I was beginning to wonder what exactly it would take to knock the weather off local newscasts.
Heck, we were as guilty as anyone else, screaming on our Wednesday front page that we had hit triple digits – a toasty 102 degrees.
TV, of course, went all-weather, all the time. It’s what they do. If a rain shower and wet roads are enough to lead the forecast, you pretty much know what is coming when it gets that hot out. It was the summer equivalent of two feet of snow.
All of which was hunky-dory right up until around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. That’s when we first got word that one of those popular “duck boats” that traverse both land and water in the historic section of Philadelphia had been struck by a barge. People were being rescued from the water after being tossed into the Delaware River.
So much for the weather. 100 degrees suddenly didn’t look so important. TV turned their guns – and their cameras – on the spectacle on the river.
This morning two people remain missing. More than 30 were successfully plucked out of the river.
We did not make the duck boats accident our lead story, although we did tease it off Page One. The fact is that it is not our story. If a group of Delaware County folks had been on the boat, we no doubt would have looked at it differently.
Right now, local TV will be all duck boats all the time.
Wonder just how hot it needs to get to change that.
Heck, we were as guilty as anyone else, screaming on our Wednesday front page that we had hit triple digits – a toasty 102 degrees.
TV, of course, went all-weather, all the time. It’s what they do. If a rain shower and wet roads are enough to lead the forecast, you pretty much know what is coming when it gets that hot out. It was the summer equivalent of two feet of snow.
All of which was hunky-dory right up until around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. That’s when we first got word that one of those popular “duck boats” that traverse both land and water in the historic section of Philadelphia had been struck by a barge. People were being rescued from the water after being tossed into the Delaware River.
So much for the weather. 100 degrees suddenly didn’t look so important. TV turned their guns – and their cameras – on the spectacle on the river.
This morning two people remain missing. More than 30 were successfully plucked out of the river.
We did not make the duck boats accident our lead story, although we did tease it off Page One. The fact is that it is not our story. If a group of Delaware County folks had been on the boat, we no doubt would have looked at it differently.
Right now, local TV will be all duck boats all the time.
Wonder just how hot it needs to get to change that.
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