TV Meterologist Gloriously Goes After Whiners Complaining About "Bachelorette" Interruption

Fox 45 meteorologist Jamie Simpson goes off on viewers
who complained his tornado warnings interrupted "The
Bachelorette." I'm so glad he did this. 

Large, dangerous tornadoes were descending on the Dayton, Ohio metro area two nights ago. The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings.

Television stations interrupted regular programming to put their meteorologists on the air to tell everybody where the tornadoes were, what to do, and generally keep the public well informed.

The effort worked. Despite the tornadoes destroying dozens of occupied houses, only one death in the region was reported. That's because the National Weather Service and those television meteorologists saved lives by providing excellent warnings.

Was everybody happy with this effort? Of course not! Fox45 in Dayton interrupted an episode of "The Bachelorette" so that meteorologist Jamie Simpson could go on air with live tornado coverage.

This enraged fans of "The Bachelorette" who are convinced that the goings on in this "reality" drama is much more important than knowing whether a large tornado was heading toward their houses.

This outrage ended up outraging Simpson, who went on a glorious tirade against these put upon fans of "The Bachelorette."  The great video is at the bottom of this post.

"No, we're not going back to the show, folks. This is a dangerous situation, OK? Think about if this was your neighborhood. I'm sick and tired of people complaining about this. Our job here is to keep people safe and that is what we're going to do," an exasperated Simpson said on air.

He was just getting started. He went on: "Some of you complained that this is all about my ego......Stop. It's not. I'm done with you people. I really am, this is pathetic."

Complaints about television stations interrupting regular programming for severe weather alerts happen all the time and they're showing no sign of diminishing.

Remember, these are broadcast stations. They can't just air a tornado warning in one county, and continue on with airing "The Bachelorette" in some other county that doesn't happen to be under a weather warning.

People really do need to chill. I get it that it's frustrating that I might be sitting in northwestern Vermont watching TV with clear skies outdoors and Tom Messner from WPTZ is squawking about severe thunderstorms in New Hampshire.

Really, though, screw my frustration and anybody else's. What Messner and all the rest of the television meteorologists are doing is likely saving lives. As Simpson in Dayton said, think about the people under the dangerous weather threat.

I'd much rather not know who won this season's "The Voice" if it means some television meteorologist somewhere warned a family to get into their basement just in time to save their lives before the tornado hit.

Meteorologists and their weather warnings are really, truly must-watch TV. Your life might depend upon it.

Here's the video from Dayton:

TV Meteorologist Fired After On-Air Racial Slur: Fair Or Not?

Jeremy Kappell, a television meteorologist in Rochester, New York,
was fired after saying a racial slur on air. He says he flubbed his
words, but those who support his firing say he still shouldn't
have said it, and was not quick enough to apologize. 

Television meteorologists always have to contend with live TV. They risk embarrassing themselves with on air pratfalls, or screwing up their words, or the wrong image comes on. Anything can go wrong.

The meteorologist in this story said he just jumbled up his words on air in this story, but plenty of other people said it was more than that.

During an on-air weather forecast for WHEC in Rochester, New York, now former Chief Meteorologist Jeremy Kappell was showing a live shot of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park. Kappell appeared to call it the "Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Park," according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. 

That "coon" is obviously a racial slur.  After pressure from local race leaders, which led to pressure from Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren and City Counci Presidet Loretta Scott to have Kappell fired, the television station did so.

Chapel said the whole thing is a misunderstanding, that he didn't mean to say "coon," but he stumbled over his words and what sounded like "coon" came out.

"That was not a word I said, I promise you that. If you did feel that it hurt you in any way, I sincerely apologize," Kappell said in a Facebook post. "Martin Luther King Jr. came out way too fast," he said, so the whole name got screwed up, and the word "coon" was accidentally inserted during the flub, he explained.

He's also mad at the television station for firing him. "I am extremely disappointed at the decisions made by my television station, who I expected a certain level of support from and I did not receive at all," Kappell said.

The people who run WHEC are having none of that. "We believe strongly in holding our reporters and anchors to the highest standard," said WHEC General Manager Richard A. Reingold about the firing.

The station followed up with a statement saying, "An utterance such as this, with no immediate apology, regardless of intent, is unacceptable an inexcusable."

There is an audio of what Kappell said about 3:10 into this commentary video, in which you can clearly hear him say "coon."

