Sources: Former WBZ And WGBH Meteorologist Mish Michaels Killed By MBTA Train In Natick After Years Of Bullying Over Vaccine And Climate Opinions By Media

 

Long time meteorologist at WBZ and WGBH Mish Michaels tragically died earlier in the week.

We are incredibly sad to report the loss of a member of our WBZ family. Mish Michaels, who was part of our weather team for 7 years, has passed away. Mish was a friendly, reliable, curious meteorologist who loved science. She began forecasting weather in the 1990s and joined us here at WBZ in 2001. Mish chased tornadoes, flew into hurricanes, and brightened our lives – always sharing her enthusiasm for science and weather. To us, she was a friend. But Mish was so much more. In a statement posted on Facebook, Mish’s husband called her a devoted mother, wife, daughter, auntie, friend, and stellar equestrian. Mish had the ability to brighten up every room she entered, and we at WBZ are sending her family our love.

In the words of Mish’s friend and colleague, WBZ-TV Executive Weather Producer Terry Eliasen:

For the first time in my 20 years at WBZ, I sit at my keyboard not knowing what to write. I feel like I could type a 1,000 page novel but yet I have no words. It seems anything I say about Mish Michaels just isn’t enough. For those that didn’t know her, I feel I cannot possibly portray just how amazingly brilliant she was. For those that did, you know… there are simply no words. Mish was so many things to so many people. A brilliant meteorologist. A dear friend. A loving wife and mother. She was one of those rare human beings that excelled at everything she did. Most knew her from her many years on TV in Boston. If you lived here in the 90s and early 2000’s, you knew Mish Michaels. She began her meteorology career on WMUR in Manchester but quickly made it to “the big time” in Boston. She became a household name while working at WHDH and then at WBZ from 2001-2009.

In a field dominated by men for decades, Mish was determined to pave the way for women meteorologists, not just here in Boston, but throughout the country. And she did just that. Mish was, in a word, brilliant. She was the most prepared, diligent, and dedicated meteorologist that I have ever worked with. She elevated and inspired those around her. Mish could have done anything she wanted. She could have been a leader in just about any industry. The fact that she chose meteorology was not by chance; I believe it was meant to be.

Sources are reporting to TB Daily News that she was the civilian who was killed by a MBTA train after throwing herself on the tracks Monday.

UPDATE: Woman dies after being struck by @MBTA_CR train in Natick https://t.co/tKSYMtKQW9 (via @milforddaily)

— Mike Saccone (@mikesacconetv) March 15, 2022

This is a sad reminder that mental health is an overlooked epidemic in our country. Sometimes the people who seem the happiest on the outside are battling demeans on the inside. Check in on family and friends, tell them that they can tell you anything on their mind, and make it clear to them that you love them and aren’t there to judge. If you’re having thoughts like that you’re far from the only one, and you’re not abnormal. Contact your primary care, tell them what’s on your mind, and they will refer you to someone who can help. Too often when this happens it’s because the deceased felt uncomfortable talking about their issues for fear of being stigmatized.

Mish Michaels was cancelled before cancel culture became a common household term. In 2017 she was bullied out of her job by WGBH’s Jim Braude (who makes a $400K salary off the taxpayers) because she testified about her concerns over vaccines.

The Boston Globe wrote a hit piece in 2017 titled, “Mish Michaels losers her job because she doesn’t believe in science.”

Mish Michaels loses job as WGBH science reporter over anti-vaccine views https://t.co/Hptvaux1ze pic.twitter.com/sKaoX2HJtV

— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) February 9, 2017

Mish Michaels graduated from Cornell with a bachelor’s degree in meteorology, and then got her Masters Degree in Technology from Harvard. Imagine being a well respected Ivy League graduate and then getting smeared by the Boston Globe as someone who doesn’t believe in science. Imagine you lost your job over that. Now imagine what that could do to your psyche.

The Globe aligned her with Donald Trump, (knowing the effect this would have on her reputation in a state where Trump was unpopular) because of 2011 testimony she gave in front of the Massachusetts State Legislature where she voiced her well researched concern about possible side effects of vaccination.

