TV reporters standing in hurricanes: A national tradition

“You gonna be all right?” asked an unseen anchor as Cantore staggered to a street sign, holding on in the wind. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” replied Cantore in a video that has been shared tens of thousands of times on social media. “You just can’t stand up.”

All of which is kind of the point in television news coverage of hurricanes and major storms. Watching a human being drenched and tossed about in the elements is exactly the sort of dramatic visual that stations and networks seek when they assign broadcast journalists to cover storms.