Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Code Red

A downstate-Illinois meteorologist is off the air after criticizing the Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s melodramatic “Code Red Day” weather alerts.

Weather is for taking seriously. But overdramatizing it is a way of life in these parts. Anyone remember this bit? And here’s the full commercial.

comments: 6

Anonymous said...

I have noticed over the years that weather has been made out to be the monster under the bed or in the closet-- something to be feared despite it is unavoidable! Living in the DC area, the local news media (WJLA-a Sinclair owned station) has also made weather a big scary thing. Snow gets played up for a week like an apocalypse will be happening and most times it never occurs.

Oddly in NH, weather wasn't made out to be the monster like in other parts of the country. It is simply something you deal with.

Kirsten


Michael Leddy said...

It’d be interesting to know how the level of drama varies from region to region. Nexstar is guilty too. Something I just remembered from an old post, after Sir Walter Ralegh:

Time drives the flocks from field to fold
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold —

And StormTracker 3 is there!

Stefan said...

Yes, and one must have a mind of (EXTREME IMPACT) winter (STORM EVENT).

(I just learned, by the way, that there's an actual Extreme Meteorologist. That's what he calls himself. His name is Reed Timmer, and he evidently survived a tornado's direct hit last month. Go figure.)

Michael Leddy said...

Rest assured I’ll be looking him up tonight.

I still remember our household laughing hysterically at the sight of Dan Rather holding onto a post of some sort while standing in a storm. Get inside, man!

Slywy said...

This is the first I've heard of Code Red. The Midwest gets plenty of thunderstorms and wind; if we panicked every time, we'd be dead from stress. The most stressed I've felt was one windstorm that did a ton of damage around here, and a couple of weeks ago when the tornado sirens went off for several hours under an ominous sky. Actual tornadoes — terrifying. Summer thunder — par for the course.

Michael Leddy said...

That sounds pretty reasonable. :)