Saturday night was a rough one! Hopefully, you and your family made it through the storm without any damage. Eric Law and I did team coverage and commentary on the tornadic weather. I left WLBT around 11pm as the storms were beginning to push into eastern Mississippi (out of our viewing area). Not only was it busy in the WLBT Weather Lab, but the emails poured in. All but one were complimentary on our severe weather coverage. Here is the only negative one I received:
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Hi Barbie, I'm watching the severe weather coverage tonight and I'm disappointed in WLBT's coverage, or shall I say lack thereof. Where are you? Why aren't you there on top of things? Yes Eric is doing his best but he's not the chief meteorologist! And he's there by himself. I'm also watching WAPT and WJTV and I have to say they are doing a better job. On WAPT Chief Meteorologist David Hartman is on top of things giving wall to wall coverage with break ins every 5 minutes, and WJTV has Chief Meteorologist Tony Mastro AND 2 other meteorologists as well as the whole news team covering everything! You could learn from their coverage and be more dedicated Barbie. Please improve your severe weather coverage for the next weather event. For news I'll stick with WLBT but for severe weather coverage I'll stick with WJTV and WAPT untill WLBT's weather coverage improves. -- Sam Bradison
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Just because I am not seen on-air doesn't mean I'm not at WLBT. Since we knew about this severe weather 6 days in advance, we had a plan. Eric was to cover the late afternoon and I would jump in as the weather pushed across the Mississippi River. He and I would switch off and take short breaks to go get water, or for me, I called home to make sure our sitter had our children in the closet during the Madison County tornado warning. Just because Sam didn't see me on TV didn't mean I wasn't there.
On a side note, I have complete faith in Eric's ability. After all, he worked in Oklahoma for several years---home of monster tornadoes. Just because the other stations do something and follow each other doesn't mean WLBT follows, too. Personally, I think that's why WLBT has been successful all of these years. They march to the beat of their own drum.
After getting over the initial "sting" of Sam's email, I thought that's how we feel about God sometimes. We don't see Him during our troubles, so we think He's no where to be found. Truth be told, He's there the whole time. As in any case, we have to listen to Him and keep our mouth shut. It's amazing to me the things He will tell me when I stop "asking/telling" God what I want Him to do and start "listening" at what He wants me to do.
So take a moment today and be silent before the Lord. He just may tell you something you've been waiting to hear.
7 comments:
Hey Barbie, I'm glad to hear you made it through the severe weather this weekend! El Dorado (my hometown) was lucky, and we had was a couple of tornado warnings outside of town.
We should all say a prayer for the city of Dumas, Arkansas. The town was pretty much destroyed by an F3 tornado on Saturday afternoon.
Oh yeah, at least that negative email you received wasn't "hateful" and personal like they usually are! Still, there's no reason why you shouldn't be getting 100% positives. Have a good day!
Barbie,
I think it's pretty sad that someone would sink that low. I watched you and Eric all Saturday night up until about ten or so. And my family switched back and forth between WAPT and WLBT and this Sam that said that you guys did a lousy job must not have been watching that closely. In actuality, WLBT did a better job on covering what was going on. From where I was watching, WAPT never did close ups of streets and exactly where the storm was nor did they show where the storm would be within the next couple of hours.
I have had experiences like that. People will normally either not agree with what I do with the children I work with at my church or will undermine my authority in things that I do. And it will frustrate me to a point where I just have to sit back and basically re-evaluate what I'm doing and why I do what I do and I'm always led back to Romans 8:28 which says "And we know that in all good things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." I am always drawn back to that. I don't know why. It really encourages me when I feel like I'm not good enough to meet up to the expectations of my friends, family, and co-workers. It's when I am told that I don't know what I'm talking about or when I know I'm right but no one will listen to me because I'm "only 20."
As for Sam, he apparently wasn't watching you and Eric staying on top of everything. WAPT didn't do half the job WLBT did Saturday night.
Personally, I loved WLBT's digital channel 3.3 (WeatherPlus), because then I could see Barbie do the weather all the time (excluding weekends) :) The forecasts may be been repeats, but it doesn't matter when you are the one giving the repeats! I'd rather see a repeated/recycled Barbie Bassett WXPlus forecast over and over, than a new, live weather report from "good ole David" =)
Frankly, and this is my own personal opinion, "good ole David" is a little bit TOO full of himself. Y'know, everyone in my atmosphere makes such a big deal about him saying that he's the best and all that. I'm sorry, but I beg to differ. David has got an ego bigger than the earth's atmosphere. Now, I love and respect David to death but there's a limit. He has really gotten full of himself, especially lately. Barbie has the attitude that I love and adore. She's so sweet and compassionate. AND, I just watched her to do the weather and I compared her to Davey boy and guess who won? Yeah, that's right. Barbie.
And Barbie, just smile and nod. Because YOU ROCK! =)
David Hartman seems nice enough on camera, but I have the feeling that he thinks that he is above the general public... I think if I was to meet him in person, I wouldn't like him at all. Isn't it weird that we can tell who is "stuck" on themselves just by watching them? I guess that is when our character judgement comes into play. Everyone on WLBT is genuine... from my sense, anyway. If they aren't then they are good actors. But I know they aren't acting.
There is a chief meteorologist at a Little Rock station that reminds me of David. He's always looking at himself in the camera..even when they go off to sports..haha. Everytime my family watches them, we wait til the weather goes off so we can see him look off into the camera...yeah I guess we all lead dull lives ;)
Ya'll are so supportive and I thank you for that. I really don't post things on my blog to get sympathy or stir up ill feelings towards others. This is what I deal with on a daily basis and I hope, more than anything, that you are able to read a "moral to the story" with each blog, even the emails/comments that hurt. There is always a lesson to learn, even if it's at someone else's expense.
All of your blogs have a moral. And I read and understand them. I can imagine that you would deal with grief like that every day. But you are doing what God has called you to do. It's why I love reading your blogs. You're honest about everything and I admire that.
And Keith, I've met David Hartman in real life. My older brother shadowed him when he was in highschool. And I'll never forget what my brother said about him. "He was nice but he kept looking at himself in the mirror." Is that funny or what? Haha.
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