WMAQ gm Frank Whittaker is defending his station after TVSpy joined Gawker in calling out the station’s anchors for being oblivious to a caller’s prank pulled during severe weather coverage.
“When tornadoes are on the ground in our viewing area, we go on the air to keep people safe,” Whittaker told Robert Feder. “We interview people who are on or near the scene of the dangerous weather, hoping to learn what’s happening right now so we can alert our viewers. Our callers are screened before we put them on the air. We believed this caller to be legit, unfortunately he was not.”
TVSpy wrote about the station’s main anchors carrying on as if the call from the prank caller,”Ryan,” was legit even after he told meteorologist Brant Miller the wind was blowing “like it’s a blast from Howard Stern’s asshole.”