WEATHER WARS: High Pressure Harry Hits Back after Being "Fired" by John Bolaris

John Bolaris did not take it in stride when — from his point of view — poor weather forecasting led directly to the death of three people. He initially took the blame himself, but has since come around to “it was someone else’s fault.” He saw it as an unforgivable lapse in weather judgement, and fired “an employee” at Weather Savior over it. Kyle figured he probably knew who it was, and mandated that I Tweet Bolaris to find the truth (Journalism, yo):

It was High Pressure Harry, who has now broken his deafening silence in an email sent to Victor Fiorillo at Philly Mag. Here’s how HPH tells his side of the story:

Yesterday you wrote an article about Bolaris and the “firing” of an employee. How can you fire an someone that you do not compensate? I was not paid by Bolaris for over 6 months and every agreement of compensation that HE offered, HE could not live up to. I never asked for money … he offered.

…

“I first learned of the “firing” when I read your article and then he followed with text messages to me … Announcing it to the public was not necessary. The only reason for the public flogging … he did it to save face following an unfortunate forecast bust. He called me lazy for not getting up but he was the one who was on morning duty. He admitted to me by text saying, “I was up at 4:30 a.m. then went back to bed” only to realize he set his alarm for 5:30 p.m. I also believe that an article like this creates a good buzz for his website whether it’s good or bad.

I did not lose a job. John lost his only true friend and ally.”

There isn’t a person among us who hasn’t accidentally set their alarm for P.M. when they meant to set it for A.M. [Editor’s note: Feel like I’ve heard this excuse before.] But typically when someone does, they don’t accuse one of their subordinates of indirectly causing the deaths of three people. We usually just show up late to work. But Bolaris… well, he goes scorched Earth, motherfucker. Also in an email to Fiorillo:

“As I stated on social media sites, in the end I take the blame for the faulty early morning weather blast without any warning of ice.”

I sent warnings out by 7:30 a.m. but by that time it was too late. Harry violated my strict weather code … you NEVER pre-record, schedule a forecast on a day of uncertainty or possible severe weather. It was best for the company, but obviously not for our friendship.”

Harry violated my strict weather code. That is a sentence for the ages, people. We honest to God want to see the other bullet points in this code.

But, to be fair, J-Bo does kind of have a point… you can’t be a Weather Savior if your boss blames you for killing three people. It just doesn’t fit the brand.

Kyle’s got the Game of Thrones theme rounding off all of his RADIO WARS posts, so I figured this needed something similar.