A Flick and a Forecast? What happened to just 24 hours of weather?

In 1982, John Coleman, along with Frank Batten, founded The Weather Channel. It was a revolutionary concept, 24 hour weather forecasts and analysis.

Over time The Weather Channel has added features and programs related to weather. Programs such as "When Weather Changed History", "Storm Stories" , "Abrams and Bettes" and others have been very enjoyable, educational and even entertaining while imparting an educational contribution to the station's viewers.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Coleman expressed his views that The Weather Channel had lost its way. I recall that one of his issues was traffic reporting. Another was the support and promotion of global warming alarmism, which Mr. Coleman has stated is a scam.

Weather Channel Founder Blasts Network; Claims It Is 'Telling Us What to Think' (Business & Media Institute)

The Weather Channel has lost its way, according to John Coleman, who founded the channel in 1982.

Coleman told an audience at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change on March 3 in New York that he is highly critical of global warming alarmism.

“The Weather Channel had great promise, and that’s all gone now because they’ve made every mistake in the book on what they’ve done and how they’ve done it and it’s very sad,” Coleman said. “It’s now for sale and there’s a new owner of The Weather Channel will be announced – several billion dollars having changed hands in the near future. Let’s hope the new owners can recapture the vision and stop reporting the traffic, telling us what to think and start giving us useful weather information.”

I have always found The Weather Channel to be a reliable source for weather information across the US and for hurricane data in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Basins. I have always maintained a link in the sidebar to The Weather Channel and encourage my readers to access this link and others to get the most information regarding tropical weather as well as local and regional information. I also link to The Weather Channel in several of my posts as appropriate to enhance the information regarding the hurricane or cyclone about which I am discussing.

One exception to this is when I removed the direct link to "One Degree", The Weather Channel's climate website in which Dr. Heidi Cullen espoused a one sided view of climate change that promoted global warming alarmism and attempted to discredit anyone who disagreed with her viewpoint. I removed the link to One Degree after Dr. Cullen called for the revocation of AMS certification for all meteorologists whom did not promote global warming alarmism.

Well today I learned of another programming change at The Weather Channel. This one appears to have been in effect for at least the past 4 weeks and possibly even longer than that, as I have not had access to the TV on a Friday night in quite some time.

Now The Weather Channel is presenting "Flick and a Forecast" on Friday nights. Hosted by meteorologist Jennifer Carfagno and television personality Toure, Flick and a Forecast presents a weather themed movie every Friday night at 8 pm ET followed by a repeat showing at 10 pm. Tonight's feature is "The Avengers". Next week is Hurricane.

I wonder if Mr. Coleman feels that this most recent programming change is consistent with his original vision or if it is a move further from the focal point of the network. As someone with more than a passing interest in the weather, I am not sure how I feel about this - not that it really matters, the programming execs certainly have not asked for my opinion.

For what it is worth I would like to see more science, more historical information and analysis of current situations, especially with a major storm system crossing the southland as we have tonight (Tornadoes and hail pound several states - TWC Video).

But a good movie is a nice distraction as well so maybe it isn't all bad.