[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 58 (Friday, April 1, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TV ANCHOR DOUG WEATHERS SHOWED US WHAT QUALITY JOURNALISM LOOKS LIKE

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                     HON. EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 1, 2022

  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Madam Speaker, retired Savannah TV anchorman 
Doug Weathers remains one of the most recognizable people in the 
community. He's still remembered and beloved. I believe he could step 
into a studio tomorrow to do the local news and again dominate the 
ratings. Walking into a room with Weathers, who still looks fit, has 
great hair and bursts with high energy at age 91, is like walking down 
a street in Memphis with Elvis. People shower him with shouts of `Hey 
Doug,' and they want to bend his ear about something. And Doug, being 
Doug, will stop and listen, no matter whether it's to hear a story 
about a lost dog, a widow's prize fruitcake recipe, someone who's down 
on his or her luck or a gardener's giant zucchini. Weathers was very 
much the king of local TV news and he had the competition all shook up 
during his 41 years on the air here. The Georgia Association of 
Broadcasters recently honored the grand man of the local airways by 
naming him to its hall of fame. No on-air broadcaster in the state was 
more deserving of this honor, as Weathers was the face and the voice of 
two TV stations here during his tenure--WTOC (twice) and WJCL. Former 
WTOC general manager Bill Cathcart tells a story about how he once 
hired a consultant to rank every anchor in Savannah and list them 
according to their popularity. The consultant handed him a list with a 
folded piece of paper attached to the top. When he started reading the 
report, he didn't see Weathers' name. The consultant told him to unfold 
the paper. Doug was so far ahead of his competition that he earned his 
own page.
  Among the many reasons that people in Southeast Georgia loved Doug 
was that he reflected them and their values. He didn't preach, because 
most of his audience got their fill of that on Sundays. He delivered 
the news straight and unfiltered. He was humble. He never failed to 
remember that he and his news staff were invited guests into people's 
homes. Too few people in the news business know that lesson today. Doug 
was a showman who liked `hokey' and refused to take himself too 
seriously. He was fond of calling those news programs that featured 
grim-faced pontificating prattlers `tube-coolers', in reference to 
scores of viewers at home hitting their off buttons to turn their 
attention to something else. Weathers was not too big to do any parade 
or make any appearance. One of his favorites was speaking at career 
days in local schools where he told star-struck kids that he got his 
start at WTOC doing drudge work like splicing film and sweeping up the 
studio for 90 cents an hour. He was big on getting a college education, 
even though he himself wasn't a stellar student. ``I didn't graduate 
`cum laude.' I graduated `thank the Lordy' '' was a favorite punchline.
  Weathers also burned his own shoe leather hitting the streets to 
report the latest crime story, hospital hijinks or political scandal, 
most often scooping his rivals. No story was beneath him. He respected 
his viewers. Perhaps his greatest strength was his ability to attract, 
mentor and keep talent, pros like weatherman Pat Prokop, sports anchor 
Rick Snow, co-anchor Angela Gale and a bevy of fine reporters like Mike 
Manhatton, Jim Carswell, Janice McDonald, Jim Hildebrandt, George 
Murphy, Avis Blackmon, Jody Chapin, Dawn Baker, Ron Wallace and Johnny 
`Get hooked on fishing, not drugs' Cole. Of course, these are also 
among the many reasons why this newest Georgia broadcasting hall-of-
famer probably couldn't find a seat anchoring one of today's network 
snooze slots. He wasn't elitist. He kept his opinions to himself. He 
didn't make stuff up. He didn't make his viewers wretch or want to 
cough up a lung after one of his newscasts. He didn't hurl insults or 
twist the news to support a personal agenda. If more of the talking 
heads on the national news programs were more like Savannah's own Doug 
Weathers, they would gain more trust and viewers and look less like 
people who were talking out of a different part of their anatomies.

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