Is it me or has that channel become completely unwatchable? Over-the-top hype and fear mongering between overly long commercial breaks. It used to be so different…its like the fox news of weather…"batten down the hatches and head for the hills cuz little Arlene is gonna blow!!!..then a quick commercial break to sell you some Kaboom cleaner…
…so is it just me?
$$$$$
Seneationalism = ratings = higher advertising rates = more proffit.
Stick with the internet, or your local newscast.
Drew
Is it me or has that channel become completely unwatchable? Over-the-top hype and fear mongering between overly long commercial breaks. It used to be so different..its like the fox news of weather.."batten down the hatches and head for the hills cuz little Arlene is gonna blow!!!..then a quick commercial break to sell you some Kaboom cleaner..…so is it just me?
Dunno, TWC is east coast oriented, but my mother-in-law in Seminole Alabama is none too happy about Arlene, especially after Ivan ripped her roof off last year. And she’s not even that close to the Gulf.
It isn’t you. I’m almost ashamed of the insomniac hours I’ve pissed away watching that channel years ago. Before that it was staring at walls and then watching spacewalks by shuttle astronauts, which smehow managed to reduce the promised adventure of our lifetimes tot he level of watcihng grass grow. Now the Weather Channel is a sure cure for insomnia. More wasted promise!
It’s making me want to drive to the other coast.
there website is what i use but damn when it’s flatsummer time it makes you turn on tropivcal update at ten to the hour every hour, cept 8 cuz storm stories and those are retarded
now there are talking heads, what ever happend to real meterologists giving the weather?
It seems so less personl listening to dumb wit!
and did you notice on the web site everything revolves around golf. This stinks of corporate yuppieness
too bad about your mil’s roof…it all depends
last year two of the four hurricanes hit within 20 miles of my house with winds in excess of 100mph…
most people are shocked when we tell them this but we slept with the bedroom windows open so that we could breath and watch the show…friends of ours were actually hudled in closets overnight even in their solid constructed homes…very few people undertand building construction and it seems that everyone thinks that their houses are gonna collapse on the heads in a minimal hurricane…in a well built house up to code its takes a mighty strong hurricane to inflict serious damage and even then it proly wont collapse…
but hey thats me…no worries
The Weather Channel: They are damned if they do and damned if they dont.
A lot has to do with the way the weather channel people interpret or mis interpret the statistical analysis offered by the NHC.
And you are right about turning that product into a consumer oriented ratings grabbing product. They do.
Same goes for the state. The NHC tried to get the state to broaden it’s emergency preparation last year, but the hurricane center had forecasted an impact zone and that
was transformed into a problem because the state focused on the center of that alone. Of course the hurricane took a turn. But the state and the weather channel had already positioned their people and so that was that. They all take their best guess. Only problem is that the NHc says one thing that this is the possible impact zone and not necessarily the center but the entire zone has equal chance. And everyone else draws a line to the center of that zone and goes there. Setting up camp and satellite uplink vans etc. for ratings.
Another thing is that a few years back the weather channel petitioned the govt to stop funding the NHC and to sell it off to them. Can you imagine the hype if they had got hold of that public resource?
Perhaps it would have been better funded but loggin to get the latest report and you would have had to wade through so many popups you’d be underwater first.
My brother recently left the NHC to work for higher-ups, but before he did he added a bunch of new features like current wind model projections.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/144758.shtml?tswind120?large
This is pretty weak compared to the work in progress he had going several months ago which was a model showing actual motion in color. But I guess the new guy has a lot of catching up to do.
Bear in mind that the Weather channel exists for one reason…and that is to sell advertising.The more fear and panic they create the more Mom and Pop watch it.Thus making ratings better.The hurricane panic syndrome really sucks.I live in an Eastern coastal town and the local stations are getting worse.Home depot is a big sponsor and they make a killing of this stuff.They may edvertise selling plywood at cost but batteries,generators,ducttape and stuff like that add handsomly to the bottom line.I would love to see one of the “live” storm reporters get sucked over the falls on a 20 foot shorebreak wave.
Pretty dummied down to fit the American persona. Those babes from Atlanta can really paste on the makeup and hair.
I know.
