Cityscape

Yoo-Hoo, Metro Times: Ridiculing TV Snow Reports Is Being Captain Obvious

February 02, 2015, 11:42 AM by  Alan Stamm

Bulletin from Metro Times:

Watch the news and you'd think that the little flakes of snow were made of radioactive poison or something. . . . . It's snowmageddon! It's the snowpocalypse! We're going to be buried alive

That's how managing editor Michael Jackman reacts to the amped-up broadcast reflex we saw this weekend and surely will again before crocuses sprout.


From WXYZ's website Monday morning.

A few hours into the storm that dumped nearly 17 inches at Metro Airport, he posted "A public service announcement about snow," as his blog headline says.

Every winter, the mainstream media crank up their fear machine and warn us that we're facing a great trial every time more than a few inches of snow fall. . . .

We're all supposed to freak the fuck out because it's going to snow enough to cover that garden gnome in the flower bed. On a Sunday.

Isn't it just a little bit . . . insulting?

Jackman slaps newspapers as well as newscasters. Unless a storm is toxic or truly epic, he suggests, "maybe the front page or lead segment could be about something newsworthy."

From where we sit, admiring a sun-brightened snowscape, severe weather alerts are news many people can use and noise anyone else can tune out.

As Metro Times reader Juan Perry comments Monday morning under Jackman's swipe: "When it's the third-biggest snow storm in recorded history I'd say it's news. How about you keep trying to be a real reporter rather than knocking down the work of others?"

Now that he's poked at overly dramatic TV news, we wonder what's ahead from Captain Obvious at Metro Times:

  • A post suggesting Mitch Albom is a formulaic writer?
  • Or that Roger Goodell is arrogant and out of touch?  
  • One about politicians who exaggerate?
  • A claim that we're predatory vultures who siphon readers from larger publications?


Read more:  Metro Times


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