In an interview With the Huffington Post, Thursday, former ABC weatherman Sam Champion, without naming his old network directly, blasted it as superficial. He also promoted the global warming agenda and declared that he was on the side of "science." Champion sneered, "Let’s just say, on any given day if you’re watching a network morning show...I’m going to find a Dancing star, I’m going to find a musical concert."
Champion lectured, "That’s morning television. But it isn’t, and it shouldn’t be." What network could he be talking about? As recently as November 11th, Good Morning America, his former show, did its latest segment on Dancing With the Stars. On October 31, GMA featured a concert by Taylor Swift.
Seemingly singling out ABC for its superficiality, Champion critiqued that the morning newscasts are getting "to a hysteria of everything's gotta be flashing all the time." He mocked, "I think you want to be smarter when you walk out the door."
It's true that GMA has gotten more trivial since Champion left, but it was often insipid when he was a part of the program. On November 19, 2008, Champion's fellow hosts "grilled" him with questions that were supposed to be tough and probing:
"Of all the wonderful places you've traveled, what's your absolute favorite?"
"Whom do you trust most to keep a very serious secret?"
"If you were an animal, would you rather live on the ocean or on land?"
"Have you always been a weather forecaster?"
"Sam, are you really a morning person? You are always so chipper."
Is this the type of thing that makes viewers "smarter" before they go to work?
Regarding global warming, Champion huffed, "As far as the Weather Channel, we always – we're on the side of science. So, how climate change and terms connected to climate change have become political, well, politicians made them political."
Political or not, Champion has repeatedly used hyperbolic, scary language. He has touted an environmentalist who shunned toilet paper. An ABC graphic for a January 31 2007 Champion segment hyperventilated, "Will Billions Die from Global Warming?"
A partial transcript is below:
SAM CHAMPION: Morning television is even getting to the point where I need a costume malfunction moment. You know what I mean? It's getting that much of –to a hysteria of everything's gotta be flashing all the time. Everything's gotta be moving all the time. I think you want to be smarter when you walk out the door. So, let's talk about things that will impact you and things that are important to your family.
On global warming:
SAM CHAMPION: As far as the Weather Channel, we always – we're on the side of science. So, how climate change and terms connected to climate change have become political, well, politicians made them political. We're looking at the data. And we're basically saying – and when I saw we me, I'm not a climate scientist. I wish I was.
...
JOSH ZEPPS: Did you see that the cofounder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, was on Fox News saying that he didn't – that he was a climate science denier?
CHAMPION: I don't know John Coleman. I adore him as someone who has been a leader in the weather business. I don't know what John Coleman's creds are. I don't who he listens to. I can tell you that I'm sure there's lots of – people out there sitting in the living room who agree with him. I can only say that I don't agree with him and I got 200 scientists in my building who are some of the smartest minds in the world. And if they walk in the door and they show me the data and we see that the climate is changing, then I'm going to go with that. And I'm going to back them and agree with them and I'm going to say, indeed we need to more study on that.
