...FYI, this isn't a political post, so if that's all you're looking for, you can safely skip it.
For the rest of you (all three of you,) you may have been watching with some measure of disbelief as The Weather Channel started following the pioneering trend started by the SyFy network - formerly known as SciFi - to completely ignore its name, intent, and chosen market segment in order to pander to anything that brings in higher ratings.
By which I mean, they started showing movies and "weathertainment," whatever that is, along with the usual NBC barrage of "reality" shows, and a morning show with Al Roker, instead of simply reporting and forecasting the weather. This is at cross purposes to the idea of The Weather Channel as SyFy showing wrestling instead of, say, science fiction, but hey, if it brings in the bucks, right?
Not so fast, there, hombre.
DISH Network has decided that they're tired of anything NBC-owned becoming a purposeless schlockfest, and finally announced that if The Weather Channel didn't start showing the weather, they would replace TWC in their lineup with a channel that WOULD cover the weather.
I suspect - strictly my opinion - that this would have flown entirely under the radar had it not been for the events of April 30th, on which date The Weather Channel decided in its infinite wisdom to preempt the weather coverage in favor of airing a movie - during a series of massive thunderstorms and tornadoes across the South.
This series of events was underscored by the Web, as one of TWC's anchors, Jim Cantore, announced over his Twitter feed that TWC would stay live - cancelling the planned movie - to cover the severe weather affecting their viewers.
He was surprised and infuriated - and admitted so publicly via the same feed - when TWC's higher-ups decided to run the movie, and instead show the forecast information and storm updates on a separate data feed.
TWC may be in serious trouble over this, as their contract with Time Warner Cable has expired as of December 2009, and Time Warner is delaying the renewal for "negotiation." DISH Network has launched a competing service, called Weather Cast, and announced to its subscribers that "We will continue making significant investments in our ability to provide the most accurate weather forecasts available to keep you safe and provide the information and coverage you need, especially in times of severe weather."
They also promised to preempt any programming on their network in favor of weather coverage in times of severe weather, thanks to viewers writing a fairly sizable supply of nasty letters to DISH Network complaining. (It's not honestly DISH Network's fault if one of the content providers whose service they carry acts like a retard, but hey, if you have a problem with your cable, you call the cable company.)
My personal opinion of this, frankly, is that a network which became popular by virtue of its appeal to a particular market segment risks everything when it abandons that core demographic in favor of attempting to pander to the masses; there's only so much in the way of "masses" to go around, after all, and just as with the SyFy network, pandering to the masses will inevitably result in someone else stealing the market niche that brought their popularity in the first place.
For TWC, it might be a case of instant karma.
Frankly, if you ignore tornadoes so you can air a Stephen King movie, it couldn't happen to a nicer channel.
Pictured: The Masses. Also Che Guevara, thus demonstrating the results you can expect from pandering thereto.
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