TV WEATHER NEEDS JOURNALISTIC PRINCIPLES
Today's local TV stations use weather broadcasting as hype for the station and its advertisers. Yet the weather is programmed as a part of news. As such, it needs to follow some objective, honest, journalistic principles. The problem is that local news itself is used to hype broadcast revenue. Objective news reporting, including weather, no longer exists. Edward R. Murrow must be turning over in his grave because of the way news reporting has "evolved."
Weather is now presented as though we are constantly on the verge of some cosmic catastrophe. When dire forecasts do not develop as warned, we all give an appreciative "whew." Standing next to a weather map are not journalists, these people are part of the station's promotion team. Weather is not REPORTED, it is hyped. Therefore the more ominous the forecast, the better audience numbers are. At least that is the thought-process instilled by the ever-present broadcast consultants. Locally, these consultants decided that the only real quality journalist broadcasting news in the Milwaukee market, Mike Gousha, had to go so a more malleable-for-profit cast could replace him. Look at what has happened to that TV station's ratings. And their amazingly emotional weather predictions have lost any sense of proportion or integrity. But they are not alone.
This evolution in bringing news and weather reporting into the promotion departments of TV stations has been going on for some time. As a result, today's key age-groups for TV advertising no longer know what broadcast journalism is. It is as though TV stations have no clue as to what they should report about local happenings, and so hype is used instead of news. Instead of getting off their butts and investigate whether their congressional delegation votes favorably for legislation that improves their legislators own portfolio, for example, they go for "dirty dining" or sports "news."
"Getting an award from TV is like getting kissed by someone with bad breath." -Mason Williams
"The press, the movies, radio and television bear a large share of the responsibility for the climate of fear. . .which has enveloped our country and which has become such a threat to our freedom." -William T. Evjue [And George W. Bush certainly used fear to take away many of our freedoms with executive orders and the like]
