I’m being specific to ABC nightly news and the weather segment they usually have.
Frankly, I’m annoyed that it is so east coast centric. Iowa can be getting hammered and they just mention it in passing in favor of how that storm will affect the east coast in two days.
But it got me thinking…what goes on in the later ‘west coast’ broadcast? Do I understand correctly that they news feed in the midwest and east is rebroadcast an hour later for the mountain and west regions?
what do you guys see for the ‘weather segment’ on ABC news in California? Do you see the same east coast centric outlook, or do they change it up and tell you what is going on in L.A. (and ignore the rest of the country)?
We would get really shouty ads for the LIVE ABC MEGADOPPLER 7000 HD+! That would then show mostly nothing on the radar locally. Then maybe a line or two about how other people somewhere else might be dying or something. Now check out this kitten rescued by the fire department!
I used to live in California, but I moved to Montana 12 years ago. I can honestly say in the past 12 years the big 3 network’s National News Weather broadcasts have only mentioned Montana in maybe one or two weather segments.
Is it because the weather is always nice in Montana? Hardly. We have terrible storms in the winter, but nobody really cares. Only 1 million people live here so it’s not news if we have a bad weather event, however, if you live either on the East Coast or the Upper Midwest you’re talking about millions and millions of people impacted, and that’s news.
When I lived in California unless the weather on the West Coast was really bad they always talked about the snow in North Carolina or the cold snap in New England. I think the answer is that bad weather only counts when it impacts lots of people, and that’s what they always focus on. In California, there just isn’t that much bad weather to report on, fortunately.
National media is east coast-centric. They are based there. The largest TV audience is there. Think ad revenue. Everything is measured against the east coast view of the world.
Come high fire season, most of the western fire stories will come out of California, mostly within the single shift round-trip flying distance of LA. Yes, California has its share for fires. But California is not the only western state with horrendous wild fires. And smoke. And days to weeks of smoke so thick you cannot see the Sun.
I suspect a certan elitist “Well, the parts that matter are the coastal urban areas. Nobody who matters would be caught dead in flyover country, so why bother about weather there?”
Still true. The Weather Channel almost never talks about California, and they almost never send anyone out, the way they do right now for the blizzard. My wife is a weather junky, and had more fun when we lived in New Jersey with weather, not climate.
On the satellite by the time it gets to prime time here they are showing their stupid Ice Trucker shows, etc. At least we do get real weather channels.
Based on what you are telling me is that the weather segment shown on the west coast is the same segment I’m seeing which talks mostly about how the east coast is going to be affected by the terrible storm that is making its way there in a few days.