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No cable news / Weather Channel coverage during Midwest tornado outbreak

Theater of My Mind

Theater of My Mind

Huge tornado outbreak in progress across the Midwest right now. Casualties and major damage being reported on social media but CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News are all in repeats of their earlier primetime shows without even a live news ticker at the bottom of the screen to provide breaking updates.

Even The Weather Channel is running canned programming with no on screen mention of the events. This might be the saddest failure of all considering this is the one occasion when people probably tune into The Weather Channel for news. My twitter feed tonight is full of people calling out The Weather Channel over this.

Same story on the secondary "news" channels -- Cheddar, Newsmax, OAN, etc, but no surprise there.

Time to bounce over to the Radio topics to see if anyone is posting about radio's coverage tonight.
 
I knew someone would jump in with that old red herring. Sure there's probably local coverage. But this is a story of national interest, and those national channels should be on it.

Anyway, the new FOX weather channel has a whole team covering it. Apparently they've been on the air live for hours and they still are, even after 3 a.m. EST. So don't say it can't be done. Ironically, FOX Weather is so new they aren't even on any cable or streaming providers yet, as far as I know. You have to go to their own website to watch it.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
I knew someone would jump in with that old red herring. Sure there's probably local coverage. But this is a story of national interest, and those national channels should be on it.
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Sure, national interest, but primarily a danger to people in the line of the storm.

Weather Channel is interrupting the overnight programming with Severe Storm alerts tracking the line through Kentucky.
 
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I was watching an online feed hosted by several storm chasers as well as the Weather Channel. The online feed reported what chasers in the area were reporting and there were not many of them. The household name chasers chose not to chase because it was too dangerous, a direct quote from one. As the tornado went into Mayfield, one chaser's communication was interrupted and it was several minutes until the chaser was able to confirm he was okay. That chaser ha been in the path of the tornado and it seems he was very close to the rotation. NWS radar indicated 303 mph winds in this reportedly mile wide tornado that hit Mayfield. It is speculated at this point, the tornado was on the ground for about 150-200 miles.
 
I thought it was odd that TWC went to reality shows at midnight when the tornado was still on the ground. This storm covered a huge area, and even if it isn't an immediate danger to me, I know people in the path. Yes I know how to.find the local streams of TV stations in the affected area. When tornadoes hit my old home town in Dayton Ohio had its Memorial Day tornado, TWC was competely out of luck.
 
b-turner said:
I was watching an online feed hosted by several storm chasers as well as the Weather Channel. The online feed reported what chasers in the area were reporting and there were not many of them. The household name chasers chose not to chase because it was too dangerous, a direct quote from one. As the tornado went into Mayfield, one chaser's communication was interrupted and it was several minutes until the chaser was able to confirm he was okay. That chaser ha been in the path of the tornado and it seems he was very close to the rotation. NWS radar indicated 303 mph winds in this reportedly mile wide tornado that hit Mayfield. It is speculated at this point, the tornado was on the ground for about 150-200 miles.
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I watched WPSD in Paducah and I found a live meteorologist on an Accuweather feed.
 
gr8oldies said:
I thought it was odd that TWC went to reality shows at midnight when the tornado was still on the ground.
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At midnight EST when TWC cut to canned reality shows, its was still only 9 p.m. PST -- prime time in the west.

The current owner of The Weather Channel, Byron Allen, isn't known for spending much on programming his other TV channels. Looks he's got The Weather Channel running on a similar shoestring now.

FOX Weather was on live all night. Looks like they're poised to take over as the go-to weather channel, especially once they get onto all the major cable/streaming platforms. I'll remember last night as the pivotal occasion for the shift.

As of this morning there are reports of at least 70 dead, and that number will probably go up. Every news organization, especially those that specialize in weather, should have been all hands on deck for this.
 
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Please pray for those that lost their homes, family members, and friends this close to Christmas. This is the worst of the worst type of tornado outbreak. The one that hits in the middle of the night, triggers tornado emergencies (yes, there really was), and forces the NWS to figure out if history was made...apparently, a tornado may have been on the ground over four different states - MO, AR, TN, AND KY.
Amazing how a streaming service ran by Fox News was providing more coverage (ala, the old TWC of yester-year) than the current TWC ran by Byron Allen. He might as well start running reruns of 'Funny You Should Ask' at this point. There was no excuse for running reality crap with *tornado emergencies* issued in MO and KY.
Where did the NWS report 303 mph winds at Mayfield? Link? That's definitely an EF5, and would be the first since Moore OK in 2013.
 
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The 303 mph winds was reported by a group of chasers that were looking at NWS data as it was going through Mayfield. At one point they reported two spots of rotation with a possible twin tornado for a short period.
 


Streaming news outlets like ABC News Now and CBSN are airing the Tornado coverage on apps.


www.cbsnews.com

More than 70 dead in Kentucky after tornadoes hit central U.S.; 6 dead at Amazon warehouse in Illinois

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said earlier Saturday the death toll "could end up exceeding 100."
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

At this point we should not be too dependent on the traditional national news outlets for breaking news. This time we have to go to places like ABC News Now and the streaming feeds of local TV stations for that. Note in events like this local TV stations may be off the air due to power outage or emergency orders to leave their building for safety reasons.
 
Also Weathernation to might have showed coverage. Also the Weather Channel did recently change Weekday Schedule might not wanted to bring in like Jim Camtore on Saturday.
 
Mgomrjsurf said:
Also Weathernation to might have showed coverage. Also the Weather Channel did recently change Weekday Schedule might not wanted to bring in like Jim Camtore on Saturday.
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Can anyone here translate gibberish? Or are you really trying to say that TWC went to garbage filler programming at midnight EST because one man -- Jim Cantore -- only works on weekdays?
 
FOX Weather put The Weather Channel to shame last night with their continuous coverage. Almost 40 years to prepare for extreme weather coverage, and The Weather Channel was in reruns while tornado warnings came throughout the night. It’s embarrassing.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
It’s not always possible to mobilize on short notice. That’s just life. If I’m in the middle of it, what the Weather Channel does is not my concern.
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But a big part of TWC's appeal from the outset has been its coverage of extreme weather. Jim Cantore clinging to a streetlight pole in 70 mph wind grabs the attention of viewers far from the storm or in its future path. So do shots from the helicopter of flattened towns, interviews with shaken survivors, the whole nine yards. Like it or not, entertainment is in TWC's mission -- ESPECIALLY when a major weather event with considerable appeal to gawkers nationwide is happening. That the honchos there responded to that opportunity to grab eyeballs by ignoring the real-time storm and showing recorded "reality" programming instead makes no sense.
 
Weather Channel coverage - or lack thereof - as the storm was occurring was utterly disgraceful.

Not only did WeatherNation report on the storm live, but during the daytime TODAY, ABC News actually broke into network programming to air Special Reports regarding the extreme damage in western Kentucky.

I agree 100 percent with CTListener. The Weather Channel has lost its reason to exist at this point. I guess storm coverage only matters to them if said weather occurs between 4p and 8p ET (when "Storm Center" airs).
 
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