Mark Woodley normally does sports at KWWL-TV in Waterloo, Iowa. But he was requested to report on the blizzard that was wracking the area early Thursday morning. Very early! Woodley couldn't help but throw some shade at the assignment.
Having been in that business, I can vouch for the fact that if you live near the station, you will be called in during bad weather when other employees can't get there. Woodley doesn't have to worry about getting sacked for his attitude, though. Just showing up makes him valuable, and the video compilation of his reporting has racked up seven million views on Twitter so far. This kind of snarkiness will get people to pay attention. (via reddit)
Have people become this wussified that a common, garden-variety early-winter blizzard merits this kind of coverage? Sure it can be hazardous if you venture out in it, but there have been blizzards in Iowa (and North Dakota, and Minnesota, and Wisconsin) for many more decades than there has ever been an Iowa, North Dakota, Minnesota, or ... well, you get my drift.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I blame it on the Weather Service itself, along with a good amount of help from the media. Once the weather services and forecasters had all these tools like satellite imaging, Doppler radar, live-feeds and computer-enhanced and animated images of radar screens and storm tracks, of course they needed to use them. Now add the fact that the Weather Service started giving storms and weather systems names, like used to reserved only for hurricanes, and you've just ramped up the fear factor.
Then the media stepped in with their doomsday names – "bomb cyclones", Snowpocalypse, Shovelmania, Snowmageddon, The Blizzard of Oz – every year they try to outdo themselves with some made-up word to strike terror into the heart of anyone living along the track of these storms that are, after all, as much a part and parcel of winter as is toboggans, snowboards, and Santa Claus.
So lighten up already. If you live in an area like Des Moines or Fargo or Minneapolis, you already know that they have these huge orange machines with gigantic blades and plows, and stockpiles of salt and sand, and given the chance can beat almost any storm into submission including cleaning up the leftovers. Prudent people will have already laid in a supply of canned goods, and maybe purchased another gallon or two of milk. Hunker down (and THERE'S an activity that needs to be lauded rather than laughed at), wait it out, and remember...
This is what you were wishing for back in August, when it was a hundred and three in the shade.
-"BB"-
But Bill, these days they gotta slap people upside the head just to get their attention, and they must get peoples attention to survive.
ReplyDeleteAs time marches on, people are inundated with more attention seeker sources so you have to slap harder while the public gets more numb.
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year
Hmm numb, number, numbest?
The National Weather Service does not name anything other than hurricanes. The Weather Channel, a private company, started naming winter storms a few years ago. Real meteorologists were dismayed, but the public either didn't understand that the Weather Channel is not an official government agency, or didn't care.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the news from some interstate highways in Ohio and Kentucky, it would appear that the media needs to work on that fear factor. 100s of people in their vehicles stuck on the road for hours in a snowstorm and bitterly cold temperatures. And people upset because KYEM woke them up with an emergency text about the situation.
ReplyDeleteThat alert startled me out of my shoes, but I'm glad they are doing that sort of thing, if only for the very few that were thinking of leaving on a trip at 10PM. Wish they could have done it earlier.
ReplyDelete@ Kolo Jezdec - I stand corrected about the naming of hurricanes and tropical cyclones. But the naming of winter storms is still a Weather Channel affectation.
ReplyDeleteAs for Weather Channel on-air personalities being meteorologists, that may be so, but meteorologists who don't work for the Weather Channel were almost unanimous in condemning the channel for this.