Emergency/Amber Alerts

Recently, I've noticed that whenever there is any kind of emergency (weather, amber) alert in my area, my cable box automatically switches to another channel displays the alert (which takes way longer than it should), then switches back. Now, I'm all for alerting people in an emergency, but this really bothers me, for a number of reasons.

First, it's my TV, I didn't ask to be notified in an emergency, so don't change my channel. Last night it happened during the game, which was a blowout and pretty much over, so it wasn't a big deal, but if that had happened during football season during a Cowboys game, or in the middle of one of my favorite shows, I would be pissed. Actually, now that I think about it, it did happen once during the Shield, and I was pretty pissed. I missed like 5 minutes of the show, which isn't a lot, but fuck, it's my TV.

Second, they don't know what I'm watching, so they shouldn't decide for me that their alert is more important. Last year during all the hurricaines, these warnings were coming on all the time. But I was mostly already watching weather coverage, so I already knew about them, and interuppting what I was watching was just frustrating.

Third, they don't narrow down the area enough. I've seen warnings from pretty much all over the state, for things that have no chance to affect me, and amber alerts from way down south where there will be absolutely no chance that I've seen that kid.

Finally, the biggest reason this pisses me off, is they could just as esily give out the exact same information as a message running across the bottom of my screen. Then I could still watch what I was watching, still be informed if I need to be, and not be pissed off if I don't need to be. Why do people have to make everything so much more difficult than it should be?