The reality is that it's going to be really hot and humid today.
The fallacy is that at some point this afternoon, we will all suddenly burst into flames if we don't follow the "helpful" (read PANIC) warnings coming from the local TV newsrooms.
The two leading news operations have stoked panic by declaring today as a "15 Fury Alert Day" and a "First Alert Day". Those carefully-researched and focus-group-tested phrases are designed to imply that any exposure to the heat and humidity of the afternoon will put our lives in serious danger unless we stay at home and lock ourselves in our climate-controlled "safe spaces" while watching their continuous coverage we can count on interspersed with commercials from those annoying Peterman Brothers HVAC charlatans claiming the "furnace is free" (hint-it is not free). (Yes, it's a run-on sentence).
We see this type of weather hype most often in the winter months when we are told an impending Friday snowstorm could bring us 12-18 inches of snow. As the days approach for the "storm of the century", the snow totals are "revised" Tuesday to 6-8 inches, then Wednesday it's forecast 4-6 inches. Finally, on Friday, most of us are treated to a light dusting of snow or just some flurries. "We sure dodged a bullet on that one, whew"! they will proudly exclaim.
All of this codswallop is by design.
Somewhere in the last 10 years, TV stations quit calling their nightly news presentations "newscasts" and began to call them "shows". In essence, PT Barnum has replaced Ed Murrow. Somewhere along the line TV news operations embraced the ignorant idea that their viewing audiences consist of barely literate, mouth-breathing fools whose attention spans are measured in milliseconds. Therefore, to engage their audience, modern-day journalistic operations feel they have to present their "shows' with all the "flash/bang fireworks subtly" of a Trump MAGA rally.
One of the most annoying aspects of today's situation is the premise that these weather extremes are somehow "new" and have "never been experienced" by mankind before. Kids, this is Indiana. This is August. It gets hot and humid every year, some years more than others.
Why is this seemingly new to those on the TV? One explanation is that those who choose and present what we see on TV were born after 1999. The only Fort Wayne mayors they remember are Graham Richard and Tom Henry. So, with little real-world experience, a good old Hoosier heatwave is something to behold and fear. They forget that most people in the audience lived a portion of their lives without air conditioning in their homes, workplaces, and schools. They are unaware that cell phones and the internet did not exist until their generation. They also forget that the parents and grandparents of their current audience worked in the fields and factories in heat and cold without the benefit of modern HVAC technology...unlike the coddled young "journalists" of today who matriculated their way through Ball State in those air-conditioned dorms and classrooms.
It's about perspective and understanding and respecting the audience.
It's going to be hot today. Just like any extremely hot August day.
The weather information is necessary, but the hype is not.
