Tonight was supposed to be the premiere of the Sci-Fi Channel original movie NYC: TORNADO TERROR, a disaster flick I'd been looking forward to watching and if you've seen the TV spots for it you'd know why - it looks positively goofy. In fact, today was supposed to be an all-day marathon of Sci-Fi Channel storm-themed disaster flicks.

BUT...

This past week saw a tornado hit a Boy Scout camp in Iowa, a tragic event magnified by the media into a national tragedy, at least it was until Meet The Press host Tim Russert suddenly passed away yesterday and the round-the-clock reporting of the Boy Scout tornado tragedy got pushed aside in favor of elevating the late Mr. Russert to sainthood - as I write this MSNBC's weekend programming has been replaced by a 24/7 Russert obituary. So no NYC: TORNADO TERROR tonight. No NATURE UNLEASHED: TORNADO or PATH OF DESTRUCTION or whatever other storm-related disaster flick they had scheduled for today. Some might say this is the Sci-Fi Channel being socially responsible - and they might be right.

HOWEVER...

This is the same Sci-Fi Channel that had no problem running storm-themed original programming in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Heck, the first Foyeurism I did post-Katrina was of the Sci-Fi Channel original PATH OF DESTRUCTION. They may have slapped a goofy disclaimer on it: THIS FILM CONTAINS A FICTIONAL STORM AND VIOLENT CONTENT WHICH MAY BE DISTURBING TO VIEWERS. DUE TO RECENT EVENTS, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED, but they still didn't preempt it. They didn't preempt any disaster flicks after the Southeast Asian tsunamis or the recent Myanmar cyclone either or any other global disaster I can think of. Hell, this has been one of the most active tornado seasons on record; the news has been reporting tornado deaths for weeks now and still Sci-Fi had scheduled the premiere of a schlocky, sensationalistic tornado flick for this evening. But not anymore! Let the record show that hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundred of thousands of people can get killed by natural disasters and Sci-Fi has no qualms about airing disaster flicks in its wake, but a tornado kills four teens at a Boy Scout camp and Sci-Fi suddenly decides the socially responsible thing to do is scrap their entire storm-themed line-up for the day.

NOT BUYING IT…

Forgive me if I sound a bit heartless and cynical but if Hurricane Katrina and weeks of tornadic carnage couldn't get a disaster movie preempted I don't see why this week's events should other than it being a lame bit of political correctness on the part of Sci-Fi, and, honestly, they're probably more concerned about it possibly getting lower ratings than usual than actually offending anyone's sensibilities. This is kind of like the old movie adage about how you can brutally kill as many adults in as horrifying a manner as possible and audiences don't have any problem, but kill kids and animals and many audience members will be offended. If this tornado had killed some seniors at a rest home you better believe there wouldn't be any schedule changes today. And if you disagree with me then let me point out what Sci-Fi has replaced today's programming with:

STEPHEN KING'S THE STAND

They're not even replacing their programming with something more upbeat; instead they've decided to go even more apocalyptic. So the Sci-Fi Channel considers a day's worth of disaster movies based around tornados and other meteorological terrors to be bad taste in light of the Boy Scout tornado tragedy, but an 8-hour miniseries about the end of the world is a-okay? God bless the Sci-Fi Channel and their simple-mindedness.