Commenter Dave disagrees with my view of KSTP’s global warming reporting. He notes that …
“WCCO has had the exact opposite stance on global warming. They have jumped in and rarely show the other opinion. I’ve never seen you mention that. WCCO also has Paul Douglas, the man who proudly announced he purchased a Hybrid car a few months ago. Problem is that Paul had been driving a VW Tourag (horrible on gas) and owns a small mansion on Bearpath. Paul seems to believe the sky is falling, just not around his house.”
On one point Dave is right. I should have mentioned Douglas in my previous screed. If only to compliment him. While virtually all of his Twin Cities meteorological colleagues either mince around the topic — the usual deflective chatter is on the order of, “Oh, that’s just all politics …” — or they dismiss it to avoid catching flak from upper management.
To his enormous credit, Douglas has been explicit in his concurrence with the best available science. (For better or for worse, TV weather people are the most recognizable “science types” a lot of people ever see.)
Let me put a point on this. If you are a TV weatherman/lady it takes no courage at all to avoid the topic of global warming, or to dismiss it. Quite the contrary. All you are doing is avoiding conflict, which if you are in the business of delivering straight information, comes with the territory. Oh, you might occasionally hear from a critic if you’re flagrant about dismissing global warming, but the public reaction is NOTHING like what you get if take Douglas’s far more professionally responsible stance and say, out loud and often, “This real, right now.”
Then watch the wingnuts light up the e-mail and phone lines.
Leave a Reply