"For tomorrow, Martin Luther Coon - King Jr day is going to see temperatures in the low 60s......" was what came out. From there in the broadcast,  Kappell continued on with his forecast.

City officials, like Mayor Warren (who is black) said in a statement: "It is beyond unacceptable that this occurred. There must be real consequences for the news personality involved and also for the management team that failed to immediately apologize and address the slur."

On the other hand, some prominent black television news and weather personalities are coming to Kappell's defense.  NBC Today Show host Craig Melvin said, "Anyone who's done this, as long as we've done it on air, you flub, you make mistakes. It would seem as if the guy made a genuine mistake."

Longtime NBC meteorologist Al Roker said in a tweet that he thinks Kappell "made an unfortunate flub and should be given the chance to apologize. Anyone who has done live TV and screwed up understands."

Inside Edition said Wednesday there are two competing Change.org petitions concerning Kappell. At broadcast time, an "I stand behend Jeremy Kappell" had received more than 33,000 signatures. A competing Change.org petition called "Do Not rehire Jeremy Kappell after his racist words" had just 12 signatures.

I know that's not a scientific poll, of course.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I wonder if Kappell would have saved his job if he acknowledged right after his on-air fumble that he screwed up and apologized right there.

What do you think?

TV Meteorologist Rick Rolled By The Original Rick Roller

Canadian meteorologist Brandon Gonez, left, seemed delighted to be Rick
Rolled on air. It helped that the actual Rick Astley came on set 

A "Rick Roll" is one of the oldest, and many would say most obnoxious internet memes.

For the uninitiated, getting Rick Rolled is when somebody sends you a link saying you MUST watch it because it's so incredible.

Then you open the link and instead of something you'd really go wow about, you get the music video of Rick Astley performing his 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up."

So it was recently on a recent morning that meteorologist Brandon Gonez was going over the rather inclement weather that was plaguing Ontario and Quebec when the familiar strains of "Never Gonna Give You Up starting playing.

Even better: The actual, real live Rick Astley came on to the set to do a meteorological in person Rick Roll

So much for the lousy Canadian weather.  Gonez really did seem to appreciate the Rick Roll

Here's the clip:

TV Meteorologist Has Had ENOUGH Of Cold Weather Whining

WXMI Meteorlogist Garry Frank in Grand Rapids Michigan pictured here
mid-rant as he complained on air about everybody complaining
about this cold, snowy, miserable spring. We feel for ya! 

Like practically everyone else, I've been whining about this wintry spring, one in which warm temperatures, greenery and pleasant sunshine seem like  a cruel joke that will never arrive.

As I write this late Sunday afternoon, it's a lovely 33 degrees with a mix of sleet, rain and freezing rain outside my St. Albans, Vermont house.

And you wonder why people are so frustrated with this month's weather?  

It's not just us in Vermont. As you might have noticed, huge tracts of the nation have had a cold, snowy, miserable April so far.

That includes Michigan, where WXMI Fox 17 meteorologist Garry Frank  in Grand Rapids last week had his fill of people complaining about his un-springlike weather forecasts this month.

He had an on-air rant, which went totally viral of course, because his frustration is our frustration. Yes, we're whining about our lack of spring, and we're sick of whining about it and sick of  hearing others whine about it.

Frank was also sick and tired of hearing his fellow news reporters at WXMI whining about it.

So he went on this rant, which is probably worth watching over and over again.

 

Easy Target, But I Love How This TV Meteorologist Destroys Flat Earthers

TV Meteorologist Keith Carson has had it with the Flat-Earthers. 

Apparently, believing that the Earth is flat, not round is the latest Big Thing.

Meteorologist Keith Carson of television stations WCSH and WLBZ in Maine, recently went off for five minutes on why the Flat Earthers are wrong. The YouTube video of Carson's rant went viral.

At first, you wonder why Carson would go after such a weird, unsustainable theory like "the Earth is flat."

But it looks like he decided just to have fun, plus he objects to the Flat Earthers raising money from the gullible, money that could go for more worthwhile things like cancer research. The rapper B.o.B, for instance, is trying to raise money to launch rockets that he said would "prove" the Earth is flat.

Alrighty, then.

Carson starts with the fact there are zillions of photos taken from space that show a round Earth. All fake, say the flat earthers. By the way, they don't have a solid conspiracy theory that the government is trying to hide the "fact that the Earth is flat, Carson points out.

