Tag: the Connecticut Post

What Charles Barkley And I Have In Common

Truth is my public stand was taken after a very public forecast went bust… actually KABOOM! And unlike a politicians misdeeds he mentions which might harm us in small doses over time if at all, my error had an immediate impact on many lives.

snowy-wood-pile.jpgBack in 1993 Charles Barkley declared, “I’m not paid to be a role model.” He’s spent the last 17 years trying to prove himself right! I’m thinking the same thing right now because Ben Davol writing in the New London Day has tried to make me a role model.

Of my on-air apology of a few weeks ago he writes, “Can you imagine if our politicians decided to be as forthright and honest as Fox? ” He then produces a laundry list of pols basically saying, “Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”

Truth is my public stand was taken after a very public forecast went bust… actually KABOOM! And unlike the politicians’ misdeeds he mentions which might harm us in small doses over time if at all, my error had an immediate impact on many lives. To me there was no choice but apologize.

The real shame is that apology in general is a big deal. One columnist, Charlie Walsh writing in the Connecticut Post, thought it lessened my continuing credibility. He said my right move would have been to “soldier on.” In other words make like it didn’t happen.
Charlie follows his own advice. I sent him an email about that column a week ago. He seems to be soldiering on.

We teach this act of contrition to our children and then forget it as adults. We all need to be more responsible for our actions. We all screw-up. We all need to apologize a little more.

In inviting your comments on this post I’d rather have them relate to the subject in general and not what I did. Apologies and responsibility are valid topics for discussion. Another pity party for me is more self serving than even I can take. – Geoff

The Post’s Snow Lover Hates Me

Does seeing what he wrote upset me? Of course it does.

I got a mention in Jim Shay’s blog from the Connecticut Post&#185. The entry is called, “Weathering the anti-snow people.”

I tried to respond there, but the website fired off an error message saying it couldn’t connect to its database.

“[A] promising period of snow and cold temperatures are in the forecast.

No you won’t get that from the snow haters on Connecticut television stations. At the top of the list is Geoff Fox on WTNH whose anti-snow bias is enough to turn off the channel as soon as you see him. Sorry, Geoff, I’m tired of hearing that B.S. of the time you spent in snowy Buffalo. Why don’t you just tell the forecast instead of your shaking your head and have that condensending smug on your face when there’s snow in the forecast.”

fluffy-snow-deck-chairs.jpgWe’ve got to get Jim a spell checker. Actually, even if it was spelled right, what’s a condescending smug?

He’s mostly right though. I’m not exactly anti-snow (can one actually be anti-snow?), but I am a snow hater. Not Jim. His blog is named “Snow Zone.” Duh.

He’s unhappy with me. I suspect he thinks my admitted bias affects my forecast.

If it were only that simple.

He probably prefers those who predicted 100 of the last 25 inches of snow! To them hope springs eternal. All potential Nor’easters become Nor’easters. That’s not real life. That’s not me.

My forecast doesn’t make the snow come. As Dr. Mel says, “We’re in prediction, not production.” The snow is a passive observer. It does what it wants.

My job is to be as accurate as possible. Bias be damned. There’s no upside to being wrong. I’ve been wrong enough times over 25 years to know I want to avoid it (and to avoid humanity in general after I’ve been wrong).

Does seeing what he wrote upset me? Of course it does. No one wants to read along as the author tries to put you down (though, as hinted at earlier, it would be more effective if the Assistant Managing Editor of the Connecticut Post properly spelled his words and structured his sentences).

Stuff like this comes with the territory. I do a better job dealing with it than I once did. Anyway, the posting is not as bad as it looks because he wrote enough specifics to realize he does watch!

The blogger doth protest too much.

&#185 – The Connecticut Post was the Bridgeport Post. Like many papers attached to a downtrodden urban center with wealthier suburbs (Newark Star-Ledger, Camden Courier-Post to name two) it changed its name. That might be good for the paper while simultaneously demoralizing for the formerly named city.

Another Mention In Print

Wow – two print mentions in the past week. This time Joe Amarante of the New Haven Register called to ask about our lack of winter.

I’m not sure “alarmist crap” is be a phrase I’d use again for attribution. It was inelegant and crude. Unfortunately, it’s an accurate quote. Sometimes stuff just comes out.

I think writers, like Joe and Charlie Walsh at the Connecticut Post (who quoted me last week), have a distinct advantage over TV people. We need to haul our sorry butts to the scene of the crime. Newspaper people can just pick up the phone and interview a half dozen people in the time it takes us to drive to some far off little town.

Continue reading “Another Mention In Print”

Quoted In The Post

I got a call last week. It was Charlie Walsh from the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport. He, like so many others, had seen AccuWeather’s latest press release, featuring Joe Bastardi’s call for the remainder of winter, and wanted to discuss it.

I didn’t demure!

“While I’m not saying he’s wrong,” said WTNH-TV’s Geoff Fox, “call me a skeptic.”

Fox pointed to Bastardi’s prediction in October of last year that the coming winter would be “cooler than normal.”

“I think the tendency of people is to hear [Bastardi’s] predictions without considering his past accuracy,” Fox said.

