• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, December 16, 2014

Once upon a time, at a journalism school far, far away (about 800 miles), I absorbed various basic lessons about the news business. One of them was: When no other lead story makes itself apparent, lead with the weather. 

Weather stories, I recall being told, are of near-universal interest to your readers (of newspapers), viewers (of TV newscasts) and listeners (to radio news).

Because no matter what a person’s age, religion, profession, ethnicity or national origin, the weather is always important. Whichever instructor imparted this lesson, I remember he left me with the impression that not only were weather stories a reliable lure for viewership and readership, but that every veteran of the news business was well-aware of it.

Cut to this past Sunday’s series finale of “The Newsroom” on HBO, and one veteran newsman was chastising another one for a weather story.

“You did a five-minute and 20-second block on the weather tonight,” said one of them, the grizzled news chief Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston), to the other, anchorman Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels).

“Weather rates,” McAvoy insisted.

“I saw you’re speaking at Northwestern … to journalism students,” Skinner then said, mentioning a future speaking engagement. “Are you going to tell the kids that weather rates?”

“What do you want from me?” asked the anchorman with mild exasperation.

“The news,” said the news chief, a bit smugly and a bit self-righteously.

For the record, the debate wasn’t about a run-of-the-mill weather forecast; it was about a story reporting on record flooding in New England caused by a series of extreme storms. The story it was intruding upon (but not replacing completely) was one about a suicide bombing in the Moscow subway that left 38 dead. So the debate was over a domestic weather event vs. a Russian terror attack.

Meanwhile, while watching this conversation, I’m thinking: Hey, I went to Northwestern! And I don’t remember everything they taught me there, but one of the things I do remember is the lesson about the weather.

It’s certainly possible that they don’t impart this lesson about weather news anymore at Northwestern, but the Skinner character’s dismissal of this weather story didn’t strike me as credible in any case.

And then I remembered: “The Newsroom” is a TV show that’s about as realistic in its depiction of a cable-news operation as “ER” was about a hospital emergency room.  Both shows got some (if not many) of the details right, but in the end, they were just TV shows.

One of the details omitted from “The Newsroom” was the presence of weather anchors or weather technology in the newsroom. It’s also true that for national cable-news networks, weather forecasting is not necessarily top-of-mind, although they do air weather reports.

Weather forecasts are more highly regarded on the local news, as anyone knows who watches local newscasts regularly. These shows often lead with the weather, whether the weather is extreme or not. Many times, the takeaway from these breathless, lead weather stories is this: It’s raining outside.

Still, weather is the great leveler. No matter who you are, it’s important to know if it’s going to rain or snow, if it’s windy, or if it’s cold or warm.  And who doesn’t love to learn the “real-feel” temperature?