Look, Up In the Sky

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's a television reporter covering a hurricane! I always thought it would be underdog till watching television news as an adult but almost as humorous. This past weekend, I was benefit to see our trusted reporters that I normally see bringing breaking news wearing suit and tie, dressed down into rain suits and ball caps.

Now I have been watching the news for along time, from my childhood with my father, because that's what we did when he came home and now as an adult myself. I remember while watching the news with my father and he saw a reporter covering a tropical storm or hurricane, he would reference the reporters education or the lack there of and wait for the weather man, the smart fellow staying safe at the station.

Back tracking over the years, I can't remember a tropical storm or hurricane that there was not a reporter not only in one of the cities affected but in multiple sites in the area. No longer do you see the only traffic in the area leaving the path of the event but you see an inbound flow of news crews, they even comment on how they are the only vehicles moving into the area. Now I'm not an intelligent man but I think the FBI would call that a clue.

Careers are made and broke by the stories these reporters cover, so I guess it's a small price to pay to get the "money shot" having to hang on to a street sign as a Buick blows by. Or standing under power lines as they arc off against one another before the transformers blow and billboards topple over, guess they will make as well.

One famous comic Ron White once said, in one of his shows, "It's not that the wind is blowin, it's what the wind is blowin!" This past weekend hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, and like I said earlier the reporters came and they reported, and reported and lastly, reported. We saw roofs a blowin, power lines a blowin, billboards a blowin, sheet metal a blowin and tree's a blowin, all around!

All of the aforementioned items are hazardous for the human body and will kill you! You would think most reporters would know this because they cover stories every day which death and injury is caused by every means imaginable. Is there a reason that the reporters could not stay in the emergency command center while the storm is surging and film the aftermath when it's a hair safer?

I know that would not be near as interesting as watching them blow around but it would make a lot more sense. You think they may have paid heed to Al Roker's experience while covering a hurricane in Naples Florida and was swept off his feet by the wind when he walked out onto the balcony of his hotel room, almost taking his camera man with him.

But yet they keep trying for the money shot even if it's not there, playing up to the camera as if in a high school play. One such time not so long ago, I watched as one news man ran up and down the street, as the camera man panned along making it appear as the reporter was working hard against the wind to stay in frame. Well it looked pretty good till you noticed nothing else in the frame was blowing but the rain.

These reporters love covering the storms, why not Tornados? They are the spawn of Mother Nature as well as tropical storms and hurricanes are they not? There are scientists that chase those around and film them as well but that might be a little hit and miss for television. How about Volcanoes and Forest Fires, they give you plenty of notice and are fairly long in duration. They cover some of these but do not get off in the middle of them, there is nothing like hugging a tree while the one next to its on fire, now that's a money shot!

Some would call this crazy but then again isn't it crazy to stand out in the open, your attention divided in 110 mile per hour wind, with items flying around that could kill you?

Think about it, the weather men and women for the most part stay in the station; think the FBI would call this a clue as well. They have studied these storms and know what they are capable of doing and opt to stay behind and predict their path. Do not get me wrong, I'm not against reporters being on scene but use some common sense and stay inside till it's safe to venture out and go home to your families in one piece.

For those of us that live along the Gulf and East Coast, I hope for our safety in the remainder of the hurricane season and that we dodge the bullets floating around in the ocean. I hope to never see a repeat of another Katrina in my lifetime and I think we learned some very valuable lessons from her. God Bless those who have lost so much and those who will lose so much in the future due to storms like this.