global warming a forbidden topic for most TV weather reporters

[phantom power]

Just say it's sunny

Why is global warming a forbidden topic for most TV weather reporters? Climate change is "controversial" and bad for ratings.

"Every newscast has a built-in section devoted to weather," says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "It is ripe for discussion of bigger issues."

Interviews with broadcast meteorologists from around the country suggest that climate change is a hot topic in the newsroom. Weather reporters have come a long way from the 1970s, when they were hired for their looks and handed jokey scripts (David Letterman was a weatherman). Today, most forecasters have degrees in meteorology or a related science. In fact, because weather forecasters are often the only reporters in the newsroom with science backgrounds, they are well positioned to report on global warming, if not explain all the complexities of climate science. "It's not like there's a Grand Canyon separating meteorologists and climatologists," says Anthony Socci, a senior policy fellow at the American Meteorological Society in Boston. "We share the same skill set."

But rescripting the classic weather forecast is no easy task. As media critic Neil Postman has pointed out, the happy-go-lucky weather report has always contained the seeds of a conservative agenda. Consider air quality alerts, which show up in the weather (not news) report as natural adjuncts to rain or shine, purely meteorological events devoid of social consequence or responsibility. Driven by ratings, station heads are reluctant to deviate from the standard three-minute forecast, much less air content that might alienate the broadest possible audience, and cause them to change the channel.

"The last thing any station wants is an activist weatherman," says Matthew Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a Washington research group. Would CNN interview health correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to talk only about heart disease? Felling asks. "No, he talks about the possible causes, the links," he says. "Ever since Sept. 11, we've been inundated with the importance of connecting the dots. But weathermen are asked to live in a vacuum."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/04/weather/print.html

[bloom]

1. Someone (on DU) mentioned

they saw a weatherman mention Global Warming - and then he was forced to apologize a couple days later. :grr:

[JohnWxy]

9. must not raise issues that challenge the given 'doctrine'. or risk

excommunication.

[FSogol]

2. I dunno, aren't meteorology and climatology different things?

Weathermen (usually weather readers, not meteorologist) are usually the real lightweights on the nightly news. Why have them add babble to a difficult subject?

[phantom power]

3. One point the article made was, that isn't so true any more.

They have meteorological degrees.

[mainegreen]

4. 140 in Portland? Damn, that's hot.

Must've been away that day! :D

[rodeodance]

5. I think this paragraph leaves out the Fox weather man (the Friends one)

Interviews with broadcast meteorologists from around the country suggest that climate change is a hot topic in the newsroom. Weather reporters have come a long way from the 1970s, when they were hired for their looks and handed jokey scripts (David Letterman was a weatherman). Today, most forecasters have degrees in meteorology or a related science. In fact, because weather forecasters are often the only reporters in the newsroom with science backgrounds, they are well positioned to report on global warming, if not explain all the complexities of climate science.

[soothsayer]

6. They've been calling it 'petroleum weather' for years and years

(not in front of the camera tho). It's not news that things are screwy and unpredictable.

[struggle4progress]

7. The answer is simple: TV programming is intended to benefit ..

.. the advertisers.

The object is to capture enough of your attention to get you to sit there through the commercials designed to make you want to buy a product.

TV aims at making you feel a synthetic unhappiness together with a synthetic belief that certain consumption patterns will end your unhappiness. Real unhappiness about real issues is NOT part of that agenda.

Just think: what would happen if the TV got people all upset about real issues? Why, people might forget to buy cola and haircare sprays, being too busy engaging in all sorts of socially disruptive activism -- and THAT wouldn't be good for business ...

[rfkrfk]

8. a global warming 'forecast', would not change very much

you can't just say what you said yesterday,
which is the same you said last week