Here is some late breaking news from my local newspaper: It’s going to be hot this weekend. Yes, heat indices here on the upper Texas coast could be in the 100s this weekend. Wow! It’s as if we were in July or something. Wait, it is July.
Excuse me if I seem critical. I certainly am not taking a swipe at the reporter. He is just taking his marching orders from an editor. And experience tells me that editors, just after they’ve been administered a lobotomy, are sent off to Redundant News Indoctrination School.
Now, I can consider myself somewhat of an expert on this topic. At least the part about newspaper reporters doing weather stories that aren’t exactly news. I must have written hundreds of weather stories when I was a newspaper reporter. Editors love weather stories. That is why weather stories saying it is hot appear in Texas during the hottest summer months. It isn’t like we don’t know it is supposed to be hot. Or that it might rain. After all, the average July temperature is in the upper 80s but 90s and even 100s are as common around these parts as mosquitoes. The average rainfalls is usually between 55-60 inches annually.
Perhaps the editors feel the public need to be reminded that it can be hotter than hades. I have only been in and out of my pickup four times today after it being parked in the sun. I have been reminded each time that it is hot. So thanks to the editors at the Beaumont Enterprise or whatever paper for reminding me once more that it’s hot and getting hotter.
So what is genuine weather news? It’s when man bites dog or nature bites man in the ass. A tornado touching down and causing damage is news. Hurricanes, like Rita which we experienced here in September 2005, was news when it approached, when it hit and long after it was gone. Some facets of its aftermath are still news. A white Christmas here is news. A drought-ending rain is news. But a story which says it’s hot or it’s raining in Beaumont, Texas, isn’t exactly news.
Editors say that people love weather stories and that is the reason I, Mr. Martinez in this local piece and countless other reporters have written so many weather stories. And I agree, up to a point, that the people like weather stories. The weather segment on local TV news is watched probably more than anything. I just don’t think such stories stating the obvious are particularly useful with the exception of filling the daily news hole.
Will anyone hear my railing on this issue? I mean anyone who counts? No. And even if they did the editors have been brainwashed in what is left of their brain when they take the job that weather stories must be written, come Hell or high water. Such is this deep dark secret of journalism.
Stay cool, ya’ll.