Quick, Someone Open a Window and Read the Thermometer

Technical difficulties plagued Portland's KATU morning show weather anchor, Julia Radlick. Her computer hard drive went down depriving her access to her stunning, dynamic, "Eyewitness Action Storm Team" weather graphics. How did she cope? Did she look at thermometers and weather gauges? Did she look at any weather data print outs? Did she change a backstage monitor to the Weather Channel and take notes? No. In a scene that brought to mind the "Saturday Night Live" skit where an evening news broadcast turned into "Lord of the Flies" when the teleprompter failed and anchors were not being told what to say, Radlick was reduced to repeating that her computer was down, and she didn't have graphics. Morning anchor Ken Ackerman tried to help by offering "you said it was going to be 68 degrees, right?" and writing a large 68 on a piece of paper that Radlick then gamely held up.

I don't want to get on my soapbox about why, in a 30 minute newscast (minus 12 to 18 minutes for commercials), local news chooses to spend 2 to 5 minutes in a newscast relentlessly subjecting the viewer to clever graphics and images of weather across the country, when all the viewer needs to know is what's going on here, and how will it affect my travel plans, which could be succinctly be served with a newscrawl at the bottom of the screen. It's a more telling story of how American news anchors are merely well coiffed talking heads who don't think, but merely parrot what they are given, and promptly shut down when the information source stops. Where's Max Headroom when you need him? In her defense, the love of my life, who in most cases has a better head on her shoulders than me, offered that perhaps Radlick just didn't have the data when the cameras were on for reasons other than an over reliance high-tech. Perhaps. But it's hard to buy that in a world where broadcast news is severely addicted to images, and has a definite form-over-substance business model.