Colbert and Gary England

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I have seen Stephen Colbert do insightful, but still humorous, interviews on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, he really missed the mark with Gary England last night.

Gary was my #1 competitor when I started my television career at Channel 4 in Oklahoma City. He grew into a television meteorologist who has saved many lives over the years and became an expert on incorporating new technology into weathercasting. The New York Times published an outstanding profile of Gary three weeks ago.

Since September is hurricane season and National Preparedness Month, there were many things that they could have talked about, including the importance of tornado wind speeds in building designs. Lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy would have been another great topic. Instead, it was a sophomoric interview asking Gary to locate Oklahoma on a map and other cliche´-like topics.

Gary officially retired last month after years and years of all-nighters and weekends -- SOP for television meteorologists in tornado alley. All of us at Mike Smith Enterprises wish him well and thank him for his life-saving work.

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