Harsh words for those who hype bad weather:
David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment Canada, calls the nonstop coverage "storm porn," and said it inflates public anxieties about weather events.
I wouldn't go that far. I think most of the TV weather talkers are just trying to report conditions as they are and make honest predictions. But I do sense a certain amount of glee sometimes when what they're predicting is especially bad, and a certain sense of letdown when things don't quite get as bad as predicted. I suppose that's a failing common to those of us in the news business. I think there was a George Carlin bit that went something like, "75 traffic fatalities were predicted over the holiday weekend, but there were only 50. Some of you people weren't doing your part!"
Comments
Al Sleet - the hippy-dippy weatrher man...with all the hippy-dippy weather, man.
..."Tonight's forecast:
DARK!"
"...Continued dark throughout the night , turning to partly scattered light by morning!"
Love that bit!
got me ROFLMAO!
B.G.
Years ago when I was in the grocery business, we loved that four letter word - snow.
It was hilarious - a prediction of light flurries in the morning would whip into a frenzied prediction of a blizzard of epic proportions as people would grab every thing in sight including that dusty can of artichoke hearts that was on the shelf for 6 months. We almost never got all the snow predicted if at all, but it sure was good for inventory turns ;)
Why people around here freak out so bad over a little snow is beyond me - no one in this town is that far from a store or resturant and doesn't have enough cans of lima beans in their cupboard to get by for a day or two.
The constant breaking in to shows with special reports, especially when there is nothing new to report, gets very irritating - why not interupt the commercials? or save it all up for the break between shows?