I love Stelter, so I'm quite a bit disappointed he really didn't push on the issue of long-form dominating the schedule. I know weather being a commodity is also an issue here, there are many other sources, but the key thing is that The Weather Channel is getting flack for abandoning its mission.
Weather Channel is talking around the reality show topic by focusing on it going live during severe wx, it having a huge set of meteorologists and experts., etc. That's not the issue - it's a great, tremendous resource. Problem is that it has not been making it a priority.
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As for taking WeatherScan or another network and taking an "ESPNEWS" policy with them, I should tell you that ESPNEWS really doesn't exist anymore. It used to be a channel with some live periods and rolling tape during others, and its own distinct feel from The Mothership. Then they decided that instead of doing live ESPNEWS shows, it would have SportsCenter run on the channel on the hours it wasn't running on ESPN or ESPN2. The ESPNEWS look was scrapped and the last shows that really were produced by and for ESPNEWS ended a few months ago.
Nowadays, it's SportsCenter, the one news program that I absolutely cannot stand, surrounded by their opinion shows, led by the extremely toxic First Take, pretty much the worst thing ever created that has to do with sports. The current ESPN is probably more detrimental to journalism than Fox and MSNBC ever were.
