News Media
Dope Award For Flood “Watch”
April 17, 2006 
Shane Johnson of KIVI Channel 6 is the latest winner of the GUARDIAN “TV dope reporter” award.
Johnson was spotted on the evening newscast April 17 standing on a picnic table surrounded by water!The actor/reporter was dry, so he had to have either helicoptered or boated to the table to stand and talk to the camera.
He is the second Channel 6 reporter to win the award. Brandi Smith was our first winner from that station. She stood in water up to her knees wearing a fashionable skirt and bare legs. Scott Logan at 2 and Ysabel Bilbao at 7 are also previous winners.
The GUARDIAN served notice April 5 that reporters caught on camera in flood water would receive the Dope Award and be subject to public ridicule.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 18, 2006, 9:29 am
Fearless Guardian…I just bought some cool knee high irrigation boots and am primed for the next round with flooding, although we hope it will not be serious. But I shall not abandon my journalistic mission if it calls for me to get wet while reporting. Since we obviously disagree to a certain extent (for example, during Weiser flooding, I did not need to get wet; but at Blue Valley Mobile Park, there was no choice for either myself or the photographer) I suggest we take this issue to the Idaho Supreme Court. No, wait! What am I thinking about? Forget it. (By the way, when do I get my Dope Award and what does it look like?)
Apr 18, 2006, 11:08 am
Do you have a Dope Award for writers concerning the Boise River? I would like to nominate Katy Moeller for today’s article “More Flooding on the Way for Treasure Valley” in the Idaho Statesman’s article. She shows her ignorace of nature by writing “… Eagle city officials kept a watchful eye on the river, looking for sections of the bank that might give way and for debris impeding or misdirecting the river’s flow.” I did not know that a river’s flow is to be directed or misdirected….well only by human standards I guess.
I remember being taught sometime as a child that when a river overflows it’s bank in the spring it is natural, and that rivers (in the past) have changed their banks frequently. In fact, take a look at the valley…. I do recall that it was naturally formed by what Ms. Moeller calls “the misdirecting of the river’s flow”.
Go humans, just try to control nature!!
Apr 18, 2006, 11:31 am
HAHAHAHA! Yeah, I saw him standing there. I don’t even remember what he said, I just kept wondering what on earth he was doing and how in the heck did he get on that table and still remain dry?
Apr 18, 2006, 2:07 pm
With more flooding predicted, who knows what fun we have to look forward to. A good one overheard the other evening was Rick Lantz with Ch 7. He said “we have Thunder, but thankfully it is not accompanied by Lightning!”
Uhmmmm, either I missed something really critical in Science or someone needs to clue him in. Isn’t Thunder the SOUND that Lightning causes by the expansion of rapidly heated air. I don’t believe you can have Thunder without lightning.
Apr 18, 2006, 3:21 pm
Maybe Rick meant the lightning wasn’t hitting the ground and starting fires, destroying houses and businesses, uprooting families, causing widespread electrical outages, meat spoiling in freezers, vampires and Great Heartache.
He did say “thankfully”, after all, and we all should be thankful that this form of TERROR did not strike this time. But we should remain ever vigilant, buy ducked tape and support the Republican Church, just to be on the safe side, and execute a scape goat from time to time, just to be sure.
Oh, where are Shane’s manners? Standing on a picnic table? How extremely rude!
Apr 18, 2006, 6:33 pm
Hey, why’s everybody picking on the dry guy on the picnic table? After all, he’s probably the “only” TV reporter who isn’t all wet.
EDITOR NOTE–Gordon, are you making fun of “6 on your side… only on six…we had it first…”
Apr 18, 2006, 7:51 pm
Who cares what Rick Lantz OR Larry Gebert says? They ARE NOT meteorologists. They have certificates from a university that offers a correspondence coarse. They don’t have the schooling nor do they possess the expertise to forecast the weather…they read what the National Weather Service puts out or they watch the other REAL meteorologists (Scott Dorval, Vin Crosby) with actual degrees say and report it as their own.
Apr 19, 2006, 11:20 am
“Who cares what Rick Lantz OR Larry Gebert says? They ARE NOT meteorologists. They have certificates from a university that offers a correspondence coarse.”
Say it ain’t so! Lantz is “Idaho’s Chief Meterorologist” after all. Doesn’t that mean he was appointed by Kempthorne or something?
Apr 20, 2006, 12:17 am
Scott’s and Deb Smith (KTVB) are the only ones who took more than a “coarse.” Vin has the Mississippi State deal too.
Apr 21, 2006, 7:15 pm
You want a good weather report, you ask a farmer. You want a good weather forecast, you ask an old farmer.
BTW, “coarse” is correct. It’s the grammar that’s off. What does “coarse” mean, after all?