Are we still in the "wild, wild West"?

Remember the character James West in the TV series "The Wild, Wild West"? With sidekick Artemis Gordon, they were like James Bond and "Q" of the 19th century western United States fighting all kinds of enemies. Why? Because it was wild! And it was "out west"!

Al Roker from the Today Show (love you guys, really...) was referring to a weather system on this morning's show about how a storm was going to coming onshore "out west". From someone who was born and have lived "out west" all of my life, I'm just sick and tired of easterners referring to the western half of the United States as "out west" like we're still fighting in saloons, riding horses and mining for gold. Don't you people travel?

Yes, I realize that 3/4 of the US population is east of the Rockies and that national TV has to address the bulk of their audience, but isn't it possible that national media types can refer to the weather system affecting "the west coast" instead of "out west? Is it necessary to continue using a tired reference to a part of the nation that has most of the iconic National Parks, natural resources, great outdoors, picturesque vistas and open spaces?

I'm sure that anyone from the east will sit back and dismiss the whiners "out west". You can just hear it. Too sensitive - big babies - buck up - man up, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes someone has to say enough. It's bad enough that you don't care about the sports world west of the Mississippi, but we can live with that.

Bottom line: it's the 21st century and the western half of the country is still part of the United States and we don't refer to you as "out east". We're just asking for a little respect.