Has anyone else noticed that the Weather Channel is pushing "Be Afraid"?

[EstimatedProphet]

It used to be storm Stories. Now they have "It Could Happen Tomorrow", about how major disasters are just around the corner, and we CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! OH MY GOD, PANIC!!!

Enough already.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. They've learned

Fear sells almost as well as Sex.




BOOK TV Schedule January 28-30
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2403407#2403697

[rooboy]

2. Look out for the new series...

"When Gentle Sea Breezes Attack" :)

[sarge43]

5. Next!

A Sunny Day: The Lurking Menace!

That Snowflake Has Your Name On It!

ICE! Water with a 'tude!

Twilight: The Sun Is Gone Forever!

:eyes:

[sarge43]

3. Yes

It's a shame. They have the resources to do some valuable educating.

[Quakerfriend]

4. Yup!

Have you ever seen the advertizement they do with the "It Could Happen Tomorrow" ad followed immediately by a red bullseye- As if to say, It's coming straight for YOU?!

[donsu]

6. they are telling the truth - storms, the weather is getting worse and

will continue to get worse under global warming.

I think they are very progressive in getting people to pay attention and think of our worsening weather to try and save their lives.

[Divernan]

7. They are competing with Santorum's AccuWeather.

Santorum attacked the Weather Channel for not being on top of recent hurricanes, as part of his campaign to jam through legislation barring NOAA/Weather Channel from providing for free any weather info which his major donor, AccuWeather is selling to TV stations. I think the Weather Channel is doing an excellent job of MAKING people face the drastic changes in our global weather patterns, which in turn may lead to political pressures on the US to follow the lead of all the civilized countries in this world and reduce toxic gas and waste emissions.

[Not_Giving_Up]

8. Yes!

I saw a commercial for the "It Could Happen Tomorrow" bullshit, and thought, "Wow, now even the Weather Channel is trying to scare the crap out of us." then I remembered that the Weather Channel ran segments related to global warming that were saying what the administration wanted them to say, and I wasn't that shocked anymore.

[KoKo]

9. Yes....their coverage changed after Katrina...

WH probably got after them for reporting about it. You know those Weather Channel correspondents were getting in the way of CNN/MSNBC.

What better way to control all the fear coverage than to add Weather Cannel to it's cable stable and Network waterboys. :-(

[WritingIsMyReligion]

10. Yup.

:eyes:

"IT COULD HAPPEN TOMORROW, PEOPLE!!!"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! RUNNNNNNNNN!

:eyes:

[pitohui]

11. they've always done that

torn porn and the rest is their stock in trade

if it raises awareness of the need for modern levees, modern science, etc. i'm all for it

if it just causes people to despair and want to abandon the coasts and river fronts, the source of every city's wealth, i got no time for it

take what you need and ignore the hype

[libnnc]

12. yep. when they started that crap

"It Could Happen Tomorrow" I stopped watching.

[donsu]

13. you can ignore global warming but it won't ignore you

nt

[libnnc]

14. It's not the global warming premise I reject

it's the way the weather channel uses it's time that bothers me. Are they making the connection to global warming with these shows? If so then, fine. But I suspect that they're just cashing in on the 'fear factor tee-vee' genre. That's all.

[donsu]

17. how do you suggest they tell the truth straight up without their bosses

stopping them?

americans are lucky to get any info at all.

[EstimatedProphet]

18. That's my problem with it too

I am all in favor of educating people about Global Warming and what it can do. The panic button programming that they are doing, however, isn't addressing the Global Warming problem. Instead, it's making everyone terrified to leave their homes, and I think it has an opposite reaction in that, if people get over hyped about 'super-storms' they can more easily be branded as kooks. Then the Global Warming issue can be further buried as a non-issue that kooks follow.

[Mutley]

15. I've seen the commercials for it.

They've been pushing that an F5 tornado will hit Dallas any minute now for years.

[misanthrope]

16. LCD...

Lowest Common Denominator

Unfortunately, it seems to be a nearly inevitable byproduct of the mixture of capitalism and media in our society nowadays.

[malaise]

19. I disagree with you

If the Weather Channel had shown a similar scenario about New Orleans last year this time, many might have reacted as you did. I saw the New York hurricane episode of 'It could happen tomorrow'. The fact is that New York has been hit by a hurricane in the past so I don't see how making people aware that it could happen again is spreading fear. What's more the population of New York has multipied since then. Perhaps a few rational people will actually think about what to do after there is a hurricane warning.

I am aware of the spread of fear, but reminding people what could happen re weather phenomena which have occurred in the past is not the same as the spread of fear re terror.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. I have no problem with educating people

However, the way they sell their shows is very much fear-based. "Storm porn" someone called it. That, IMO, is irresponsible.

[malaise]

22. I concede that it's sensational

but maybe that's the only way people will watch or listen these days. I too would prefer a more educational approach.

[EstimatedProphet]

24. I understand what you're saying

But in sensationalizing the destructiveness of storms, the predominant message that comes across goes hand-in-hand with the culture of fear that this administration has worked so hard to promote. It's unfortunate because IMO it shuts out rational discourse. you just can't talk to people about technical problems and solutions if they're hiding under their beds.

I see this approach more and more everywhere, and the only reason I can think of that it is going on in as many diverse subjects as it does is that it fits in with the "be afraid, and we will protect you" agenda. Here's another example: there is a show running on the Travel Channel about the top 10 US National Parks. Each park is described, there's beautiful scenery shots, lots of pictures of people enjoying themselves-and then, for each park, there is a statement about how terribly dangerous and deadly the area is, with discussion of how many people died there and what happened to them, etc. It's absurd, and watching the way the show is produced you get the feeling that it's a death sentence to go to a national park.

[malaise]

25. The National Parks are more problematic

because we know they want to privatize them and steal them for themselves. Still I agree that they ought to opt for an educational approach.

[SoCalDem]

20. I screen capped their hurricane warning.. It cracked me up..

[H2O Man]

23. They have

for a long, long time. The truth is that people wouldn't tend to watch the weather channel for extended periods if they did not have "hooks" like "be afraid, be very, very afraid." I had noted this in the mid-1990s, when I had a client who had his anxiety level increased to a painful extent when he subscribed to the weather channel. It was sad, because he was an intelligent fellow, gifted in many areas, and he suffered from a serious and persistent mental illness. Medication, avoiding alcohol and pot, and keeping a steady, structured schedule, and he lived a productive life. But then, the symptoms started. The only change was the weather channel, and the foundation of all his paranoid thoughts was "storms! be afraid!" I had never watched the channel for more than 10 minutes at a time, but when I reviewed it for a longer stretch, I saw the "fear factor." He stopped watching it, and was fine.