
TV meteorologist objected to management’s ‘code red’ orders - sciurus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/06/07/tv-meteorologist-objected-managements-code-red-orders-on-air-apology-he-might-be-out-job/
======
js2
AFAICT there's no universally agreed upon meteorological definition for "code
red day." Rather, this is just something Sinclair made up for "risk of severe
weather." A "code red" is also used to refer to air quality[1]. And fire
risk[2]. There's also the CodeRED alert system[3].

So since this is just made up by Sinclair and doesn't have any technical
definiton, what's this guy complaining about? This is Sinclair after all.

1\.
[https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/Pages...](https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/Pages/coderedabout.aspx)

2\. [http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-
news/dc/3rd-...](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/dc/3rd-
code-red-air-quality-day-i.html)

3\.
[https://www.onsolve.com/solutions/products/codered/](https://www.onsolve.com/solutions/products/codered/)

~~~
greenyoda
The problem is that most of the people who are watching don't know that "code
red" has no real meaning, and they may decide what action to take based on
what the TV station says. Those actions could end up being costly and
unnecessary.

As the article says toward the end:

> Other meteorologists aren’t a fan of proprietary alert days to begin with,
> expressing reluctance toward alerts that don’t originate from the National
> Weather Service.

> “To me, the best option is communicating the risks issued by the Storm
> Prediction Center,” wrote Kit Cloninger, weekend meteorologist at KSNB in
> Hastings, Neb. “It’s simple, and consistency is key with broadcasting.
> Otherwise, viewers may wonder why one station issued an ‘alert day’ while
> another one didn’t.”

> Jamie Moker, a University of Arizona researcher working on improving weather
> modeling, agrees.

> “Branding is not universal across all stations,” he wrote. After all, the
> National Weather Service already has more than 100 types of weather alerts
> it can issue. Moker argued that the solution isn’t for stations to create
> more alerts but to work on communicating existing ones.

~~~
js2
Since the term has no real meaning, maybe desensitizing people to it by
overusing it is the best outcome.

I'd honestly be surprised if people acted on these faux alerts. I think folks
are pretty used to local stations claiming just about everything is urgent,
breaking, and important.

~~~
bonniemuffin
The problem is that people who've gotten desensitized to fake Red Alerts, are
also going to be skeptical when the National Weather Service issues real
alerts, because most people can't tell the difference. Do you know what
specific terms the weather service uses for real alerts? I sure don't.

~~~
js2
As it happens, I do. NWS alerts are either "watch" or "warning." I have a
radio for alerts. The weather alerts are by type (flooding, thunderstorm,
tornado) and severity (watch or warning). I've disabled everything but tornado
warning (not watch) on my radio. That means a tornado has been spotted and I
want it to wake me up so I can get my family into the basement.

[https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/](https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/)

There is a separate system for sending alerts to cell phones:

[https://www.ready.gov/alerts](https://www.ready.gov/alerts)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Emergency_Alerts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Emergency_Alerts)

~~~
TeMPOraL
That's just you though. And me. Probably most HNers too. But our parents or
friends? For many of them, it's all the same, some folks in telly
communicating warnings they divined via arcane magic and satellites.

------
ilaksh
I actually see a parallel between this and the Boeing Max issue.

Management's job is to make money. Since they don't actually do the work, they
have a limited number of options for doing that. And they are not judged on
the quality of the work, since someone else did it, only how much money the
company makes.

They need people to watch the station. So they came to the conclusion that
ratings would increase if they created a sense of emergency. Even if it's a
totally false emergency. This is actually a public safety issue, because it
means that viewers may not be able to determine when there is an actual
emergency.

In the case of Boeing, the pressure to make more money caused executives to
decide to implement a half-assed upgrade rather than do the new design work
and have to recertify the safety of the new plane.

It seems that the pressure to increase profits frequently overrides integrity.
I don't know how you're going to change that, because executives are only
rewarded for making more money, not for integrity or anything else.

One option would be to place these executives in prison for endangering public
safety. That's not going to resolve the core structural issue of profit
conflicting with safety.

------
csbrooks
I guess I'm not super concerned, because I stopped watching TV news a long
long time ago. In general they do everything they can to spread fear, and this
is just an extension of that.

~~~
bonniemuffin
Does it worry you that this kind of fear-mongering might be bad for society
even if it doesn't impact you personally? You might not watch the local news,
but many other people do.

~~~
entropea
It's just corporate media who no longer cares about informing the public in
seek of profits. It guarantees a watcher all day to consume ads, on edge about
extreme events to stay tuned and consume ads, while also normalizing severity.
These things are already put out on TV, Radio, and over many SAME alerts by
NWS in the event that there is a real emergency. There is also the easy to
read convective outlook.

[https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/)

------
will4274
This article is a study in the death of old news. It leads the reader towards
a simple clickbaity conclusion "Sinclair bad, meteorologists good" but it
doesn't come close to providing enough information to the reader or show any
sign of independent investigation.

Basic facts that would inform the reader, like "how many days a year are 'code
red'?" are missing. On one of the core points of contention - does corporation
decide when a day is code red or do the meteorologists decide - we hear from a
single meteorologist and a single corporate spokesperson who give opposite
answers, but the reporter (Matthew Cappucci) apparently couldn't be bothered
to call a few more Sinclair meteorologists (off the record) and figure out who
was telling the truth and who was lying. Instead, readers are left to infer
based on their previous biases - which, if you look at the comment section on
WaPo's website - they have no problem doing.

Does this even count as journalism?

------
jl2718
I see this going in the direction of hiring models to deliver a fully-scripted
weather report full of ads and politics and sex appeal with almost zero
weather-related content.

------
ducttape12
I heard a great quote once: Local news exists to scare the elderly.

------
PunksATawnyFill
"Code red?" That doesn't even mean anything! Where is the word "weather" in
that? Or "severe?" Or whatever it is that they're pretending to convey?

This is about as cravenly stupid as California's "red flag alert." WTF does
that mean? Red flags will be falling from the sky, snarling traffic and
causing mayhem?

Human stupidity is boundless.

~~~
threezero
“Red flag” actual has a legal meaning in California. Several places have
restrictions that come into effect on Red Flag fire days, including no parking
areas where vehicles can be preemptively towed because they may impede the
fire trucks.

------
brown9-2
Living in the northeast US I have never heard of a “code red day”. Is this a
regional thing?

~~~
joncrane
It's a Sinclair news thing. If you don't watch your local Fox affiliate for
your local news, you'd never see it, regardless of what part of the country
you're in.

------
tyingq
Their corporate contact email: comments@sbgi.net

------
nimbius
>Crain was not seen delivering the weather on air Thursday morning, and his
bio has since been removed from the company site. Torossian declined to
discuss Crain’s employment status Friday afternoon, stating that “our policy
is to not comment on individual personnel matters.”

Christ its as if someones exhumed the corpse of Stalin.

