An Iowa meteorologist started talking about climate change on newscasts. Then came the harassment
*Trouble in River City, Iowa that is.
HANNAH FINGERHUT, HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and SUMMER BALLENTINE
Sat, 8 July 2023 at 1:05 am GMT-4·5-min read
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The harassment started to intensify as TV meteorologist Chris Gloninger did more reporting on climate change during local newscasts — outraged emails and even a threat to show up at his house.
Gloninger said he had been recruited, in part, to “shake things up” at the Iowa station where he worked, but backlash was building. The man who sent him a series of threatening emails was charged with third-degree harassment. The Des Moines station asked him to dial back his coverage, facing what he called an understandable pressure to maintain ratings.
“I started just connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, and then the volume of pushback started to increase quite dramatically,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
So, on June 21, he announced that he was leaving KCCI-TV — and his 18-year career in broadcast journalism altogether.
Gloninger's experience is all too common among meteorologists across the country who are encountering reactions from viewers as they tie climate change to extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes and floods in their local weather reports. For on-air meteorologists, the anti-science trend that has emerged in recent years compounds a deepening skepticism of the news media.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/harassment-tv-meteo...;tsrc=twtr
( Weird I know, but I wish we could give the cons their own island mass, since they're not worried about climate change. Please, just get out and leave us to address the needs of the present and future. )
*… A weather map, don't you understand?
Friend, either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster
Indicated by the presence of science illiterates in your community
Well, ya got trouble my friend
Right here I say, trouble right in River City[/i]
1. The asshole who harassed him:
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/09/20/io...te-change/
Iowa man fined for harassing TV weatherman over climate change
By: Clark Kauffman - September 20, 2022 2:00 pm
An Iowa man has been fined $150 for sending a string of harassing emails to a television meteorologist concerning climate change.
Police and court records indicate that on June 21, Danny H. Hancock, 63, of Lenox, began sending emails to Chris Gloninger, the chief meteorologist for KCCI, Channel 8 News, in Des Moines.
At 5:35 p.m. that day, Hancock wrote to Gloninger, “Getting sick and tired of your liberal conspiracy theory on the weather, climate changes every day, always has, always will, your pushing nothing but a Biden hoax, go back to where you came from.”
A few days later, Hancock wrote to Gloninger: “You are worthless Biden puppet, a liar, a conspiracy theorist, and an idiot!!! You give Iowa a bad name, GO HOME B—-.”
A few hours after that message was sent, Hancock sent another email in which he referenced Brett Kavanaugh, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: “What’s your address, we conservative Iowans would like to give you an Iowan welcome you will never forget, kinda like the l—— gave JUDGE KAVANAUGH!!!!!!!” ...
On July 12, Hancock wrote again, stating: “I don’t watch your worthless weather forecast because your an idiot but someone else texted me and said you are still an idiot, go the hell back where you came from DOUCHEBAG!!!”
On July 15, Hancock wrote again, this time referencing Anthony Fauci, the immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has helped lead the fight against COVID-19, and told Gloninger to “go east and drown from the ice cap melting you dumbf—!!!!!!!”
*Trouble in River City, Iowa that is.
HANNAH FINGERHUT, HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and SUMMER BALLENTINE
Sat, 8 July 2023 at 1:05 am GMT-4·5-min read
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The harassment started to intensify as TV meteorologist Chris Gloninger did more reporting on climate change during local newscasts — outraged emails and even a threat to show up at his house.
Gloninger said he had been recruited, in part, to “shake things up” at the Iowa station where he worked, but backlash was building. The man who sent him a series of threatening emails was charged with third-degree harassment. The Des Moines station asked him to dial back his coverage, facing what he called an understandable pressure to maintain ratings.
“I started just connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, and then the volume of pushback started to increase quite dramatically,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
So, on June 21, he announced that he was leaving KCCI-TV — and his 18-year career in broadcast journalism altogether.
Gloninger's experience is all too common among meteorologists across the country who are encountering reactions from viewers as they tie climate change to extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes and floods in their local weather reports. For on-air meteorologists, the anti-science trend that has emerged in recent years compounds a deepening skepticism of the news media.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/harassment-tv-meteo...;tsrc=twtr
( Weird I know, but I wish we could give the cons their own island mass, since they're not worried about climate change. Please, just get out and leave us to address the needs of the present and future. )
*… A weather map, don't you understand?
Friend, either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster
Indicated by the presence of science illiterates in your community
Well, ya got trouble my friend
Right here I say, trouble right in River City[/i]
1. The asshole who harassed him:
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/09/20/io...te-change/
Iowa man fined for harassing TV weatherman over climate change
By: Clark Kauffman - September 20, 2022 2:00 pm
An Iowa man has been fined $150 for sending a string of harassing emails to a television meteorologist concerning climate change.
Police and court records indicate that on June 21, Danny H. Hancock, 63, of Lenox, began sending emails to Chris Gloninger, the chief meteorologist for KCCI, Channel 8 News, in Des Moines.
At 5:35 p.m. that day, Hancock wrote to Gloninger, “Getting sick and tired of your liberal conspiracy theory on the weather, climate changes every day, always has, always will, your pushing nothing but a Biden hoax, go back to where you came from.”
A few days later, Hancock wrote to Gloninger: “You are worthless Biden puppet, a liar, a conspiracy theorist, and an idiot!!! You give Iowa a bad name, GO HOME B—-.”
A few hours after that message was sent, Hancock sent another email in which he referenced Brett Kavanaugh, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: “What’s your address, we conservative Iowans would like to give you an Iowan welcome you will never forget, kinda like the l—— gave JUDGE KAVANAUGH!!!!!!!” ...
On July 12, Hancock wrote again, stating: “I don’t watch your worthless weather forecast because your an idiot but someone else texted me and said you are still an idiot, go the hell back where you came from DOUCHEBAG!!!”
On July 15, Hancock wrote again, this time referencing Anthony Fauci, the immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has helped lead the fight against COVID-19, and told Gloninger to “go east and drown from the ice cap melting you dumbf—!!!!!!!”
