About a year ago, one of the local news stations introduced viewers to their “Weather Deck.” Ooooh. Aaaah. On said Weather Deck, they presented the forecast and did some other outdoorsy things on it. I can’t say that I was fond of the Weather Deck at the time, writing the following:
I understand why you might want to do a live shot outside when the weather is out of the ordinary. That makes sense to me, although that still doesn’t make me a fan of the deck. What doesn’t make sense is seeing the news anchor out there appearing very out of place holding a microphone, standing next to the weather anchor in a full head-to-toe 2-shot, attempting to read a fluff piece while looking pale and pasty because the camera’s quality doesn’t match that of the studio cameras, and the lights on the deck are too bright. Not only that, but why is someone, outstretched in what I can only guess is a lounge chair, partially visible in the shot? Oh, wait. That’s just the sports anchor relaxing on the deck.
At the end of my rant, I jokingly said that during sweeps they could set up remote newscasts on viewers’ patios!
Well, what a premonition I had! I got the station wrong, but one of the locals now does live shots from viewers’ backyards. I kid you not. It was just on TV moments ago and they were talking about someone’s freakin’ birthday cake! While I realize that sometimes it’s a slow news day, and I get the promotional reasons for doing such things, but this is a top 75 market. What kind of lame-*ss garbage is this? This is not news, you buffoons! I don’t care about Martha Lou’s party in her backyard. I don’t care that the hot dogs are on the grill. I don’t care that 35-40 people are expected to attend. This isn’t public access! Even when I worked in access we didn’t pull crap like this. Have some dignity! If I were a reporter there, I would be embarrassed to be the one who had to do this live shot.
Backyard barbecues does not a newscast make. I hate you, local TV station.
