Man UP!

Dear Danny Treanor,

While I've been visiting my in-laws this Christmas, I've had the good fortune to catch your morning weather reports.  The weather's been something lately, hasn't it?  It certainly hasn't been what I've expected--being from Chicago, I was hoping for 70s during my three weeks here.  Sadly, most of the time, the weather's been pretty chilly.

The chill is why I'm writing.  Look, I understand that people in Florida have thinner blood, so I agree that these temps that hover around freezing at night are pretty startling.  You have to prepare for this kind of cold, but I don't think it's so deadly that your station needs to tell people to not go outside unless they absolutely have to [to be honest, I can't remember exactly if you said this, or if it was the male reporter who was so cold while reporting from the field he admitted on air he was wearing two pairs of socks ].  Bundle up?  Yes.  Don't go outside?  No.  Cold is nothing to laugh at, but if you prepare, you can enjoy it.

Please don't be one of those newspeople who just imparts fear in the viewers.  A scared population is not an effective population.  People deserve to be educated, and because the media is all about information, shouldn't you be concerned with imparting that information rather than imparting feelings?

Your pal,
Jill

P.S.--I've lived in Chicago most of my life, and I've never heard of "hawk winds."  I realize the Chicago Sun-Times has a definition of hawk winds on its website, but ask most Chicagoans, and you'll find it's not in the common vernacular.