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Who rocked the hurricane? The Weather Channel

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:06:00 +0000

Hurricane Sandy is just coming ashore, which means we have been living through a 24-hour news cycle that amounts to running-in-place news. Around 5:20 p.m. on MSNBC, a very wet reporter standing down in Battery Park told Chris Matthews that there is for sure going to be flooding tonight— which is exactly what the person standing down in Battery Park said last night, the only difference being that person was not getting rained on. As a public service — like, a service that tells people what they need to know for their health and safety — one TV network broadcasting updates every 10 minutes would suffice. That is clearly not what is happening. Everything else that is happening — the endless chatter, the reporters performing their commitment to their job in increasingly bad, dangerous weather — is just for show.

But once you accept the fact that the 24-hour-news networks — which all of the major networks have turned into for the duration — are not performing a public service, we can begin to evaluate them on a whole other scale. That scale being: Which was the most fun to watch today, while you were stuck at home, carefully heeding all the news networks' advice not to go outside? On this score, there was a clear winner. Let me break down the contenders.

Hurricane hysteria, Part 2: Now with weather!

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:23:00 +0000

Hurricane Sandy still hasn’t made landfall, but conditions are starting to get dramatic. The TV networks covering the hurricane (which is all of them: the Weather Channel, NY1, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CNBC and the local CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox affiliates) have curtailed it a bit on the more time-wasting aspects of their coverage — how the hurricane will affect the election, flights, etc. — to go as full-on alarmist as possible. There are a lot of reporters getting rained on right now.

1:50 p.m.: NY1 keeps requesting that viewers tweet about Sandy, which results in one of the anchors having to say, out loud, on air, the handle “@nerdfox.” (Who, incidentally, is really happy the gym on the Upper West Side is still open).

1:54 p.m.: On CNN, a perfectly dry Andrea Mitchell is sitting in front of a bank of computer screens showing a rainy White House, while communicating with a reporter on a flooded street in Rhode Island, where the sea is foaming so heavily it looks like snow.

2:03 p.m.: On the Weather Channel, they are using a nice vocabulary word: “This will all peak at a crescendo tonight with a high tide cycle!” an analyst says.

A hurricane of panic: The Sandy pre-show to the pre-show

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:03:00 +0000

When I turned off the television at around 11:30 last night, CNN was finishing up an interview with a Cape Cod resident named Joni, who had recorded a video of some waves from earlier in the day. Not huge waves, but waves a little angrier, slightly bigger, a smidge grayer than typical waves. Thunderstorm waves. Joni was questioned about these waves for five minutes. This segment encapsulated television’s hurry-up-and-wait predicament with respect to Sandy: There is a lot of airtime to fill, and not a lot happening yet.

The Weather Channel and the news channels have been talking about Sandy for days. The states and major cities in the hurricane’s predicted path took precautions and had their press conference well in advance of the storm’s arrival, later this afternoon. So news anchors in the newsroom have been repeating the same items — how the storm has affected Obama's and Romney’s campaign schedules, Obama’s FEMA press conference, Bloomberg's and Christie’s press conferences, photos of destocked water shelves, talk about airport cancellations, promises of how awful everything is going to get — while cutting to on-site reporters standing next to New York Harbor in not-so-alarming weather. (At least they’re getting rained on now.) It’s the weather equivalent of the pre-show to the pre-show.

Weather Channel’s senior meteorologist issues grave warning

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 20:58:00 +0000

In case you are unaware about the havoc Hurricane Sandy will unleash upon the East Coast, the Weather Channel's Stu Ostro, who is "not prone to hyperbole," has attempted to put it in perspective:

History is being written as an extreme weather event continues to unfold, one which will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States.

In all capital letters, he continues:

- REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE OFFICIAL DESIGNATION IS NOW OR AT/AFTER LANDFALL -- HURRICANE (INCLUDING IF "ONLY" A CATEGORY ONE), TROPICAL STORM, POST-TROPICAL, EXTRATROPICAL, WHATEVER -- OR WHAT TYPE OF WARNINGS ARE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AND NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER -- PEOPLE IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM NEED TO HEED THE THREAT IT POSES WITH UTMOST URGENCY.

- TAKE COASTAL FLOODING EVACUATION ORDERS SERIOUSLY; PREPARE FOR DOWNED TREES AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGE BY OBSERVING TORNADO SAFETY GUIDELINES, I.E. STAYING INSIDE AND GETTING INTO THE LOWEST, MOST-INTERIOR PORTION OF THE BUILDING OR ANOTHER DESIGNATED SAFE PLACE; BE KEENLY AWARE OF YOUR LOCATION'S SUSCEPTIBILITY TO FLASH FLOODING (URBAN AND SMALL STREAM) FROM RAINFALL AND RIVER RISES; KNOW THAT YOU COULD BE WITHOUT POWER FOR A LONG TIME BUT ALSO UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS OF CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING FROM IMPROPER USE OF GENERATORS.