{"id":57,"date":"2005-08-23T17:24:54","date_gmt":"2005-08-23T21:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/2005\/08\/23\/the-sun-leaning-bias-of-weather-repo"},"modified":"2005-08-23T17:24:54","modified_gmt":"2005-08-23T21:24:54","slug":"the-sun-leaning-bias-of-weather-reporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/2005\/08\/the-sun-leaning-bias-of-weather-reporters\/","title":{"rendered":"The sun-leaning bias of weather reporters"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether NPR or FOX, the news reporters’ currency is fair, objective
\nreporting… except when it comes to the weather. As the New Yorker’s
\n“Dawn Patrol” (August 8\/15, no longer online) pointed out, the weather
\nreport is really for entertainment and reassurance value, not its
\nfactual content. Newspapers and TV stations have ombudsmen and some
\nsemblance of professional commitment to minimize the impact of
\neditorial opinion on news reporting, but all such pretensions are shed
\nwhen it comes to the weather.<\/p>\n

Recently, for example, WBUR’s morning edition has had no problem
\nproclaiming “beautiful weather on tap today” (btw, why is weather
\nalways “on tap<\/a>” in WBUR-land;
\nis it ever really good enough to get drunk on?), even when the opinion
\nbehind the claim is questionable. Highs in the upper 80s is
\n“beautiful”? Only if broadcasting live from the beach!\n<\/p>\n

My point is simply that one man’s “beautiful day” is another’s
\nnightmare. Besides, how do you think the day feels when it’s judged to
\nbe “beautiful” or, more commonly, not? Sure is a heavy expectation to
\nlay on a single day.\n<\/p>\n

I remember arching an eyebrow at a series of New York Times weather
\nboxes that predicted “brilliant” weather for the day back in early
\nsummer, 1997. Amazingly, the Times later ran an article somewhat
\nabashedly retracting its over-exuberant reporting (this was the Times,
\nafter all). So, how about it WBUR — a little bit more objectivity in
\nyour weather reporting? After all, highs in the mid-70s and low
\nhumidity pretty much speaks for itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether NPR or FOX, the news reporters’ currency is fair, objective reporting… except when it comes to the weather. As the New Yorker’s “Dawn Patrol” (August 8\/15, no longer online) pointed out, the weather report is really for entertainment and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[411],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-observations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}