Maybe It Will Stop When Someone Dies (Patreon)

Yesterday, FTVLive posted a video of KPHO/KTVK Reporter Briana Whitney going live in the middle of a lightning story for the newscast. 

Whitney was standing in water, in an open parking lot, next to a tall metal light pole while lightning lit up the skies all around her. 

The idea that she went live in those conditions was unbelievable and someone should be held accountable for her doing that. 

FTVLive got this email from a safety expert and we wanted to share it with you. Maybe, some stations should print this out and post it in the newsroom for all to see.

If you have not seen the video, it's posted at the top of this page.  

Here's the email: 

She was standing in a field of conductive matter, and the shot after her hit was over was bragging about their Doppler…the very technology that should have warned the station of the situation. Had any lightning hit, within, perhaps miles, she could have been electrified very much the same way cattle are over a vast field when lightning strikes that situation. The cattle are typically killed. 

I’m beyond shocked…if I could use that term. The EP and any other managing person who even thought that live shot was reasonable should go to a burn ward for a visit, or a mortuary to understand how terrible the consequences of bad judgment are. I’d even suggest finding local people who have suffered from lightning strikes, who are NEVER the same again, and have the managing people, as well as field folks, visit them….or walk away from the job of assigning field people. 

Last of my rant….TV stations are very adept at spotting weather conditions by use of weather radar that is incessantly bragged about…and the industry is almost unique in the regard of having such ability. So that creates a situation where an employer who has an obligation to inform employees of a hazardous work environment may be liable for not doing so….in fact encouraging, ordering, whatever, an employee to take such a terrible risk. Who has permission to take the value of Meredith and bet it on a lightning strike?