Greg Fishel says he took a while to change his mind on climate change. Then he got a quick lesson in politics.

Richard Stradling wrote in the N&O (“Climate change reversal puts brighter spotlight on weatherman Greg Fishel”):

Fishel’s change in thinking has showed him how divided Americans are on this subject and others. It started with friends who accused him of caving in on the issue but continued with comments online and at public speaking engagements. Some got personal….

There’s a tribalism surrounding climate change, Fishel says, where people choose sides based on their political party or ideology. If Al Gore thinks it’s true, it must be false.

Welcome to our world, Greg!

Because he’s been in our dens forever and has a lot of built-up good will, Fishel will survive. He’s also lucky because he works for a TV station whose boss, Jim Goodmon, has progressive – Republicans say “liberal” and “left wing” – views.

Which is a big climate change from the old WRAL.

A.J. Fletcher, Goodmon’s grandfather and founder of the station, set out in the 1950s to counter the liberal N&O. He hired Jesse Helms to run the newsroom and broadcast a five-minute nightly commentary.

You think politics today is rough? You should have heard Helms’s venomous screeds.

Helms and Fletcher would have run Fishel out of town on his Doppler.

Today, Republicans hate Goodmon and WRAL. They accuse the entire news team of bias. They even tried to enact a special “Jim Goodmon Tax” last session.

But Goodmon can laugh all the way to the bank. Many of the millions that Republicans raise for their campaigns will go to WRAL. Which can keep paying for high-quality pros like Fishel and his colleagues.