President Donald Trump, before and during the campaign, has also voiced doubts about the safety of vaccines, claiming a connection to autism.

In 2011, after she’d left WBZ-TV, Michaels testified before the Massachusetts Legislature in favor of a bill to add parental choice to the list of reasons children without immunizations may attend school. Currently, kids who aren’t immunized may only go to school if they have documentation from a doctor, or if a parent submits a written statement declaring that immunization conflicts with their religious beliefs.

In her testimony before the Legislature, Michaels said her work as a “trained scientist and environmental reporter” had led her “to ask difficult scientific questions that often [took] me beyond scientific consensus.” She said she and her husband have a family member who “contracted leukemia after exposure to vaccines and pesticides,” and they have many “Ivy League-educated friends” who have autistic children. 

“Up to that point, we believed what the media told us, that all vaccines were safe and effective,” Michaels said. 

When she became pregnant in 2006, she told lawmakers, she began to “avidly research vaccine safety” and began to “present scientific research that was current and recent and new to news management [at WBZ-TV] and also began to present them with stories of vaccine-damaged children.” But Michaels said her bosses at the station were not interested. 

She also had the wrong opinions about climate change.

“I spent hours and hours reading about climate science to be able to generate related stories. Given my exposures to date, I do feel strongly that politics has warped the scientific process and natural variation has a much stronger hand than humans do.”

In the story Braude made it clear that he was the one who led the charge to have her terminated for wrong think.

Mish Michaels was an Ivy League graduate, but somehow Jim Braude, with his sociology professor sports coat and jeans look, was smarter than her. He wanted Michaels fired because he thought here opinions on vaccines were dangerous misinformation, and he pretends that the media cannot platform people who spread information that isn’t verified. Yet last May he platformed Monica Cannon-Grant and didn’t challenge her at all as she lied repeatedly about Mikayla Miller being lynched by 5 white teenagers.

In reality, Jim Braude doesn’t care about truth or misinformation. He believes you should be castigated from respectable society if you have opinions that don’t align with his, which is why he had more disdain for Mish Michaels than he did for a criminal like Monica Cannon-Grant.

She also had the wrong opinions about climate change, according to the Boston Globe.

“I spent hours and hours reading about climate science to be able to generate related stories. Given my exposures to date, I do feel strongly that politics has warped the scientific process and natural variation has a much stronger hand than humans do.”

But the Globe named Monica Cannon-Grant 2020 Bostonian of the year, despite her overt fraud, racism, and graphic promotion of violence.

Northeastern journalism professor Dan Kennedy also said in this WGBH clip (4:30 mark) that she deserved to be fired for having opinions on healthcare that were outside the mainstream.

 

“I don’t know her, I’ve never spoken to her, and she claims that her views have been mischaracterized. I don’t know about that. Somebody who reports on science who holds views that are way outside the scientific mainstream shouldn’t be employed by a news organization to report on science. It’s the widely held view that the anti-vaxxer stuff is dangerous nonsense.”

He didn’t know her and he never spoke to her. But she was bad and had to lose the job she was passionate about because she held opinions that didn’t align with Dan Kennedy’s. She went to Cornell and Harvard, but Dan Kennedy teaches journalism at Northeastern, so he’s the authority figure on science.

Kennedy had no problem spreading misinformation about Bob Murchison and his successful campaign that led to the end of Kirk Minihane and Gerry Callahan at WEEI.

It’s interesting that like Michael, Minihane also lost his job in the media for having opinions on cultural and social issues that deviated from acceptable mainstream orthodoxy. He’s been very vocal about the effect that Murchison has had on his mental health, and has been open about his thoughts of jumping in front of train himself.

Nevertheless, if Dan Kennedy finds you to be”offensive” then you must be banished from polite society, because only he is allowed to decide who should and should not be able to report the news.

It’s unclear if this sort of bullying (not one person on that panel stood up for her) and vilification by the establishment media led to her mental health issues, but I can speak from experience that this sort of mischaracterization can greatly affect people. The media treated her like a dangerous pariah while propping up actual dangerous people like Monica Cannon-Grant, a feeling I know all too well.