President Obama met with TV meteorologists at the White House May 6 to get some help in communicating the issue of climate change. The meetings were tied to a report from the administration on climate change.
Reports USA Today, the initiative was called Weather from the White House, and eight local and national TV meteorologists were invited to the Rose Garden:
In his interview with [Al] Roker, Obama called climate change "a problem that is affecting Americans right now." He cited "increased flooding, greater vulnerability to drought, more severe wildfires — all these things are having an impact on Americans as we speak."
Ginger Zee of ABC's Good Morning America also interviewed Obama. So did Megan Glaros, who does weather coverage for CBS This Morning as well as WBBM-TV of Chicago, the president's hometown.
Obama also spoke with meteorologists from television stations based in New York City (Janice Huff of WNBC), Miami (John Morales of WTVJ), Seattle (Jeff Renner of KING), the San Francisco Bay Area (Bill Martin of FOX), and Columbia, S.C. (Jim Gandy of WLTX).
Note: Bill Martin, listed above, is with KTVU, the Cox-owned Fox affiliate in Oakland.
President Clinton tried a similar tactic in 1997, notes the New York Times, which resulted in VP Al Gore lecturing the meteorologists on the South Lawn for failing to properly cover the issue.
WLTX Columbia's Gandy was featured in our cover story from a year ago on local TV meteorologists and the topic of climate change.
