When the Weatherman Plays Dumb
Mass. Media - Published in the Boston Globe on Tuesday, January 9, 2007
The anchorman was in a dither. “The weather is downright weird,” exclaimed Ed Harding of WCVB (Ch. 5) on a night when high temperatures broke records up and down the East Coast. Harding reported more heavy snow in Denver, no traditional lake effect snow in Syracuse where golfers teed up on greens, and a record 63 degrees in Boston. “What in the name of weather of going on?”
Harvey Leonard, the station’s weatherman could offer little insight, except to blame an errant jet stream and promise there will be a “price to pay later on.” He also cracked a joke about Harding golfing in Syracuse. Actually, he made two golf jokes. The tone turned serious during an unsettling story about dolphins stranding themselves inexplicably along the Cape Cod shoreline.
Down the dial at WHDH (Ch. 7), Pete Bouchard, resident meteorologist, showed off a pretty picture of a flowering plum tree in Jamaica Plain. On CBS4, anchor Lisa Hughes declared, “Oh omigosh, this is unbelievable,” about the record high temperature, but she presented the pleasant prospect of “beautiful” Patriot’s playoff forecast while Ken Barlow, station weather guy, referred to the immediate outdoor conditions as “mind-boggling.”
