Posted on 04/16/2019 3:40:08 AM PDT by Libloather
A meteorologist in Atlanta said she received death threats from viewers for interrupting the Masters tournament that featured the historic and improbable win by Tiger Woods.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that CBS 46's Ella Dorsey took to Twitter to defend herself and the broadcast that only took up half the screen during the tournament.
“To everyone sending me death threats right now: you wouldn’t be saying a damn thing if a tornado was ravaging your home this afternoon. Lives are more important than 5 minutes of golf. I will continue to repeat that if and when we cut into programming to keep people safe.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Joplin would be “ultra-fringe” reception in terms of the KC stations’ viewing area, no?
Did the Joplin area stations give no local warnings while covering the KC area tornados? THAT would be sadly mistaken...
Correct, but the assets of the KC stations would have been actually useful with the real threat and the radar coverage showed that the storms to the south was the real story and the real danger. As you point out, Joplin is a “fringe viewing zone”, no ratings points in that direction.
Having been IN our home (I was 10 yrs. old) when it was destroyed by a tornado, I concur!
It is a vivid memory: Some things one does not forget.
Ella Dorsey is STUNNING!
I know longer will watch an NFL game. Yeah they got better but not enough.
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True. you wouldn’t want to miss watching the pitcher scratch himself for five minutes between pitches.
Not egregious enough for death threats. Maybe they should just use the scroll next time.
We had the same issues during the Final Four. We had to go to the ncaa.com site and stream it.
I guess my question is, does anyone in the Joplin area watch KC area stations? Maybe on cable or satellite (or have a 50 ft. tower with antenna to match)?
While I understand about “weather hype”*, what real “useful” things could the KC area stations do for the Joplin area, if no Joplin residents are watching? Notify relatives?
*One of my mentors was chief engr. at a local radio station as his 2nd job. (Radar & communications head tech at an airport was #1.) He liked to disparage our “Storm Team” weather coverage on a local channel. ‘Course though, he was the sort to not get excited when a storm wrapped the tower of his radio station around the transmitter bldg. Guess that came from his serving on a submarine in WW2!
“Folks can be nuts”
Wouldn’t surprise me if my 80 year old mother was one of the callers. To my mother, the only thing that comes close to the final day of the Masters is game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.
I remember it well. I was watching. They were still doing the intros. I thought the network or my cable company screwed up. It was the planet itself.
As it was I got to watch the whole series uninterrupted.
Yes that and nasty hairy pimples on the pitchers is one flaw of high definition TV.
Amazing how some people can endlessly obsess over a dumb little ball. Or any ball for that matter.
Some of the scenery is pretty and of more value that the game itself.
This happens all the time (and has for years), as I can attest, as a veteran of the broadcasting salt mines. Viewers want to watch their favorite shows, or special programming, like coverage of the Master’s. Local stations are licensed to serve the community and they see continuous severe weather coverage as one way to meet that obligation. Heck, even when I worked in local radio 30+ years ago, we’d get phone calls if we aired EBS (now EAS) alerts, which were required by federal law, or read more than just the bare-bone details of a weather bulletin. Invariably, they’d say “it doesn’t affect me.” Of course, if the storm was heading their way, it was a different story.
Actually, I can declare a pox on both of their houses. One reason location stations go wall-to-wall with severe weather coverage is because of the ratings bump. On average, a station will get a 15-20% increase in viewership, and some of that audience will stick around when they return to local programming. And, if your chief meteorologist is a market icon (like James Spann in Birmingham), the ratings boost is even bigger.
Also, let’s face it, some of the coverage is over-hyped. These days, every station has a SuperMaxDopplerStormTracker9Million radar, but they don’t tell you that most are simply taking a feed off the nearest National Weather Service WSR-88D Doppler Radar, and the info on our screen may be five minutes old (or more dated) as its presented to viewers. A tornado traveling at 50 mph can cover a lot of territory in that time. I’m also amused by meteorologists who highlight every rotation marker as a possible tornado. The station my wife favors has a history of doing that; I always make a point to switching to another station (with a better trained weather staff) who can offer a less breathless assessment of the situation.
As for the viewers, they have options, too. If your favorite show isn’t on the local station, pretty good chance you can watch it through an app on your phone and/or a streaming service. Not much of a golf fan, but I kept up with the Master’s on the CBS sports app. No reason those dimwits in Georgia couldn’t have done the same thing. Also, many stations operate more than one channel; in a situation like the one that arose Sunday, broadcasters could have pushed regular programming to the sister station or even social media. And when all else fails, the old “split screen” technique still works.
Lastly, the claims of death threats against that Atlanta meteorologist may actually be a career enhancer. Ms. Dorsey works for CBS46, the bottom feeder in the local market. The day after her coverage (and reported death threats), the station fired its chief meteorologist, Paul Ossman, clearing the way for Ms. Dorsey to possibly assume the top spot. Ironically, those death threats will create a little more hype for a station that needs all the promotion, publicity (and viewers) it can muster.
Any death threats made against Ms Dorsey should be thoroughly investigated, and the perps brought to justice. It will be interesting to see what happens on that “front” in the coming days.
Back in public TV land, most of connected inner-circle were all sports fanatics. They also got in on all the good paying freelance stuff. That was trumpeted constantly.
The same people could not figure out how a decent portion of the mere mortals hated sports and the inner circle.
The same idiots are probably pissed when the bad weather horn stops play...not the typical golf fans...
Just reminded me of the joke about how golfers could stay safe in a thunderstorm by holding a 1 iron over their heads...because not even God can hit a 1 iron.
Although I did see Jack Nicklaus hit a good one some years ago...which reminds me of another joke.
Jesus is golfing a round with St. Peter as His caddy.
They come to a water hole which requires a 195 yard carry to clear the pond. St. Peter hands Jesus a 5 iron and Jesus hands it back and asks for a 6 iron.
St. Peter exclaims that even Jack Nicklaus couldn’t clear the water with a 6 iron (older times). Jesus insists and sure enough hits it in the drink.
Jesus is walking on the pond looking for his ball when a couple golfers pull up in their cart and ask who He thinks He is, Jesus Christ?
St. Peter ruefully shakes his head and says, “Nope, Jack Nicklaus”.
I watched that one come in from Desoto, back-lit with lightning, the evening of April 25, 1994. Ugh!
Agreed on most all of that, although we do have one local station with their own radar - it was particularly nice when the nearest NWS radar went down for several days, several months ago.
I will say though, that due to the rapidity with which a funnel can develop and reach the ground, and the speed with which some storms travel (we had one near here with forward speed of over 70 mph, recently), “pouncing on “rotations” is not all bad. Our better stations tend to identify them, but then look for other indicators (like “debris balls”) or sightings before getting REALLY excited.
Of course, there was a recent local storm where the met was talking about a “possible tornado”, and “behind him” when they brought up their tower-cam, the tornado was clearly visible. He’s talking, mentions the cam, then we could see him squint @ his monitor (in front of him), do a double take, and say something to the effect of “oh, my goodness!”
It wasn’t just an odd cloud - it did significant (F2) damage over a 16+ mile path. Some fairly well built houses & other structures had roofs ripped off, walls knocked down, etc., and there was 1 injury (a big grain bin got thrown on a truck on nearby highway.) It was not a “monster storm”, but still, I would not want to be in its path! :-(
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