It’s snowing is not news.
Schools closing because of snow is news. Roads not being gritted because there’s none to go about is news. Sporting events being cancelled is news. The coldest night in x number of years is news.
But the fact that it is snowing or has been snowing isn’t. I don’t want to see endless streams of pictures that members of the public have taken of their children in the snow, their children sledging, their children’s snowmen.
I’ve enjoyed the snow. It’s become slightly tiresome now, I’ll admit, but, on the whole, it’s been nice to look at and nice to photograph when out and about – but I’m not going to force you to look at my snowy pictures when you’re trying to find out what’s been going on in the world.
I don’t expect the national news programmes on television to be showing me twenty minutes of exactly what I can see by opening my front door. Iris Robinson’s affair was shunted behind the snow – not anything serious, like suppy problems, power problems, heating problems, just snow.
The fact that there are so many potential stories about the weather and it’s taken until now for the news to report them worries me. Why, after a fortnight of bad weather, are we only now finding out that some old people are struggling with their heating?
Still, it makes a change from more credit crunch news, eh?
