I'm not sure Edward Tufte would agree, but certainly there has been a focus on visualising the crisis rather than looking at time series tables of just what has been happening. From the very smart Knackered Hack:
...[i]f you are using visuals, you are probably messing up the world. Because you focus on the lurid, and sensational, and an image automatically hits people in their limbic. As we know, we are more reactive to the visual.”