Why risk reporters lives for pictures of hurricane damage?

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ve never gotten this one, and it’s not just hurricanes but other natural disasters. Anderson Cooper literally fell over today and his microphone shortcircuited while reporting from Pensacola and lesser known straight reporters covered it from south Florida to Biloxi.

News executive dudes and gloryhound reporters: we’ve seen huge rain and winds before. You really don’t need to risk your lives to show us more. Technology is to the extent now that cams are both reliable and cheap- go down to the coast, place cams all over the place, and show footage from them while giving storm updates (which really don’t need to be given 24/7 when there’s no real development to report other than “yep… it’s definitely a hurricane and it’s tearin’ shit up…”.

Just don’t get it. Maybe it’s me. Either way, I’d love to dry Anderson off by the fire.

2

Hell, they could recycle footage from the last few hurricanes – who’d know?

If youv’e seen one hurricane…

3
  1. Because it’s AWESOME.
  2. Because Anderson is so adorable when he’s giddy! Did you see him when the Ramada sign blew off?
4

There’s probably a thrill seeking element in some reporters souls.

5

Didn’t Charles Schulz or someone get in trouble for recycling cartoons from 20 years back? People remember images.
I do wish the networks would stop showing their clip of the burned out volkswagon outside the bulding where Sergio Vieira de Mello was killed in 2003, and that guy with the rpg in Najaf, or Fallujah, or whatever…
If it’s not new, many of us notice.

6

Reporters are a dime a dozen, so networks just chuck 'em at dangerous stuff.

7

Some reporters get so identified with storm coverage that it just ain’t a biggie unless they’re out there reporting. Boston television news reporter Shelby Scott, for example, was so well known for reporting live from wild weather that in April 1997 following a freak monster snowstorm,

8

HOW ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT THERE REALLY IS A STORM?!?!

Huh! Ever think of that?

9

While we’re at it, networks, if you’re going to show us some storm damage, show us some actual effing storm damage. Traffic lights swinging on wires is not damage, at least not yet. Empty streets are just that: empty streets.

One of the images being shown by the Weather Channel today was a shot from Pensacola of five or six plastic newspaper vending machines laying on their sides. Oh, the humanity!

10

If I remember correctly, this was one of the minor subplots in Dave Barry’s novel Tricky Business, which is set during a storm whose only casualties are a series of TV news reporters attempting to cover the storm damage.

11

Personally, I love it when the weather people go out on to the “Weather Patio” to give the report. It is so farking lame, yet understated comedy that I cannot turn away.

12

Totally agree on both. That was some good t.v. And frankly I think the actual risk was pretty damn low.

13

snaps fingers THAT’s it! I was trying to remember where I’d seen that gag earlier today. It’s a good one, and very Barry-esque. :slight_smile:

14

My favorite was Dave Barry’s account of his neighbors who decided to weather (heh) a hurricane by staying drunk and stoned. They hunkered down and only surfaced occassionally to be panicked by dire stuff on the TV.

Which was actually a home video of TV coverage of the last hurricane which they were too drunk and stoned to switch.

As for dramatic live storm coverage, it probably goes way back to Dan Blather ‘earning’ his TV chops by filming a live screen in a NOAA center. Then he stood out in actual storm, which tousled his hair and looked really, REALLY dangerous, edgy and dramatic.

Then he dressed up like an Afghani rebel on patrol, Geraldo Rivera copied the act and viewers ended up hoping that a sniper might end the hokum. But struggling television journalists, especially locals, are stuck with the tradition of going bravely into the teeth of storms.

15

Sure you don’t need to see that stuff Sampiro, but there are gobs of people out there who looove it, all that action! You’ve got to have the reporter out there for value, pictures of the storm they can get anywhere, what they can’t get is somebody they trust telling them what’s going on and how they should feel about it. It’s also got to be your reporter out there because it’d look bad to not cover a local storm and get footage from another station or something. Stations that can’t be bothered to cover a storm themselves, well, what else aren’t they reporting? Aren’t the viewers worth covering the storm live and in person?

16

I think Uvula Donor has it right. It’s a right-of-passage…a way to thin the herd of the weak, slow and careless. The ones that survive get to move up to covering pet rodeos and quilting bees.

17

I think that’s it, really. The juice is worth the squeeze. Great TV.

Last year, Mr. Cooper said that they prepared for those shots by tethering him with a rope to make sure he didn’t blow away. How cool is that?

18

Oh come on, I know I am not the only one who thinks it is hilarious when the dumb reporters blow over? :smiley:

19

I am so jealous. I have never seen a reporter blown over by weather before. I did see one of the guys in the Weather Channel standing in flood waters up to about midcalf–right after someone else had said stay away from flooded areas.

20

I tuned in today for a bit. I saw Geraldo almost get blown over and dumped into a huge puddle. Too bad he didn’t go over. Then I realized that I was watching Fox, screamed, and turned the evil thing off…