Here’s the story from Saturday’s paper.

Continue reading “Quoted In The Post”

They’re Doing It Again

Charlie Walsh from the Connecticut Post called a while ago. He wanted my reaction to AccuWeather’s latest pronouncement:

WINTER TO COME “WITH A VENGEANCE”

Prolonged Period of Cold and Stormy Weather Appears on the Way

Quickly, I went to Google and found one of their earlier predictions.

Threat of Major Hurricane Strike Grows for Northeast

AccuWeather.com Warns That “Weather Disaster of Historic Proportions” Could Strike as Early as This Year

Sure – there’s the chance of a hurricane hitting the Northeast any year. Of course, there was none this year.

Then, in October, AccuWeather said:

Unlike the National Weather Service forecast, Bastardi does not see this winter being warmer than normal across the vast majority of the country. Overall, the AccuWeather.com Winter 2006

About My Friend’s Mom

As Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, I phoned a friend’s mother to tell her to leave. I wrote about this in an earlier entry.

This past week her story was told in the Connecticut Post and New Haven Register.

I’ve attached both stories after the jump.

Continue reading “About My Friend’s Mom”

Watching The Team In Action

Ann, our evening co-anchor, and I were on our way back from dinner when my cell phone started to vibrate. It was the assignment desk calling. There had been a major accident on I-95 in Bridgeport. Details were sketchy. It was a tractor trailer, full of fuel oil, and there was a huge fireball. We didn’t know exactly what was going on – but it was big.

I handed the phone to Ann. As she talked, I sped through the city, toward the TV station five minutes away.

“Ann, I’m going to run this light,” I said at a lonely intersection about halfway there. And I did.

We returned to the newsroom, which had moved from its normal routine to a more frenetic pace. The chopper was flying in from its hangar in Chester. The DOT had removed access to the traffic cameras near the scene (I have no idea why they do this – but they always do). The assignment desk was buzzing, making and taking calls.

Before the cameras went away, Jeff Bailey (left), our webmaster and a former show producer, had scoured the DOT’s web based cameras and plucked a shot of flames in a nearby building. Those cameras too were soon removed. He said he was lucky, but it was instinct that told him to look.

There wasn’t much for me, the weatherman, to do. So, I stepped back and took in the scene.

When there is breaking news, a newsroom is a fascinating place. It’s not just getting the story, but getting the story to those who will tell it. Then there’s coordinating all the disparate elements. Will the art department whip up a map? Can we move a reporter off an earlier story and down to the scene. Does the copter have enough gas to stay aloft? If it has to refuel, what’s the best time to do it… and where?

Is this a fact? Do we know for sure? Can’t guess. Gotta know.

Our news director was there, as was our 6:00 PM producer. The newsroom coordinator who had been in the neighborhood, stopped by, and was pressed into service. It was astounding to watch the flow.

I-95 is the busiest road in the country. The section cutting through Bridgeport, recent scene of years of construction, would be out of service for an indefinite period of time.

The desk checked the hospitals. We had gotten information – as it turns out bad information – that lots people were being taken to area hospitals. You can’t let bad information get on the air.

Reports came in, and checked out, that diesel oil carried by the tractor trailer had washed into a storm drain and was now heading to Long Island Sound through a nearby creek.

We went on the air, cutting into coverage of figure skating. The phones lit up as angry skating fans vented. It doesn’t make any difference what you’re covering or what you’re pre-empting. There are always calls.

The helicopter arrived on scene and Ann let Dennis Protsko, our chopper reporter do his thing. Later, Keith would anchor a cut-in, and then at 10:00, both of them together.

Having been in the chopper many times, I can tell you the best view is the view from our camera – not with the naked eye. Dennis has the advantage of both reporting and controlling the camera. I had watched in a monitor as he approached the scene. The camera, on a mount between the copter’s skids, darted back and forth as he scanned the scene. As he told his story on-the-air, the video followed along.

Other reporters, cameramen and live trucks arrived on the scene and we started to fill in details. We broke in twice during skating, did an extended 10:00 PM news and then our normal 11:00.

It was exciting to watch everything come together. TV news is normally heavily scripted and produced. This was seat of the pants – and it was great.

The directors fought off our control room automation system. They would need to make instant decisions – not preset ones. That’s not what the system does best – but no one would ever know tonight.

I don’t wish this kind of tragedy on anyone. But, when something big happens, I want to see the people I work with step up to the plate – and they did.

I’ll see the ratings tomorrow, but they’re not the indicator of what we did. We couldn’t go door-to-door telling people to turn us on. What we had to do on a night like this was convince those who were watching that we were masterful (and we were). Then, next time it hits the fan, maybe they’ll come back.

I’m really lucky to have been there and watched this. If you work in a team environment, this is what you’d want your team to do.

I can’t be accepted as an unbiased observer here. Of course I have a stake in how we do. But, I mean every word. I wouldn’t write it if it weren’t true.

Note: As great a job as we did, the best photo of the night goes to the Connecticut Post and photographer Christian Abraham. It is their photo, so I can’t post it, just link to it. This will win some prize, for sure.