As much as I don't watch mainstream television (as in traditional network programming), I usually do catch the national news while I eat dinner, just to see what is covered and how...and ABC's with Charles Gibson is the one I usually gravitate towards. If you follow this blog at all, you know I am not a fan of 'traditional' news on TV because of it's overriding tendency to focus on the negative and gory and fear-inducing headlines, which often seem purposefully slanted to be the way they appear. Last night was no exception.
Lead story, in short: heating costs going up this winter, colder than average winter predicted, people will be threatened with staying warm and paying their bills. As an aside, I did have to laugh when at the start of the extended story someone in master control rolled an incorrect tape...instead of the tape matching talk of heating woes and a harsh winter (puh-LEEZ), a tape from the Republican debate ran, and for an uncomfortably long time before they bailed out of it - you better believe some heads rolled for that gaffe, especially on the big lead-in... (ABC link)
I had just been mulling a viewer's email asking about our winter outlook in NC...personally, I'm not a huge fan of extended forecasts and will usually just defer to modeling from the National Weather Service and muse about El Nino or La Nina and how that will affect jet stream patterns in the East, which affects temperatures and precipitation. "A colder than average winter" they said...THAT was news to me....
Check out this page from the NWS and click on any of the temp maps up top or the precip maps below: U.S. extended range forecasts . Find any temp map for any period that has shading for 'below average' temperatures...it's distinctly the opposite. Sadly, our precipitation outlook is one for persistence in our Southeast drought conditions...a very, very bad sign.
Looking at the on-line ABC article, they pulled their information from the latest report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which oversees the NWS...overall a predicted 4% colder winter than last year, but 2% warmer than the 30-year average. Uh, last winter wasn't that cold to begin with, at least not for very long here in our neck of the woods...and it all hearkens back to one of my favored quotes from Mark Twain (paraphrased):
"There are three types
of lies in this world:
lies, (bleep) lies, and statistics."
The NOAA data was ho-hum to begin with, but with the Mideast crisis in full-swing, the impact of rising crude oil prices that will affect our economy as a result, number-crunchers had a field day creating "this could happen" data, in essence...and lo and behold it was the lead story that spoke of winter hardships ahead for many Americans, especially in the pocket book.
It was enough to make me lose my appetite.
Lead story, in short: heating costs going up this winter, colder than average winter predicted, people will be threatened with staying warm and paying their bills. As an aside, I did have to laugh when at the start of the extended story someone in master control rolled an incorrect tape...instead of the tape matching talk of heating woes and a harsh winter (puh-LEEZ), a tape from the Republican debate ran, and for an uncomfortably long time before they bailed out of it - you better believe some heads rolled for that gaffe, especially on the big lead-in... (ABC link)
I had just been mulling a viewer's email asking about our winter outlook in NC...personally, I'm not a huge fan of extended forecasts and will usually just defer to modeling from the National Weather Service and muse about El Nino or La Nina and how that will affect jet stream patterns in the East, which affects temperatures and precipitation. "A colder than average winter" they said...THAT was news to me....
Check out this page from the NWS and click on any of the temp maps up top or the precip maps below: U.S. extended range forecasts . Find any temp map for any period that has shading for 'below average' temperatures...it's distinctly the opposite. Sadly, our precipitation outlook is one for persistence in our Southeast drought conditions...a very, very bad sign.
Looking at the on-line ABC article, they pulled their information from the latest report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which oversees the NWS...overall a predicted 4% colder winter than last year, but 2% warmer than the 30-year average. Uh, last winter wasn't that cold to begin with, at least not for very long here in our neck of the woods...and it all hearkens back to one of my favored quotes from Mark Twain (paraphrased):
"There are three types
of lies in this world:
lies, (bleep) lies, and statistics."
The NOAA data was ho-hum to begin with, but with the Mideast crisis in full-swing, the impact of rising crude oil prices that will affect our economy as a result, number-crunchers had a field day creating "this could happen" data, in essence...and lo and behold it was the lead story that spoke of winter hardships ahead for many Americans, especially in the pocket book.
It was enough to make me lose my appetite.
1 comment:
Have you ever thought about switching networks? I agree that with the News we are fed yuk, but I guess I process over it. I prefer Brian over Charles Gibson..sorry. Love ya!
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