Local television stations are not interested in safety, they are interested in getting the biggest ratings for their local news programs. That translates into money. Some years ago, the Kansas City stations preempted all programming, including golf to bring us live reporting of tornadoes east of the city. They got their helicopters and their remote rigs into a chase for an elusive tornado but in the end, they only found a few blue tarps covering damaged barn and machine shed roofs. They weren’t trying to warn the public, they wanted footage of destruction and hopefully injured people.
Meanwhile, to the south, the city of Joplin was practically wiped off the map. Zero reports, zero warnings, zero film at eleven because they were all chasing the wrong storm.
Joplin would be “ultra-fringe” reception in terms of the KC stations’ viewing area, no?
Did the Joplin area stations give no local warnings while covering the KC area tornados? THAT would be sadly mistaken...