Al's Blog

[Fred_Vobbe]

I've Fallen And They Can't Shut Up!
Al Roker's Blog
http://alroker.com/journal.cfm

Okay, I have held my tongue long enough, but enough is enough.

I've been Googling news stories about my now infamous fall on live television during my coverage of Hurricane Wilma. I've read all these print journalists knocking their broadcast brethren about how we are trivializing hurricane coverage.

How we are setting bad examples. How this is just grandstanding.

I've got your grandstand right here.

Stop whining. Just because your medium is irrelevant when it comes to a breaking story like a hurricane doesn't mean you have to trash others who are out there covering it.

I am in no way comparing the two, but common sense would tell a person&don't go to a war zone. There are bombs and people with guns and danger. Yet, we send good, brave journalists into harms way every day to cover a story.

And to have the Lt. Governor of Florida tell the Governor how she saw me on live TV on a beach with two people holding me down is crazy. That would be like me saying, I saw the Lt. Governor drinking heavily the morning off the hurricane.

Maybe she was. I don't know that. It might, however, explain how she could've seen me on a beach with two people holding me down, when I was at least three miles from the beach in Naples on a hotel balcony and one guy was clutching my leg.

I'm not saying that at times, we cross the line. That said, I never felt as if I was in danger and if anyone watched the video, they saw I was literally three to four steps away from the safety of our hotel room. Would I do it again? Probably not. But then again, it was a little fall. I didn't plummet to my death from a cliff or a window.

Heck, no hard feelings. Hopefully, we all learn something from this and we move on. Nobody got hurt, and people got to see the hurricane first hand.

So if you see the Lt. Governor, tell her I'd be happy to meet her on the beach in Naples for a drink. Best two out of three falls buys the first round.

Until next time,

Al