Floridians would pay for private weather news

Everybody talks about the weather, but Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., wants to do something about it. Unfortunately, for Sen. Santorum, that something is a law that would make some people stop talking about the weather.

Specifically, Sen. Santorum, as The Post reported this week, wants the National Weather Service to gag itself. He's unhappy that a government agency provides free what private companies can charge for. One of those companies, AccuWeather, is based in Pennsylvania. Perhaps Sen. Santorum should visit Florida this August or September to get a feel for how much weather information means to folks who have been hit by a hurricane or three.

Sen. Santorum says his bill would allow the National Weather Service to provide information on hurricanes and floods. That would be like allowing a surgeon to operate only when someone needs a heart transplant. If the National Weather Service were not allowed to predict and report weather daily, its staff would be subject to cuts, and the public would forget about the service -- bad things when a Charley or Frances or Jeanne or Ivan is on the way. And as anybody who fretted over the paths of Charley or Jeanne knows, the more experts trying to predict the path, the better.

Though the Weather Service provides tons of information at www.nws.noaa.gov, the information isn't exactly free. Tax money pays for it. Sen. Santorum would block access to that information except in vaguely defined emergencies. How's that for a waste of money?

Denying access to useful government information would be particularly galling, given the Bush administration's increasing dissemination of propaganda disguised as real news items. Imagine a policy that would limit a government agency's ability to warn the public about flooding rains but, after the damage, happily provide pre-packaged "news" reports explaining what a good job FEMA is doing and how happy flood victims are that the president toured the stricken area.

Another part of Sen. Santorum's bill would require the National Weather Service to release all its information to all news organizations at the same time -- a rule that would keep forecasters from giving one-on-one interviews to reporters. Such interviews have been the only way to find answers to important questions such as the location and strength of the Bermuda High that last year steered Frances and Jeanne over the Treasure Coast.

Stop the National Weather Service from providing information? Don't even talk about it.