weather idiots

also know as weathermen (and not weatherwomen, but that's a prejudice so inherent in our language and culture it deserves complaints of it's own so we won't let this one get too distracted for now) and meteorologists... giving the people in this particular field of study some benefit of doubt, i will not propose to assume that all those who study meteorology are idiots... this complaint is primarily about tv meteorologists anyway... even there i will not propose to assume that all tv weather-people are idiots either... what i will state as this complaint is that almost all tv meteorologists appear to be idiots in the way they are scripted, presented, and possibly manipulated... business as usual, the media is selling product and not reporting the news accurately without bias and ulterior motives...

what i mean is... just like the news, the weather sells product... the news (and sports and weather) programming is big business and made way more dramatic, scary, shocking, and stupid than it needs to be to do what it is supposed to do, present an accurate report on real events outside of our homes and immediate daily experience... we want to know there are traffic delays on our routes to work or wherever we go, we don't need to know how many people died or are injured and what agony their family is going through "how do you feel about the critical condition your son is in?" type reporting... we want to know it is going to rain or snow or storm, but we do not need to know live coverage of idiots hanging on to street light polls in hurricanes telling us not to leave our homes...

today, i refer to an even more serious stupidity... a dangerous stupidity... i refer to the vultures picking at the carcass of potential news, specifically the over-excited alarmists trying to make much more out of the weather than is necessary or responsible... the problem with meteorologists who pander to the news media and actively represent themselves as prophets of doom on television is that goes beyond the irresponsible scare tactics that manipulate viewers... the serious issue is that people are conditioned to worry, stress, and even panic over storms that never appear and then are complacent when a real threat arises...

today's tv meteorologists are boys (and girls) who cry wolf and much like the story about the boy who cried wolf, they reduce their value to the public to side show annoyances... they find the one power line that is down and present it as widespread damage... they find the one branch that fell on one car and interview the owner as if he is one of many who were devastated by the storm... they "predict" worse case scenarios as if there is no doubt that we are all in serious danger...

earlier this year they did this with a storm that never actually became a hurricane but was still presented as a potentially catastrophic event... Hurricane Sandy that is heading up the east coast of the USA this week is the latest storm to be the fuel for irresponsible and dangerous reporting... if the world (God, Mother Nature, or whatever you believe might control the world) had a Risk Management department would identify the irresponsible cry wolf reporting by television meteorologists as a potential risk reducing actual preparedness for an actual serious weather event...

the culpability of the news media for false reporting and actively pre-determining heightened threats could be called into question in court by a savvy lawyer who demonstrates that repeated exposure to over-zealous television meteorological reports could desensitize and therein give credible cause for inadequate preparation that leads to serious injury by the public the news organizations are commissioned to serve...

beyond litigation, people can be hurt and killed because they do not take weather dangers seriously because they have repeatedly been exposed to television weather idiots who manipulate news to over-state dangers only to be repeatedly proven to be wrong...