Weather Channel is another one of Ted Turner’s wet dreams. It’s only purpose is to make more money for him because he still doesn’t have enough. It really is unwatchable. But sadly, yes, storms are good for business. Isn’t that the American way? Kick em when they’re down? Get on the band wagon! Everyone else is. Hit me when they’re up hit me when they’re down.
Lmao about your reporter comment. That is just sick:-)
so the follow up question is why is the public so easily suckered into paranoia?
The greatest irony of the 21st century: we live in the information age and yet the masses are so mis-informed
PS - hey mark check this out:
Do you think you have a right to get free weather information from the government’s weather service? Rick Santorum (R) doesn’t think so - he thinks his constituents who own AccuWeather in State College should control online access to weather information. He’s filed legislation (S. 786 - National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005) that would, essentially, force much government meteorological information off-line. Thanks to The Daily Kos for picking up on this - no one in the Pittsburgh media seems to have yet. Like many other politicians, particularly Republican politicians, Rick proves to be in the pocket of big business at the expense of the general tax-paying public. The local media finally picked up this story on April 26, after WDUQ mentioned it on the air on April 25. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Given the Trib’s lust for Republican politicians, it’s interesting that the Trib’s article sounds even more against the AccuWeather sweetheart bill than the PG is!
Class?
Meecrafty has asked, “so the follow up question is why is the public so easily suckered into paranoia?”
Mr. P.T. Barnum, will you stop joking around and stand up and face front? Now, will you please care to answer Meecrafty’s question for the rest of the class?
Yes sir. “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”
Thank you very much Mr. Barnum. You may sit down now.
Well class, it may well be the 21st century, but some things never change.
Interesting article you found there, Mee. Good work getting that posted on here. Stoked. m
Paranoia does not exist where reality approximates or eclipses anticipation.
i dont even have a tele
couldnt live without the net though
wouldnt know which side of the island to drive to
wow
sattelite or cable hmmmm
cocacola ,maccas, americas latest war
i kinda liked the discovery channel though
and beavis and buthead
i rekon most american tv has always been pretty hard to digest guys
nothing personal …
family sitcoms blllluuuuuurk
and the moral of the tonights episode…
Its sad they would pass a bill like that
Bear in mind that the Weather channel exists for one reason…and that is to sell advertising
I had it on absolute total inside cable authority a couple of years ago that the Weather Channel was the single most expensive cable channel for cable companies to carry, bar none…not Disney, not CNN, not any of the others. A 24 carat gold poop laying bird if ever there was one.
Maybe it’s a bit of West Coast bias, but most all the cable chicks seem dressed like weirded out 1950’s housewives on their way home from church with an attitude. Are all those channels from the south? Fox News is the worst, since they seem to require all their cablebabes to have blonde hair and wear big funky pearl necklaces. They all look like they are one drink away from a lost NASCAR weekend…
again on the hurrican/hype subject,
last year I saw that weather channel reproter with the lisp that goes out on the wild storys, he was in florida broadcasting on the beach and he was saying something like “the wind is really starting to pick up here, as you can see i can barely stand…” as he was saying this you could see two joggers cursing down the beach in the back ground, seeming uneffected buy the wind.
i had to change the channel.
right!
i saw worse…last year’s hurricane season there was a reporter on the beach both he and the videographer were doing the “Dance”…you know the dance but it was so grossly exaggerated like both guys were drunk on a amusement ride…looked like he was reporting in hurrican force winds…anyway the guy pulls out the wind meter and says “look its 27, 28…29…almost 30 miles per hour out here!!!”
It was so fake…so they go back to the studio and the one guy in there has this look on his face like “oh shit what do i say now”…he quickly blames the wind meter for not always being accurate…un…believable!
Is it me or has that channel become completely unwatchable? Over-the-top hype and fear mongering between overly long commercial breaks
I was just putting something in the Futurist thread when it struck me that the Weather Channel is partly responsible for the skyrocketing price of oil in the world. They obsess on hurricanes, oil hit $68 a barrel today (8-25-05) based on “supply interuption fears” if the hurricane disrupts oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, the price of oil is for oil produced anywhere in the world not just gulf of Mexico…so if the price of oil is influenced by “Chicken Little Sky is Falling” thinking and the Weather Channel FEEDS THE FEAR…
Somebody go kick that hurricane hunter guy in the ass…