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National Weather Service rebukes reporter for live report from atop some floating ice

The National Weather Service was not quite as enamored:

We do not recommend going out and floating on icebergs; this is a very dangerous situation along the coastline with major flooding ongoing, peoples homes & other infrastructure becoming inundated and damaged; please observe should you have to from a safe location.

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Comments

Don't try this at home, children!

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... at all!

We all pay into worker's comp. Floating or not, it's a dumbass move. You never mess around near the ocean - particularly when the ocean is acting up.

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... is the comment that this somehow demonstrates that she's "the best in the business."

Just admit that you're in the entertainment business rather than in the business of providing useful news and weather coverage.

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IMAGE(//pics.me.me/are-you-not-entertained-meme-com-12069313.png)

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I was!!

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Of course, if someone gets hurt that's another location the local news can go cover. ("The child's mother said she had no idea why he attempted such a stunt. Reporting live, back to you in the studio.")

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So all news should be delivered by a person sitting at a desk in a monotone manner. No pictures or videos allowed. That would be too entertaining.

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"So all news should be delivered by a person sitting at a desk in a monotone manner. No pictures or videos allowed. That would be too entertaining."

You ever hear the name "Walter Cronkite"? I guess a person sitting at a desk delivering the news in a responsible and intelligent manner free of gimmicks would not hold your attention in this era of infotainment.

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Not only have I heard of Walter Cronkite I used to watch him. Do you remember the space launches? Four hours of Cronkite sitting at a deck.The image of the rocket was behind him. He used models of the space craft to explain the maneuvers the craft would be making.
His regular news broadcasts had film when possible.
So Walter did not sit at a desk and deliver the news with a monotone voice and no pictures or videos.

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The news really should be like that but every broadcast should also open with the anchor looking directly into the camera and saying, "Lie back and think of England."

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and stop calling the show "news"

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In my fantasy world, the purpose of news would be to inform. And so the editorial criteria, whether or not to use a particular film clip, whether or not to run a particular story, would be:

  1. Does this item help inform our viewer so as to make him or her better able to live his or her life successfully and enjoy it
  2. Does this item help inform our viewer so as to make him or her a more effective member of our participatory democracy

But, we vote with our eyeballs, and we reward stupid clickbait more than we reward substantive coverage, and so we get what we deserve.

I remember that MBTA worker who fell down a hole at the Charles street T stop a couple of years ago and broke both legs when he hit bottom. The hole was too small to lower a fire department person to rescue him; they had to lower a harness, which the poor busted-up guy had to put on by himself, and they hauled him out. I counted news helicopters over head, and emergency responders, and guesstimated that we spent about 10x as much on helicopter time as we spent actually rescuing the guy. To what positive purpose?

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This is FOX after all.

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Substitute "Keith" instead of "Kathryn" and they'd be praising him instead of chastising for her innovative reporting.

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Oh, I hope not because that's an incredibly stupid thing to be doing, no matter who you are.

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No they wouldn't. I'm pretty sure our pals over at the NWS are gender-blind wrt their anti-wankery wonkery.

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As with so many things in show business, things aren't as they seem.

According to a followup tweet, she was standing on chunk of ice that was sitting on pavement, not floating. Of course the original tweet made it seem like she was floating and for that the NWS is correct to rebuke her for the image.

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Alleged reporter here. C'mon. She got in and showed how insane the conditions are.
She didn't say HEY C'MON THIS IS FUN!, KIDS!

If she had jumped out of a window to dive into Atlantic Ave, that's different.

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(My failed attempt to link to the Lillian Gish ice floe stunt scene in then 1920 silent film Way Down East)

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Not because of the ice, but because the ocean was not doing predictable stuff.

Use it as a back drop from safe remove. Don't jump out there and get your newsy ass barreled by a sneaker wave when the wind shifts.

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She wasn't near any waves whatsover and "sneaker" waves don't pop up when the wind changes.
Waves are formed over time and distance with consistent winds pushing the water.
And Nor'Easter winds don't switch around quickly. They clock around as the storm moves past your position.

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You go to the beach so you know these things?

Right.

Stay on the shore. Like, 20 miles in land.

If she fell in that <30F water (yes - salt water near freezing is colder), what would happen?

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I fell in a slush puddle once when I was a kid. My pants got cold and wet. Fortunately I wasn't swept away into the storm drain down the street.

Or was that a rhetorical question?

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Slush puddles don't behave like flooding shorelines.

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I have for 15 years. I surf and bodysurf all the time and have for years. Also did some blue water sailing when I was younger. I understand how waves work.

Thanks for asking, though.

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I'm same anon that understands waves. I know the water temp too. I don't have to guess. Nantasket was 44 that day. My surf app say Nahant was 48 today but that seems high.

By the way, I'll answer your question about what I think would happen if she fell into water on flooded land and got completely wet yesterday:
She'd be wet and cold and miserable.

And then she'd get into the heated van idling outside of her camera shot.

Then, she'd hopefully dry off and change into warm clothes and have a brandy and be fine.

What do you think would happen, oh wise one?

Can't wait for this one...

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According to a followup tweet, she was standing on chunk of ice that was sitting on pavement, not floating.

Did anybody honestly think that she was standing on a floating piece of ice? Really?

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AHA! I knew there was more to this than met the eye. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

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How the hell is that an iceberg? As was posted earlier, it's a piece of ice on the pavement. IF it were actually floating, it still wouldn't be an iceberg, it'd be a floe.

An iceberg is what the Titanic ran into.

An ice floe is what the characters of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer float around on.

But what's the difference?! TV Reporting doesn't need to be accurate! Just cool!

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Umm...Adam? NWS' comment was clearly sarcasm. They were well aware that Ms. Burcham was not actually floating on an "iceberg."

That's why it was so funny and well-received.

13/10 Nice iceberg, would pet.

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Oh, please. The scolding from the NWS is an embarrassment. I would think the NWS has more important issues to be concerned with at the moment other than a Boston local news tweet joking about reporting while standing on supposed floating icebergs.

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The scolding from the NWS is an embarrassment.

Why? You're not their mom.

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IMAGE(//i.imgflip.com/226xux.jpg)

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