The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Reporters Risk Injury Covering Hurricane

**Posted by RadioActive** October 10, 2024 6:35 am

It's one thing to watch it on TV, it's quite another to be there in the flesh. I've often wondered about the chances reporters and anchors take in covering a hurricane, and it was on full display in the past 24 hours.

CNN's Anderson Cooper was doing a live stand-up when a piece of flying debris clocked him in the head. He somehow continued on with his narrative, saying only "Wow, that wasn't good!"

Another CNN reporter was literally blown off screen as he was talking to Cooper from a different city.

And then there 's a question I've long asked: how in God's name do all these people keep their baseball caps from blowing off? I watched some of the coverage on Wednesday night, only to see correspondent after correspondent stand there with a gale blowing, and the hats sitting on their heads seemingly unmoved. I go outside for two minutes in a slight breeze and mine threatens to be gone with the wind.

Finally, the inevitable happened, and at least three did see their hats fly off and in some cases, they chased after them while they were still on camera.

For a while, I was thinking they were fastened on with Crazy Glue.

You can see Cooper's on camera accident here, and a story on how other reporters fared at this link.

The other question, of course, is if authorities have ordered mandatory evacuations amid warnings of 15 foot storm surges, where the hell are these people staying and how can it be safe for them to be there?

I applaud them for their courage. Not sure I'd want to be out there in that.

**Posted by The Weed** October 10, 2024 12:43 pm

Don't forget the lonely cameraperson who has to hold the camera steady and get the shot of the reporter. Unless all the on-camera types are also setting up the camera too.

**Posted by newsguy1** October 10, 2024 1:01 pm

huge news organizations like CNN always arrange for the best of accommodations and sometimes they even build prefab buildings at great expense.
I'm not saying that happened here, but it is common for the mega newsers to throw tons of money into these things.
Yes, they take risks, but you will often here an anchor giving the reporters an out, like saying, OK Anderson you better go and keep yourself safe now, etc.
Here in Canada I have covered asll sorts of stories where not-so rich reporters like me had to search myself for some rickety hotel room, while my counterparts at the CBC, CTV, Global, ect had the plushest and most comfy digs.
And yes, I even saw the CBC build their own prefab hotel for their crews in Walkerton to cover the water disaster inquiry.
CTV had rented out most of the best hotel in the region for their people.

**Posted by paterson1** October 10, 2024 2:01 pm

The Weed wrote:
Don't forget the lonely cameraperson who has to hold the camera steady and get the shot of the reporter. Unless all the on-camera types are also setting up the camera too.

Actually the camera folk can't see behind them or to the side very often so they are in a real danger of getting hit. Lucky for Anderson, it was a piece of styrofoam that hit him but it could still hurt since it was a large piece and travelling very fast.

Although last night watching the coverage, I sort of thought it wasn't really necessary after a while to have reporters and camera people actually out in the storm. A bit overdone and really wasn't adding much to the coverage.

What was impressive was the fact the audio and video was so good under these conditions.

**Posted by ED1** October 10, 2024 3:27 pm

Local stations in the affected areas appeared to have not sent their reporters to do these ridiculous live hits in the wind and rain. Most of them were taped reports, or they were reporting from somewhere safe.

It seemed it was only the national media outlets like CNN and FOX Weather Channel who were sending their crews into the storm.

**Posted by RadioActive** October 10, 2024 7:05 pm

Another casualty of going live - professionalism. I just watched NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt on scene in a Florida city. He had no autocue or prompter and was forced to constantly look down at his script on camera, making it obvious he was reading the copy.

And he must have been flustered. He even blew his trademark extro, which is normally "Take care of yourself and each other." But in a rush to get off the air, it came out "take care of each other," followed by a long pause when he realized he'd blown the line he's said every single night for years. After an awkward moment you could almost feel, it was followed simply by "goodnight."

**Posted by ED1** October 10, 2024 7:50 pm

ABC last night did a live 1-minute cut-ii across the network with with David Muir standing n the height of the storm. I thought it was really unnecessary use of satellite and control room time.

**Posted by RadioActive** October 10, 2024 8:33 pm

Alex Pierson on AM640 Thursday morning referred to it as "weather porn." She says meteorologists, who are normally stuck in a studio with fake chroma key weather maps supered in behind them, just love being out in the raging conditions to try and explain how bad it is. It doesn't happen too often, so they take their exposure to the extreme elements when they can get them.

And news producers love those shots, too, because it makes the viewers go, "Wow! Look at that!" Which is good for ratings.

Have to say the best shot I saw of them all came on ABC's World News Tonight, when a guy somewhere in Florida was driving down a rain flooded street and out of nowhere, a crocodile shot up out of the deep water and started biting at his car tire. Now there's something you don't see every day.

Thankfully.

If you missed it, it can be seen here.

Last edited by RadioActive (October 10, 2024 8:36 pm)

**Posted by paterson1** October 10, 2024 8:53 pm

People are interested in seeing the damage from the hurricane and after the fact, or video of a trailer flipping over and toronados ripping the roof of a building. Not sure they are as interested in seeing reporters for hours trying to do a report telling viewers how bad the storm is when they can see it for themselves. Last night the reporting from the thick of the storm was overdone and got redundant.

A lot of people in Florida are going to have rust on their cars and trucks in a few years or sooner. Beware in the months ahead if you see or hear an unbelieveable deal on a new or low mileage used car. If it is from the areas near the Florida coast you will have a rust bucket in a few years. With these cars and trucks you can always see how high the water was when the vehicle was sitting for hours in the salt water when it starts to rust. And rust it will..

Last edited by paterson1 (October 10, 2024 8:57 pm)

**Posted by mic'em** October 11, 2024 7:07 am

A guy by the name of Mark Honeycutt is posting videos on his You Tube channel of the aftermath of Helene as he rides through the destruction on a dirt bike. It is compelling viewing.

**Posted by RadioActive** October 11, 2024 9:49 am

From the CBC:

"Jana Houser, a self-described storm chaser and associate professor of meteorology, atmospheric sciences program at The Ohio State University, says there's really no reason for reporters to be outside like that during a storm.

"You don't know when the building of the roof next door may come loose and take you out," she said. "There's a real threat of harm to a journalist who's out there covering a storm like that."

Is it time for Anderson Cooper and other reporters to come in from the hurricanes?