Once upon a time, Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite were the most trusted newsmen in America. Sure, they were libs, and sure, they had opinions they put on air that we, as conservatives, would likely disagree with. (See: Offensive, Tet.) But they were, at least, honorable men who took your trust and your time seriously. The news was not roller derby or a game show to them.
Likewise, in the early days of cable news, similar personalities populated the airwaves. Bernard Shaw, Larry King, Peter Arnett — these were the men who made CNN a fixture in so many households like the “CBS Evening News” was. No, they weren’t precisely Murrow or Cronkite, but nor were they into shock value — the equivalent of Maury Povich paternity tests for the journalism crowd.
But here we are, in 2025, with the biggest storm of the hurricane season bearing down on an island nation of 3 million people, and what we have is CNN trying to dramatize it for you by having a meteorologist chunder on air. Solid work.
The open to “Erin Burnett OutFront,” delivered breathlessly by the eponymous host, was histrionic — but descriptive — enough: “Hurricane Melissa, now the strongest storm to hit the planet this year, life-threatening flooding, storm surge, and mudslides, all in these hours ahead of us,” she said, per the transcript. “We’re on the on the ground in Jamaica tonight, and we will speak to a storm chaser who just flew through this record-busting hurricane.”
That’s already right up there with local-news “tonight, something that could kill you with one sip … and it might just be in your medicine cabinet!” local news sensationalization — although, to be fair, Hurricane Melissa is a humanitarian crisis and should be treated as such.
The Associated Press, somewhat more measured on these things, noted early Wednesday that it’s too early to figure out just what the damage was to Jamaica until officials are able to survey it later in the day.
“Extensive damage was reported in parts of Clarendon in southern Jamaica and in the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth, which was ‘under water,’ said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council,” the AP noted. “More than half a million customers were without power as of late Tuesday as officials reported that most of the island experienced downed trees, power lines and extensive flooding.”
But, OK — that’s a bit of dramatic license on CNN’s part, but nothing too out of the ordinary. It’s when the storm chaser mentioned, Matthew Cappucci, appeared on air that things took a turn.
Burnett played footage of the hurricane-hunter flight that Cappucci took while interviewing him: “Obviously, a bumpy ride. And, you know, we know someone — another meteorologist said this was the worst they had ever seen. They had actually abort a flight because of the turbulence, which is almost unheard of,” Burnett said. “How would you describe that flight?”
Should CNN be embarrassed for airing the video, or are we being too sensitive?
“I’d say it’s very reminiscent of a roller coaster at night. If you’ve ever been on space mountain at Disney World, you sort of know how it is. You know, it’s dark. You don’t know if you’re going up, down, left or right. You’re jostled all about to and fro. And we had that for about ten-ish minutes,” he said.
“I know that you got sick on the flight. I mean, it was that horrifically turbulent,” Burnett said. “Even though you’ve done this before, you did record that, so everyone could understand just the severity of this, you know?”
And then they played the footage of Cappucci on video throwing up into what appears to be a large cup or small bucket, just in case you really needed to know, you know?
Representing @MyRadarWX on CNN earlier this evening and breaking down what it was like to fly into the eye of Hurricane Melissa as it was intensifying into a Category 5 monster: pic.twitter.com/xTu1SSKEr3
— Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) October 28, 2025
Well, now you know, you know? And to think, this was playing in airports, doctors offices, and/or black-site torture chambers around the globe.
It’s said that the only two universal experiences are death and taxes, although I’m pretty sure that most people can list a few more that are more or less common to all mankind. This includes either throwing up or watching someone throw up. In fact, on the selfsame day that Cappucci showed himself on air emptying the contents of his stomach, I did, too — the results of both a lingering flu I picked up from the kids and overexerting myself.
Is that too much information for you? Yes! Did I record it? No! If I recorded it, would I even consider showing it to you to prove that kids are human germ warfare? No, in 72-point bold, underlined italics!
You probably know even if you don’t have kids, the same way that you probably know storm-chasing flights are really turbulent and turbulence can cause nausea. I don’t need to see the results of this, and not just because I experienced it in my own bathroom a few hours before this aired. Similarly, you know what hurricanes are. You don’t need someone emptying the contents of their stomach to explain the meteorological phenomenon to you.
And this is a degradation in coverage even for 21st century CNN, mind you. Anderson Cooper, you may remember, became a household name for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago. Am I the biggest Cooper fan in the world? Not when it comes to his politics or his network, at least, and he does tend to play things up a bit, but his coverage was dignified and somber — what the moment called for. Cronkite would have been proud.
Lord help us if Erin Burnett was wading through the waters of what was New Orleans in the aftermath of that storm. One pictures her off camera wading her way from one helpless victim to another: “Did you puke during the storm? Do you know someone who did? Is it on video?” It’s hard to call anything a “new low” on CNN because the network reaches so far below the bottom of the barrel so regularly, but you have to put this one in immediate contention. I don’t think we’re in Huntley-Brinkley territory anymore, Toto.
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