Last week, the city of New York was blanketed by thick smoke from the wildfires burning in Canada.

The smoke was so thick; there were times when you couldn’t see a skyscraper that was right in front of you.

WNBC showed health department data that showed that the air was “hazardous” to breathe and recommended that everyone stay inside.

So, where did the WNBC O&O send their Reporters?

Out into the smoke.

Now, I fully understand that there are times when news crews had to put themselves in dangerous situations. I have been in those as a Journalist more times than I can count.

But, to stick a Reporter outside is what your station has said is hazardous conditions; just to front and tag a package live for the sake of being live is ridiculous.

I saw at least three Reporters live in the smoke in just a few minutes that I watched.

All of these reports could have been stand-alone packages or fronted from indoors next to a window.

Journalism is a business that has risks, but this is a risk that could have easily been avoided.

Shame on WNBC.