Actually, they may only have the appearance of highly paid morons, as that is what they are designed to be. They dumb down the art of complex forecasting to the point where the everyman can figure out if it is going to rain or not on the way to work. Because of this retardation, it can become difficult to distinguish whether or not someone is genuinely an idiot, or just feigning it.

ahem... I am off topic

EDIT: Of course I don't include any of the fine people at flhurricane, or any of the genuine tv mets out there.