What is up w/the Fox weatherman in Charlotte?

[psychopomp]

http://www.wiredvideo.com/clips/av9/mark-mathis-1.wmv
(video download)

I had no idea that the market in Charlotte would support this kind of lunacy.:crazy: :shrug:

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. Someone needs to send him to a speech class, too.

"Ah'm gunna readja a poime..."

[Jo March]

3. He was just exaggerating that accent

He doesn't talk that way all of the time.

Mathis is a great guy, if flawed. He does a lot for charity.

[Jo March]

2. Mathis is great. He is so much better than the others

Mr. Arnheim and I will not watch FOX News again because they fired Mark when he admitted that he had a drinking problem and went into rehab.

So much for compassionate conservatism.

He is really a caring guy. He can be a bit outrageous but he's a great weatherman. Those clips show him at his most silly. Typical Fox spin. They are trying to justify firing him because their ratings for their news is now in the toilet. Mathis was a ratings-getter.

Damn stupid Fox.

[psychopomp]

4. I'm sure putting on a jigaboo-show went over well with the blacks

in Charlotte. WTF is up with that? I am all for putting crazies on live TV but to do something so offensive and get away with it boggles my mind.

[Jo March]

7. Jigaboo show?

You know, this is amazing. Based on that clip, you think that you know Mark Mathis or who he is?

He is a great guy and does a lot of work for charity.

Yes, he has problems. Yes, he did cocaine and is an alcoholic but he is not a bigot or an idiot. He is outrageous but also very kind and sensitive.

Good grief. He is not perfect but neither is anyone else on this board.

[psychopomp]

9. "Talking black" after dancing around while rapping does not fly

He may be a great guy in all other respects but that behavior should not be tolerated.

[Shopaholic]

5. He just finished up a stint in rehab--for alcohol and drug abuse

His name is Mark Mathis and he recently admitted in a Charlotte Observer interview to having abused cocaine on "3 to 5 occasions". Judging from that video, I'd say it was 3 to 5 times a day.

He's always been slightly manic in his presentation--I was in the biz for quite a few years, and although I've never worked with him, we've worked in two of the same markets. There was always a lot of gossip about his wild-lifestyle. I was not surprised at all to hear that he had been admitted to rehab. I learned in the Charlotte Observer article that ran this weekend though that this was far from his first experience with rehab.

A note about the station he formerly worked at WCCB-TV18 in Charlotte. They fired him while he was in this latest rehab. Anyway, they've long been the joke of the Charlotte market. They spend NO money on their news division, or any other division for that matter.

But Mathis was a ratings hit for some strange reason. To me it's like watching a train wreck and not even in an entertaining way. I wouldn't think this behavior was funny in a comedian, let alone a broadcast professional. Anyway, Fox 18 (WCCB) built their 10pm Newscasts around Mathis's "Personality". Big mistake. Now he's out of a job and they're out of their personality-driven newscast.

And it's disturbing to me that Fox18 knew that he had a substance abuse problem and encouraged his on-air behavior because it was winning them ratings and they did it knowing full-well that he was using. But that's typical of a Bahakel station-they'll steal your soul, underpay you, and then send you on your merry way when they are done with you if you let them. He let them and know he's out of a job and they're out of a ratings winner personality. I don't care for the personality but I hate to see anyone crash and burn like this so publically and I hope and pray that he gets the help that he needs to stay straight and sober.

[psychopomp]

8. Not surprised

Thanks for the thoughtful post on the story here.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. If you've ever had to work with someone who came to work drunk ....

...a lot, you'd know it gets very old after awhile.

In one part of that clip, he was obviously way over the time they gave him. This can really screw up the show. Not to mention how embarrassing he looked.

Even with great ratings, station management isn't going to put up with that kind of behavior.

He was apparently fired in Nov. '04:

By now, you've heard that Mark Mathis, the Fox Charlotte weatherman, was fired by a phone call at the Texas rehabilitation clinic he's in for substance abuse. It's the second time he's been in rehab in 18 months. His manic behavior on-air was apparently happening after hours, fueled by alcohol and who knows what else, and for its trouble, WCCB's 10pm newscast is already down in the November ratings from last year.

from http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/2004-11-24/news_media.html

[Shopaholic]

10. The article that was in the Observer was very revealing--

he was making $160,000 a year and says he has nothing to show for it because he partied his money away. He also justifies his behavior on air by saying that it made people laugh and that people need to laugh. The article is reprinted at this site--the Charlotte Observer site requires registration but this is the exact same article printed in its entirety at this site:

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=84464&SecID=2