Fear Porn In The Weather Enterprise

It is Getting Worse

When I arrived at the brand new TV channel in Birmingham 26 years ago, I was given the green light to go “wall to wall” during any tornado warning for any part of our viewing area. In fact, we made that part of our promise in 1996. If there is a tornado warning for a county in our DMA (Designated Market Area), we WILL be there. At any hour of the day or night, no matter what program is scheduled.

It doesn’t matter if the county is in the “metro”, or way out in the country.

This was a new freedom for me, thanks to Robert Allbritton and his family, who built and owned the station. They pulled in WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa (Channel 33), and WJSU-TV in Anniston (Channel 40), forming the all new “ABC 33/40” based in Birmingham. They earned the right to carry ABC programming, since the long time local ABC affiliate was switching to Fox (WBRC).

I had worked for WVTM from 1979 to 1984, and for WBRC from 1989 until the affiliation switch in 1996, and never had the freedom to provide constant, long form tornado coverage for any part of the market. I always wanted to do it, but station policies just didn’t allow it in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s here.

I was told by a local station executive that I was going to “scare people” with the long form tornado coverage, and it would never work.

After the event of April 8, 1998, that local executive most have had a change of heart, since that person’s station all of a sudden started doing the exact same thing, like all other stations in the market.

A horrible F5 tornado tore through the western suburbs of Birmingham the night of April 8, 1998, killing 32 people and producing catastrophic damage. We were the only station on the air with continuous coverage that night; other stations simply did cut-ins, and went right back to prime time programming. It was proof we were doing the right thing. And, if you do long form tornado coverage right, you won’t scare people, you will actually give them comfort.

Jump ahead to 2022. I guess I sound like the local executive who told me we were going to “scare people” with long form tornado coverage in 1996. But, after a few days away from work and consuming some local and national media, it seems like the GOAL is to scare people when it comes to weather.

For every flood, wildfire, tornado, tropical storm, hurricane, winter storm, cold wave, heat wave, and drought, now we are told automatically…

*There are millions and millions and millions “in the path”. Heck, let’s just say “gazillions” in the path to make it fun.

*It is unprecedented. Never happened before. Never, ever, ever.

They are all tied immediately to climate change, which is another subject for another day. But, a journalist or politician sending out a tweet the day after a high impact weather event, saying it is caused, or enhanced by climate change, is not how climate attribution studies are done. In their eyes weather has ceased to exit, and everything is climate.

Climate is an important and very interesting subject, and has unfortunately been hijacked by right wing and left wing political extremists. I will leave it at that.

Fear porn is running wild when it comes to weather coverage across “mainstream” media outlets. I can’t help but come to the conclusion that some of the video, pictures, and words used are designed to keep people in a state of fear. Yes, the world can be a scary place, but we sure won’t need any fear of weather promoted by TV nitwits.

Some of the statements used by national media during weather stories on newscasts are nonsense at best, and outright lies at worst. They believe fear is only the way of keeping people tuned in to their network or channel these days. The truth is, in my opinion, is that fear is causing people to turn it off. They are sick of it.

Talk with real people in a Walmart or Dollar General, and they will tell you.

And, as we move from “mainstream media”, to the new generation of YouTubers and TikTokers, it gets worse. The use fear to ride the algorithms needed for more views and eyeballs, which in turn brings in more followers and subscribers. And, with more views, subscribers, and followers, comes more money.

I’m all for making money, but using pure fear to rake it in is wrong on all counts.

Understand I do believe a new weather content distribution model will rise out of the cesspool on YouTube and TikTok. There are some very responsible accounts, but it is like finding a needle in a haystack. We are at the tail end of the business model that supported me and my family for a long time; the Ron Burgundy newscasts won’t be around much longer as the audience grows old and dies off.

I have great faith in the next generation to build an exciting new model that is more relevant, and will bring about a better way of providing responsible severe weather coverage. But, using “fear porn” to do it is wrong.

I choose to believe there are still many of us in traditional media, and within the new generation on the social platforms, that are responsible, and want to do the right thing. The encouragement here is to consider cutting out the fear nonsense. Be a straight shooter. Tell the truth without the hyperbole. And, in the midst of a major, high impact event that IS life threatening, be the calm voice of reason. This is how you attract viewers and followers. We can do it.