Winter wonderland

So if you clicked through from the Fair 'n' Balanced home page to the story that moved into the lead position* around 9 a.m. Saturday and thought the view looked familiar,** you might be wondering what the illustration has to do with much of anything:

Storms that yielded recording-breaking snowfall in the South during the week were expected to hit the Northeast on Friday evening and continue causing problems throughout the weekend.

Once you get past "recording-breaking" and stop wondering why no one's updated "were expected to hit the Northeast on Friday," you're still left with a big question: What's a photo of a Detroit freeway in January 2014 doing on top of a story about something that either has happened or might happen to the Northeast in December 2017?

Winter Storm Benji was moving up the East Coast, with heavy snow predicted for a 2,000-mile stretch from the Deep South to New England. Some spots could see as much as 10 to 15 inches of snow, forecasters said. 

The link to the Weather Channel story (updated at 10:15 a.m. Saturday) suggests where some of the raw material might have originated:

Winter Storm Benji is now spreading snow to much of the Northeast Seaboard, after blanketing a swath of the South with record-setting snowfall.

By the time Benji departs the Northeast, it will have laid down a blanket of snow 2,000 miles long from Texas to New England.

Facts, like Legos, just sort of sit there until someone builds a story out of them. There is a "2,000-mile stretch," and "heavy snow" is predicted for some parts of it, and no doubt there's been some blanketing. But the current winter advisories (per the Weather Channel map) start just southwest of Asheville, which -- being in the mountains near ski resorts and all -- has actually seen snow before. You might be forgiven, at this point, for wondering what sort of story is being built for you. Back to Fox:

Winter weather warnings were issued Friday for parts of Massachusetts and Northern Virginia, with travel expected to be hazardous in the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro areas.

The South saw unprecedented levels of snowfall from Texas to North Carolina -- resulting in power outages, frozen roadways and numerous auto accidents. Many areas closed schools during the week.

The basic structure of news goes from the general to the specific; though it's often called an "inverted pyramid" style, news actually gets broader as it moves down from the lede. That's where the details of "many" and "numerous" -- or how much of "the South" saw "unprecedented levels of snowfall" -- come in to support the assertions at the top.  Rather than, say, the seventh of the eight paragraphs Fox presents:

Houston was the first city to report record-breaking snowfall, as cold temperatures combined with moisture off the Gulf of Mexico to hit border communities. 

The link is to a Friday afternoon AP story in a California paper:

As a rare snowstorm sweeps across the South, one Mississippi city notched a snowfall record, and other cities aren’t far behind.

National Weather Service officials say the 6 inches in Columbia — 90 miles north of New Orleans —  is the city’s  most snow ever in one day.  Farther north, Meridian also had 6 inches, its third-heaviest snowfall, and Jackson had 5.1 inches, its sixth-heaviest.

Pojnt of order-ish here. I'm from the South, and "GAAAAAAAH run to the store for bread and milk" is native to my dialect. Having written somewhere between 8 million and 9 million weather headlines, I also come by my dislike of "Let it snow" honestly. The Fox story is not the story one usually builds with these Legos. Do you suppose the reader comments might shed some light on what it's doing at the top of the homepage?

IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has the same credibility as Mueller's team.

Indoctrinated Snowflakes: "Submit to the hockey-stick theory or you will be beaten into submission by

And just think libs ? Australia's climate is also changing from spring to summer.. Who'd of thunk it ?

Liberal: "Americans eating tacos is cultural appropriation"
Conservative: "German immigrants invented hot dogs and hamburgers who gets to eat those? Germans or Americans?"
Liberal: "You hate women!"

Got a tip for you Lib t u r ds ? Yes, the Climate does change....We straight now, or is it still too hard to comprehend with having a Liberal pea-sized brain ?

But, but, but, but what is going on with snow in December? Just last August it was warm. Must be climate change.

Where's Al Gore when you need him

Democrats hate white privileged snow - but if you tell them, like J-Law, it's just a yeast infection of Mother Nature suddenly they don't mind anymore!

Yes, Snow is Racist

I think it mighty racist that all the snow yesterday that fell was white. I blame the snowflakes. Perhaps they will go tear down the Frosty statue in my neighbors yard

Detroit, Philly and Pittsburgh have black snow.

Snow in Alabama?  Now Democrats have an excuse for a loss next Tuesday.  Their "voters", either by cross border bus lines or self driven, will be unable to get to the polling places

Climate Change, As real as a Russian investigation

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C - all Blue cities.
Maybe they can offer the snow sanctuary?!

to further their agenda of global warming...which was a farce ..so they changed the name to "climate change" which covers about everything

Czarina Hillary is stocking up on antifreeze for the winter.

Hillary's antifreeze is Russian Vodka.....

Mueller hired all Clinton hacks for the investigation...I guess in the anals of Jurisprudence, he is begging for 'conflict of interests"...

"If it wasn't for fossil fuels making Global Warming than the dinosaurs would still be here. Mankind is so terrible"
--A Liberal, 2017

Peace on earth. Barack Hussein and Hillary are GONE.

Bath House Barry would have declared a national emergency for the Snowflakes.

Liberals also believe the WWE is real wrestling.

This all global warming to Democrats.  The colder it gets proves its Global warming.  I forget like good liberal when reality changes so does comments.  Now its climate change but have we not have had that through out history.  American liberals want to STOP climate change so they believe the can control weather at will. Democrats are so smart they just keep changing ideas for more money and regulations from Global cooling in the 1970's to Global warming in the late 1980's on and in 2010 to Climate change control and with all the government money spent to grow Governments and increase United Nations influence on countries has produced NOTHING of value.  How has all this money help citizens of countries in fact it only hurts them with more government control and NO benefit for citizens. 

When a heavy snowstorm strikes the Eastern Seaboard “climate experts” show up on CNN like annoying pop-ups on a web page to claim this storm is “consistent with global warming”. So why don’t we see these same “experts” when a storm only produces 1 or 2 inches to inform us that this storm is “inconsistent with global warming”?

IPCC: "Hey Al we need to change the name of Global Warming. It isn't getting warmer"
Al Gore: "Umm Polar Vortex? Umm I got it! Call it Climate Change keep the grubers guessing!"

I do my part to fight Climate Change, I keep a Prius in the Glove Compartment, in case my Truck breaks down.

When Spring gets here it'll be global warming again.  :o)

Doesn't matter if it's hotter or colder than normal, it's all because of climate change.  Of course the climate has been continually changing since time immemorial, but if we can stick it to the non-believers, let's do it.

Snow flakes for the Snowflakes. PJ boys will hibernate for winter now.

OH....I get it.  Global Warming causes snow.  The warmer it gets,  the more snow. Must be a liberal...:)

Another proof of climate change.

it's changing right now.  It stopped snowing and the sun came out.   :-)

God made global climate change .  Yep.
Human made global climate change . Nope.

obama tried to save 57 States. Trump only saved 50.

So when exactly is global warming going to kick in LMAO

Fox, to reiterate, doesn't necessarily make you stupid. It just provides the Legos. It isn't Fox's fault if your Lego White House ends up looking like the Kremlin.

* Replacing Massster's rally in Pensacola.
** The I-94 sign is a bit of a clue; you're looking east from the Lodge toward Woodward. My office is just south of here. Yes, we're expecting about an inch of snow today.