The Cost Of Cold

I've never worked in a newsroom where I felt physically comfortable. Usually it's too cold, and I end up looking like a grandmother wearing an old sweater over my otherwise stylish collared oxfords.

Newsroom house cats say it's important to keep things a little cooler so all that expensive technical equipment doesn't overheat. That might be a partial explanation, but it's well known and never talked about by the underlings that news directors get a comfy holiday bonus from the home office at the end of the year depending on how far below budget they come in. So it's important to keep utility bills down.

But let's say that theory No. 1 is true. All that shows is that more care goes into the equipment than the people who operate it, as well as those who write, produce, edit and read the news. "If you're not dead, you're fine," seems to be the prevailing approach here.

What's also cold is that our government's very compassionate senators are considering a bill that would force the National Weather Service to shut down its Web site. Why? Because it undermines paid sites' abilities to make more money. So if you've ever gone to the NWS Web Site to freely find out the forecast in your area, passage of Bill 786 will make you unable to do that. Sure you can go to your local TV station's site for that information, but some senators actually think the NWS is doing a disservice by putting resources into online weather coverage, rather than using those same resources to, um, I don't know, devise a 40-day forecast? Prevent Katrina? Record scary promos that tell viewers to watch or die?

It will never stop to amaze me how political speak sounds like one thing, but always means another. Those in favor of doing away with the NWS site say they have the interests of Americans at heart, but why is it so urgently important for the AccuWeathers of the world to make X amount of millions, rather than merely Y amount of millions? So one company can stay "competitive in the marketplace," and more Americans can get jammed with yet another unnecessary expenditure?

For more on this developing story, click here.