A Romanian TV weatherman has put a new spin on the phrase "having sand kicked in your face," after he was seen faking a storm during a live news report.
The Metro reports that the reporter was filing a story about heavy winds along the Black Sea coast, which were gusting at more than 60 mph.
At least, the winds were blowing that hard before the weatherman began filing his report. But by the time he went live, the winds had apparently died down.
So in an attempt to recreate the stormy conditions, the reporter had a production assistant begin kicking sand in his direction. The reporter then told viewers, "The wind blows with incredible power; there are moments when it is impossible to stand up here. The wind blows the sand at over 60 km per hour. It blew away the beach umbrellas and the tourists had to leave in a hurry."
However, the production assistant failed to get out of camera range, meaning that his "special effect" efforts were caught live on camera.
Interestingly, the station hasn't reprimanded the pair. Instead, they released a statement claiming the footage "was not doctored" but that the whole affair was nothing more than "a bad joke made by the cameraman."
As Gawker notes that the station itself is called "The Reality TV." So, even if the artificial "sand storm" wasn't meant to fool viewers, it still seems a bit silly.
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