Monday, July 07, 2008

NBC-Universal Buying The Weather (Commercial) Channel For Billions



The Associated Press and other "news" outlets report that The Weather (Commercial) Channel in Atlanta is about to be bought by another media conglomerate.


NBC-Universal has agreed to pay a reported "$3.5-billion" for the cable channel that USED to provide timely national weather information.

The Weather (Commercial) Channel has been under criticism for years now as commercials and non-weather features have seriously undermined the channel's content.

There have also been credibility issues on their reporting- brought to light in early June 1996.

The evening before- a large supercell thunderstorm developed and sat over Leavenworth County for quite awhile- dropping several small tornadoes that produced only scattered light damage.

I videotaped the storm for Channel 4 News from the Lewis & Clark Point on the NW Downtown Loop as the storm sank slowly south into Johnson County after sunset.

JoCo- including Shawnee-KS- got little more than small hail- heavy rain and below severe-criteria wind gusts.

The next morning when they went live again at 4am Central Time- The Weather (Commercial) Channel reported that a "last night a tornado struck Shawnee-KS- causing considerable damage."

Nearly 2 hours later- without explanation- correction or apology- The W(C)C quit reporting the "tornado in Shawnee" during their hour/half-hour weather-news teasers.

(I can only assume they finally received & read the email I sent them that morning- they never did acknowledge or thank me.)

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