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MARCH 15, 2008 - DAY OF INFAMY!
On March 14, 2008 there was a tornado in Atlanta that damaged the Georgia Dome, where the SEC basketball tournament was being held. So the pump was primed. The same weather system that had hit Georgia was going to come through our area on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at some point during the day. For the record, most severe weather that happens to the west or southwest of our area breaks down to some degree when it crosses the mountains before reaching our area. We RARELY have tornados because of this fact. But remember, the pump was primed by the Atlanta tornado! I just didn't know how primed it was until Saturday. I was watching the ACC basketball tournament semi-finals that were on CBS from 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm. I was also watching the weather radar on the Weather Channel to see how much badly needed rain we were going to get. Well, when the first rain clouds reached our area it hit the fan! Goodbye ACC tournament. The local NBC, CBS, and ABC stations started running continuous weather for about 3 hours (they would break occasionly for commercials, of course). It was a "blood in the water" feeding frenzy! Each station tried to out-do the other stations by making up tornados, death, anarchy, and pestilence. At one point they had 10 tornados on the ground wrecking havoc, death, and destruction! They ran 10 tips on what to do when a thunder storm comes to your house, starting with "go indoors" (I'm glad they told us that!) and ending with "cancel all travel plans"(you can't go out in your car during a shower). Then they ran 10 tips on what to do when a tornado comes to your house, starting with "hide in the basement", and ending with "kiss your butt goodbye". So many people called the CBS station to complain that their phone lines were jammed. So they announced on the air that it was "their duty to protect us" (who is going to protect us from them!) and they ran footage of the Atlanta damage to justify it, which had nothing to do with what was happening in our area, but it scared the crap out of many people because they did not realize it was video from Friday. I picked up both of my newspapers on Sunday morning to read about all the damage. There was nothing in either paper about the storm! THERE WERE NO TORNADOS, NO HAIL, NO HIGH WINDS, NO FLASH FLOODS! NO REAL DAMAGE! NOTHING BUT A LITTLE RAIN, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING! Now the serious thing about this entire matter is that THE LOCAL STATIONS LIED TO THE PUBLIC FOR OVER 3 HOURS THAT SATURDAY! THEY MADE IT UP AS THEY WENT ALONG SO THEY COULD BE BIG HEROS ON TV THAT AFTERNOON! The CM for each station was hyper-ventilating and running graphics with both hands. Sometimes the computer couldn't even keep up with him! There were spinning circles all over the weather map where he said there were tornados (not!) APRIL 4, 2008 - SECOND DAY OF INFAMY! Well, this past Friday night was a rerun of Saturday, March 15, 2008. For almost 3 hours you preempted all network programming to dramatize a few thunder storms that were in the area. I picked up both of my newspapers on Saturday morning to read about all the damage. There was nothing in either paper about the storm! THERE WERE NO TORNADOS, NO HAIL, NO HIGH WINDS, NO FLASH FLOODS! NO REAL DAMAGE! NOTHING BUT A LITTLE RAIN, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING! Now the serious thing about this entire matter is that YOU (AND THE OTHER LOCAL STATIONS) LIED TO THE PUBLIC FOR OVER 2 HOURS THAT FRIDAY! YOU MADE IT UP AS YOU WENT ALONG SO YOU COULD BE A BIG STAR ON TV THAT NIGHT! You were hyper-ventilating and running graphics with both hands. Sometimes the computer couldn't even keep up with you! There were spinning circles all over the weather map where you said there were tornados (there were none!). IS THIS THE WAY IT IS GOING TO BE THROUGHOUT THE THUNDER STORM SEASON? EVERY LITTLE STORM WITHIN 100 MILES OF US IS GOING TO CANCEL ALL NETWORK PROGRAMMING FOR 2-3 HOURS? AND THE NETWORKS WONDER WHY THEY ARE LOSING MORE AND MORE VIEWERS TO CABLE AND SATELLITE EVERY SINGLE YEAR. PAY ATTENTION! THE LOCAL FOX STATION DID NOT FALL FOR THE PIED PIPER, AND DID NOT PREEMPT NETWORK PROGRAMMING ON EITHER OCCASION. ANOTHER REASON THAT FOX IS GROWING AND CBS, NBC, AND ABC ARE SHRINKING! Repeat after me: |
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