It Goes Without Saying…

Posted on October 24, 2005 | Filed Under Editorial

As I sat on my couch this morning waiting for “Local on the 8s” to come on The Weather Channel, I realized something. It was not how utterly moronic the weather guys look standing out in the middle of hurricane force winds talking about chunks of debris flying through the air. No, that goes without saying. What crossed my mind was that, through this busy hurricane season, and having plenty of opportunity to do so, I have not actually written about this strange phenomenon.

Here are grown adults, in most other ways seemingly intelligent, standing out in the middle of 130 mph winds, watching chunks of metal, garbage, and other various debris blow down the street. Often times they will jerk out of the way, “Oh that piece almost hit me,” they exlcaim. I’ve seen them trying not to be literally blown away as they discuss the force of the winds. This morning, I actually saw one of these dopes say, “If you are in the Miami area, have not lost your cable, and you are watching us… Don’t go outside!”

I guess that these are your basic weatherpeople, a job once consisting of standing in front of a blue screen and pointing at silly sunshine icons, now getting the chance to look like real journalists. The problem is, they actually look stupid (to me anyway). And how much debris flying around do we need to see to know what a Cat 3 hurricane looks like?

One of these days, one of these people is going to get killed. The weather media community will morn and discuss how brave a reporter he or she was. Then they will all be standing out there again when the next storm comes along, risking their lives for the sake of “news”.

Oh, by the way, if you haven’t noticed, this “news” supercedes all local weather on The Weather Channel. If you live in any other part of the US, you won’t get your “Local on the 8s” because why would you care whether you need to take an umbrella to work or not when South Florida is being pummeled by a hurricane. Endless hours of bending palm trees and flying cardboard at the same intersection are much more newsworthy than whether it is going to rain in Chicago.


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