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Everything outside is snow covered here in Central New Jersey, and it is gradually freezing over. Pretty typical for December. Ok, so why do the TV news stations just go freakin crazy when it starts to snow?
I live in Edison, NJ, and a TV station is in my town. They sent out a crew this morning to a town called Flanders, NJ, which is less than 40 miles away. That is driving distance, so in reality, it is probably 30 or so. Yup, in heavy snow, under conditions where they advised everyone to stay off the roads, the weather doofuses had a crew drive 40 miles to film snow from the exact same storm that was falling outside their office windows. Perhaps there was more to the story.
Maybe the unfortunate citizens of Flanders faced some special challenge due to the snow. They were awaiting a delivery of medicine to save the town from an outbreak of diptheria and only a dog team could get it to them on time due to the weather.
Oh wait, that was the plot of the movie, Balto.
There was absolutely no freakin' reason for them to drive 40 miles to film snow falling in Flanders. But whenever it snows, TV weather departments go ballistic. I am able to watch TV news on NYC channels 2,4,5,7,9,11 and the local news on channel 12. I also have several weather channels. And every one carried the news of the storm as if they had never seen this stuff before.
Ok, I can understand this for those who live in the South and only see snow every few years, but for gawd's sake it snows in NJ and NY every freakin year. And, really, now, is 2 or 3 inches of snow (most of which has already melted) that big a deal? A few years ago, we had 30 or 35 inches of snow--that was a storm. It had flakes the size of yarmulke's falling. There was thunder and lightening while it snowed.
Giant snowflakes and thundersnow, now that is weather news. 2 inches of wet snow? Give me a break. I want my infotainment, darnit.
A little early Christmas present:
**video removed because it offended Mrs. Crotchety. It also offended anyone with eyes and ears.
http://www.humorbloggers.com/
Saturday, December 20, 2008
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23 comments:
I once lived in Cherry Hills, New Joisey.
I gotta say. I almost died.
Parts of New Jersey were gorgeous. But I was from California. Despite the fact that all of my rich neighbours hate me, most women my age are on their second face lift and EVERYONE has fake breasts...it is here that I belong.
But I miss being closer to New York.
The weather guys did the same thing here in Illinois Thursday night. They were even announcing school closings BEFORE the snow started.
They have been doing the same thing here in Oregon.
It snows every year.
This year we have "up to the minute" twenty four hour coverage.
They canceled school in anticipation of snow.
Whatever.
Why do TV stations need to have people outside when anything occurs. Reporters stand in the freezing cold, in the dark, at eleven at night, when all is closed and everyone has gone home, outside a building where an event occurred 14 hours previously!
I enjoy seeing the reporters drenched in pouring rain as their little raincoats with media logos flap about and their wet noodle hair whips them in the face, so I don't mind all the STORM WATCH coverage.
Try watching the weather newscast out here in Southern California when we get a few inches of light rain. All the networks switch to storm chaser mode.
Hs!! Great post...shows how ridiculous the weather guys/gals are! I have my own way of predicting the weather, i just stick my head out of the window and guess!!!!
They're really doing us a disservice. The crying wolf thing makes it so I barely pay attention to the forecasts. How will I know when it's really going to snow if they jump up and down for two inches? How will I know when it'll be a foot if they're so dramatic for a dusting? Ugh. Thanks for letting me ride your rant!
Crotchety,
Are there really still people that live in New Jersey?
I thought that most of them were at the bottom of the river and the rest went down to Miami.
Glad to hear you made it through the storm!
LOL...yet another rant I can relate to!
I absolutely don't understand the need to have storm updates on TV every half hour. Has anything changed from one half hour to the next? If so, OK. But most people have access to a weather channel if they need to know what's going on.
Is the arrival of a few inches of snow really a major event?
As you said....this is the freakin NE and snow is a given.
Hey....I have a question.
When I visit here I always vote (yes, for you....:-)). I get a message saying my vote has already been counted....does that mean I'm allowed just one vote or can I vote daily?
"Now, reporting from the Storm Watch Center, which is actually her recliner--MA Fat Woman. What's the weather like today"?
"Uhhhhh, one station says snow, one station says a wintry mix, one station says rain and the crazy guys over on the independent station says we're having a heat wave. So, their guess is as good as mine. Back to you Joe".
You are really spot on, Crotchety.
They do that here when there's an ice storm or when it's hailing...Don't they remember that people die from getting hit on the head with large hailstones and BTW, that swirly thing behind you has just changed directions and it's headed right for you, you Dumba** reporter.
I think we need to see that video! ;) I know Flanders. It's cause the people there are RICH! I don't understand the snow hype in our area either. [sigh]
You're right about snow in the South. It's covered well by the tv and radio. Hurricanes? Same thing...one thing they do down here is kind of funny. Many people don't listen to weather of an impending 'cane until the 'sign language lady' comes on. When they have the sign language lady doing the weather too, we know we're in for some deep do-do.
Reason? Slow. News. Day?
Thanks to you, and I really mean that, I cleaned out my sidebar.
I really want to see the video you removed too. Sometimes offensive stuff is funny.
Have a terrific day. :)
I guess I stopped by too late. I would love to be offended by a video :(
I love it when the news channels have new wavy graphics and intense music to introduce the weather...
what a career high that must be for the producer ...
I too am perturbed but only because I'm trying to navigate through all the urine soaked, narsty, polluted powder mush. This is not delicious.
Dude... I live in CANADA and the newscasters go ape-shit whenever we get more than a couple inches of snow. We had our first major snowfall of the season last Wednesday and we're so wimpy we actually had a car pile-up and one of our city buses tip over (no one, thankfully, was hurt. I think we just have a hard time accepting the fact that we can control just about everything except the weather.
@ Charmaine: Winter in NJ can be kind of nasty.
@ Lola: Our big thing here is delayed openings or early closings.
@ Marilyn: We have that too. And the local channel goes to all snow, all the time.
@ Adullamite: It is weird when we have a storm we send someone to the beach to suffer.
@ Diva: It is unbelievable
@ Michelle: That works for me.
@ Kathy: Everyone gets hyper expecting the mother of all storms.
@ Kevin: A couple
@ Shyne: Yup, I love the weather breaks "Still snowing, for those of you without windows."
@ MA: Most accurate report yet.
@ Reforming: Exactly. I keep waiting for one to get hit by something.
@ Lauren: Parts of it. No, the video is too offensive.
@ Don: We need something like the sign language lady. All we have is Al Roker.
@ Sandee: I guess. Either that or the weather department has compromising pictures of the news team. It was funny, but I try to keep a PG -13 ish rating.
@ Josh: I watched it twice and decided to save my sensitive readers.
@ Swirl girl: They must live for that
@ Self D: It sucks
@ Shadow: You'd think, by now, they would be able to handle it.
Well, we're getting insane snow now and we're not used to it so it's a huge deal. But what kills me is the news stations sending those reporters out there in the weather. It's nuts.
I love in Portland they have regular ol folks sending in videos of their "news reports" from around the city. I thought that was cool.
We're hunkered down and probably have around a foot already - I haven't seen this much snow since I was a teenager. LOVE it!!!
I'm totally with ya on this Crotchety! To salvage some tiny bit of entertainment value I really want to see those weathergeeks and tv reporters actually stuck in a snowy ditch, getting frostbite and eventually eating each other to survive. THAT I would watch. ;)
@ Casto: If I never saw another flake, I'd be happy
@ Chat: Pitch it to Fox as a new reality show for January. Perfect lead in to 24.
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