Screenshot : Twitter

Weathermen are sick of our bullshit. They’re sick of sports fans’ bullshit. They’re sick of Bachelorette fans’ bullshit. They’re sick of their goddamn coworkers’ bullshit. And today, they’re absolutely sick of their corporate overlords’ bullshit.




In the video above we have Joe Crain, a meteorologist from WICS-TV in Springfield, Illinois. Joe is understandably pissed-off because of the new “Code Red Day” weather alert system that his bosses at Sinclair Broadcast Group have imposed upon their stations. (You may recognize Sinclair from their work as one of the more insidious negative forces on modern American society.)


In a nutshell, Joe’s argument here is that the National Weather Service already has a “Severe Weather Outlook” that works perfectly fine, and more importantly, has a five-tier system that tells you just how severe that weather is. Calling every day with a possibility for some severe weather a “Code Red Day” causes unnecessary stress and will eventually lead viewers to ignore actually important warnings. Basically, Joe says, they don’t like it any more than you do.

“When you hear ‘Code Red’ you think the, as they say, feces is about to hit the fan,” says Crain. “So that being said, we understand your concerns, and we want you to know that we take them very seriously as far as myself goes... So we want you to know this is not us, this is a corporate initiative, the Code Red Alert, and behind the scenes many of us have tried to dissuade it for the last few months.”


Crain concludes by noting that while his station is corporately owned, they still have a responsibility to the public per the FCC, who viewers should feel free to inform if they feel that responsibility is not being upheld.

Digg notes that Crain’s bio has apparently been scrubbed from WICS-TV’s website sometime since March, but in an interview with the State Journal-Register following his missive, Crain said he was still employed.


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