The “man on the street” interview is a big part of hurricane coverage. For some reason, news networks think viewers want to watch regular people talk about weather — even though they often have no idea what they’re talking about.
On Sunday morning, with Hurricane Irma bearing down on the Florida Keys, a Fox News reporter approached two people in Miami Beach to ask them about it.
Then he got schooled, hard, in a video that’s gone viral.
“What do you think about the storm, the power and the ferocity and the risk to your own safety?” the reporter, Phil Keating, asks.
“Well, at this point I’m very relieved to discover that, as we speak, the eye of the storm is practically due south of us by 220 miles because it’s crossing the 80th meridian, which is 80 degrees west longitude. So I’m not so worried because it’s so far away and it’s bearing as of 8 p.m., west — ” says the man, wearing a T shirt and a baseball cap turned backward.
Keating, trying to get a word in edgewise, interrupts, saying: “Westbound.” But the man corrects him: “Well not just bearing westbound, it was 275 degrees.”
“That’s only one-fifteenth above due west toward true north, so this thing is moving and has been moving in a very westerly direction and because it’s several hundred miles south, the risks are less and less. I’m not worried. I don’t think it’s going to get much worse than we’re seeing right here.”
While it was the reporter who was holding a microphone, we’re pretty sure the man on the street would’ve dropped the mic if he’d had one.
The moment was shared on Twitter by Barstool News, and been liked more than 253,000 times — with 100,000+ retweets.