep it dry." (New York Times)

• Meet the woman behind the popular ElBloombito Twitter account: "The best thing about Hurricane Irene." (New York Observer)

• Alison Stewart is leaving the PBS Friday news show "Need to Know." (Media Decoder)

• How protesters affiliated with the hacker group Anonymous are boosting Time Warner's bottom line. (New York Times)

Spike Lee "watches" a Knicks game, Dec. 2010. (AP)

After withstanding sniping from the West Coast for their reaction to the 5.9-magnitude earthquake earlier this week, East Coast residents are now facing Category 5 ridicule from hurricane "veterans" in Southern states.

And, as it was during Tuesday's earthquake, Twitter was the place to find excitable East Coasters bracing for a direct hit from Hurricane Irene--and from insufferable hurricane know-it-alls.

"We get mocked by Chicago for not being able to take snow, California for not being able to handle quakes," DCist.com senior editor Martin Austermuhle wrote. "Is Florida next?"

Yes, but much of the Sunshine State's unchecked aggression was, like Irene, aimed at New York.

"Dude, for a city that has weathered so much in the past decade--from 9/11 to blackouts, serial killers to the Knicks--New York is acting wimpier these days than LeBron James atop a diving platform," Michael Miller of the Miami New Times wrote in a blog post. "First, there was that itsy, bitsy earthquake Tuesday, equivalent to chugging a Red Bull and downing one too many Taco Bell seven-layer burritos. Now NYC is s---ting a brick over Hurricane Irene. Relax, hipsters."

Gawker's Brian Moylan summed up that sentiment: