We’ve been in the television news business for 25 years, we’ve worked with the foremost weather people, including Frank Field, Al Roker and Linda Gialanella, and we've never heard of renegade cells-- at least not when it comes to the weather. But here this morning was the frumpy weather lady on KNBC-TV's morning show (when they hired her she was advertised as kooky, but KNBC switched her to frumpy right away), talking about a storm system that was working its way from Santa Barbara, and she was using terms of terror.She wasn’t talking about storm fronts or low fronts. She was describing the approaching storm as “renegade cells.”
We understand that scare tactics are the key to ratings in local news. Tease a story about an anthrax threat or poison chicken and make the viewer hang into see it’s not really in their area at all. Report every drizzle as if it's Noah's next flood. Scare the bejeezus out of us us with crime. And since September 2001, they’ve had a grand time cutting away from car chases to scared the children with reports of terror threats.Now they're terrorizing us directly by adding terror buzzwords to mundane segments. What genius consultant is advising KNBC-TV local news to add terror to its newscasts? Who told the weather lady to describe the storm as "renegade cells'? We can't find that in the rip-and-read wire service reports she relies on. Are they bringing in other terror code words into the news? Is this a national phenomenon or is it restricted to the morning news in L.A.?
5 comments:
maybe she's from Kansas
"There will be development along the cold front in KS and MO but a renegade sup in OK (hopefully) is where the action will be as the cold front development will quickly go linear.
The renegade cell I am wish-casting will be at an intersection in my earlier forecast area along the cold front where a dry punch will be present buy 21z. Some upper level support will arrive a little before trigger time but other than that, all variables are in check."
http://www.hamwx.com/2005%20Season/9-13-05.htm
I did not understand the anonymous comment above the real terror happened on Monday when Katie Couric reached an all time low (I felt bad for her - we all love Katie)
She interviewed Mrs. Russell Simmons about her new tome "Fabulocity" but it got really scarry when they did a "make-over" on a 12-year-old.
Please keep your teenage daughters as far away from the TODAY show as possible!
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS
739 AM CST MON FEB 21 2005
...A SQUALL CONTINUES TO BARREL EASTWARD THROUGH TN AND FAR
NORTHERN MS. A RENEGADE CELL DEVELOPED OVER SOUTHWEST ARK PRIOR TO SUNRISE...WHICH HAS SINCE DISSIPATED.
http://maps.fsl.noaa.gov/sfd/old/05053.rucdisc
Sounds like "renegade cell" is a midwestern tornado type weather term appropriated for local news forecasts to make them sound more frightening.
I thougth renegade cells were those disgruntled Islamists who decided against plantng a bomb at the El-Al counter.
The real weather here is weird enough--I don't need it hyped.
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