It's just that - this is convoluted, as these things are - this round Earth idea is to try to make people used to and enthusiastically support space travel while the government tries to militarize space, or something like that.

And the flat earthers don't blame NASA. They just think the fine folks at NASA are simply unaware the Earth is flat. Or as Carson snarkily puts it: "Poor NASA. So clueless."

Carson concludes his piece: "Find the edge of the Earth, lean backwards ad prove to me that gravity is just another big lie."

Here's Carson's video. Totally worth the view:

Best TV Weather Segment Ever Includes Forecasts Of Farts And Toots

A little kid named Houston crashed a Mississippi television
meteorologist''s segment to forecast "farts and toots."

Residents in and near Jackson, Mississippi were probably startled, and maybe delighted, that their televisied weather forecast included the chance of farts.

Probably delighted because the scary news was delivered by a little boy who crashed an adult meteorologist's on-air weather forecast.

The WBLT-TV forecast presented by meteorologist Patrick Ellis on a recent Saturday began benignly enough.

Ellis said the area was under a threat of light showers, but that dry air over Mississippi would squelch most of the showers.

So, nothing extreme to worry about among Mississippi weather watchers.

That's when a young kid named Houston decided to spice up the ho-hum weather forecast a little bit, says Adweek's TVSpy website. 

Houston burst onto the set during Ellis' segment to warn viewers that "farts and toots" were also in the forecast. It looks like Houston demonstrated the threat of this "dangerous" weather by letting one loose himself.

You can see the delightful video at the bottom of this post.

It turns out that WLBT that local lawyers are sometimes invited onto the news set during the station's 6 p.m. Saturday broadcast. Often, these lawyers bring their kids to see how a local television news cast is run.

Usually, this doesn't cause much excitement. This time it did. "This Saturday was a little different....This Saturday our friend Houston decided he wanted to be on television."

When you watch the clip, it's great to see that Ellis just rolls with the situation until Houston's father abruptly pulls Houston off the air, pre-empting what could have been a really glorious weather forecast.

Here's the clip:

TV Meteorologist In MInnesota Has Serious Hangups

Minneapolis television station Fox 9 meteorologist Steve Frazier was about to launch into his morning forecast when he started figeting.

His suit didn't feel right. 

Then he discovered the problem. He'd left the hanger on his jacket.  The anchors on the news desk were not impressed.

Watch the hilarity here:

This TV Meteorologist Should Have Forecast A Dog Day

King the American Bulldog crashes Ryan Phillips'
weather forecast recently on NBC 6 in South Florida

Ryan Phillips, a meteorologist at NBC 6 in South Florida was just trying to get through his segment recently when King, a one-year old American Bulldog, decided to make a splash.

King was going to be on the next feature on the news program, in which NBC 6 features dogs up for adoption.

King apparently figured if he went on at a different, early time during the news cast, he'd make more of a splash.

That way, I imagine the reasoning in King's mind, is people would be more likely to give him a home. Or maybe he just wanted the treat he could smell in Phillips' pocket.

So he burst onto the set as Phillips was trying to forecast an upcoming warming trend. I don't know if summer-like dog days came to the Miami area amid the predicted warmup, but Phillips certainly had his own dog day.

But Phillips handled it like a pro, and treated King like the sweetheart he seems to be.

When the dog bursts onto the set, Phillips gently tells King, "How are you buddy? It's not your turn yet. You have to wait one more segment. Okay, just let me do the weather. You're stoked. So are we."

With that, King was ushered off the set, with some difficulty, as Phillips continued on with his forecast.

No word yet on whether King has been adopted, but the video is charming enough.

Watch:

"Please Pay Us" Alaska NWS Pleads In Coded Message

Credit the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post for alerting me to this gem

"Please Pay Us" say meteorologists.  

As I reported this morning, National Weather Service meteorologists, who are federal employees, are working so that people can get severe weather warnings and such, but they're not being paid while Congress dithers with the government shutdown.

Not surprisingly, these meteorologists are not happy about going unpaid.

So, meteorologists at the NWS office in Anchorage, Alaska found an ingenious way to protest the lack of pay.  Every forecast cycle, the NWS puts out something called a forecast discussion, that only hard core weather geeks like me read. The discussion basically lays out the scientific reasoning behind the forecasts they've issued.

Click on the image to make it bigger and more readable to see how the meteorologists managed to get their message across.   Bonus points if you understand what the meteorologists are saying in the discussion.