Opinion

Storms exaggerated to boost ratings?

Posted January 15, 2010 10:00 pm

Lately, regarding weather forecasts, there seems to be a lot of hype, but no facts to back up what the weatherman says. Just the other day, news channels were going on and on about how there was going to be a huge snowstorm, but did it happen? No.

One news station reported there was going to be 8 to 11 inches of snow in the area where I live, and of course we only got about 4 inches.

It appears that news stations are telling the people lies or exaggerations just to keep us watching. Is this right? I think not.

Even in our modern age, the media is using yellow journalism, which often portrays an interesting (but fictitious) story just to bring in some money to their station.

What I want to know is: Can we really trust the media to deliver the truth to our homes and keep us informed? Also, reporting several inches of snow gets kids' hopes up of a snow day, and a news station would not want to make kids upset, right?

Sarah Bergen

Wauconda

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