Exaggerated

We've been making a concerted effort to avoid watching the Channel Sux morning program the past few weeks. Watching Jimmy Thiedlecki and his little sidekick Maltard step on each other's lines, giggle at their own imagined cleverness, and mangle the English language makes us want to gouge out our eardrums.But after hitting a wrong button on the remote this morning, we ended up at Sux just in time

Scrapings from Weekend Viewing

•Yet another of our many alert viewers reports that the woman who once made reference to Boystown founder Father Edward Flanagan's "grandson," KPTM reporter/KXVO anchor Calvert Collins, admitted to listeners tuned in to The Brew (96.1 FM) on Friday that she has dated KETV anchor/reporter Todd Andrews.• A while back, we mentioned that it might be a good idea to avoid dispatching Gary Smollen to

Left

KETV reporter Owen Lei has left the station for Seattle's KING-TV. A graduate of Northwestern University's prestigious journalism program, Lei had been with the station since 2006.His departure is a loss for the station and for Omaha news, in general.

Finally! Some Good News About What the Kids Are "Into" These Days

Now here's an upbeat story: It's all about some nice youngsters with a wholesome hobby trying to make the world a better place. Looks like fun.Media Activists Who Smile and Throw Cheese [Arizona Republic]

Having a Screaming Attorney May Not Help Your Case

Anyone who caught Channel 6's 5 p.m. newscast on Monday were treated to footage of the attorney for an alleged sex offender shouting at WOWT's camera. It seems the attorney didn't like all the attention his client was getting. Local marketer Matthew Samp has a full account and an insightful take on the incident in his blog.

Index Card Consumption Continues Despite Murrell Absence

Who the hell is Veronica Todd? It has the ring of a soap opera name, but actually, it's the one attached to the airhead filling in for regular KETV morning airhead/traffic reporter Jana Murrell. Like Murrell, Ford can't seem to speak without the aid of a trusty pink index card containing her lines. Honestly, how hard is it to remember two or three traffic items? It's not as if these nitwits are

Morning Sux

Choose your favorite Jimmy Thiedlecki moment from one 20-minute segment of this morning's Channel Sux News "Live at Daybreak":A.  Jimmy tells viewers that recent "events have shook up Plattsmouth." (Apparently Jimmy hasn't took any grammar learnin' yet.)B. Jimmy, thinking he is quite cute, alludes to the "Tour DAY Lance, er France." (Will someone please tell this bumpkin that the vowel sound in

Farrah?

It's bad enough that morning blabberer Maltard Maddox is filling in at 10 p.m. this week in Tracy Madden's absence.

But then she decided to, like, play dress-up with her girlfriends and they, like, curled each other's hair and stuff, and talked about boys, and it was, like, SO much fun! It was just like getting ready for, like, prom or something!!! And then she, like, went on the air and we're

Bits

• At Action3rd, longtime reporter Dave Roberts has been given a weekend anchor job. He will be paired with new hire Kandiss Crone, who comes to Omaha after allegedly being bounced from a station in Jackson, Mississippi. 


Among other hard-hitting stories Crone did while in Jackson was an "undercover" piece revealing that an adult video store owner was selling (gasp) sex toys (Mississippi is one

Shazam!

You can take the girl out of Joplin, but you can never quite flush Joplin out of the girl.

Channel Sux's farm-report-caliber morning anchorette Malorie Maddox, filling in on the midday news for Jimmy Thiedlecki on Tuesday, referred to Michigan Senator Carl Levin (sounds like "eleven" without the first e) as Carl "luh-VEEN."

Anyone following national news for more than a few months would

Sharp

Check out this cartoon mocking the Omaha World-Herald's rejection of a gay couple's wedding announcement. It is a pitch-perfect skewering of the local rag. We especially love the final panel.

Why?

During a writer's strike back in the late 1980s, David Letterman employed a segment entitled, "Hal Gurnee's Network Time-Killers" (Hal Gurnee was his longtime director). Now, twenty years later, Channel Sux has developed its own, albeit less entertaining, version: sixonline LIVE.This handy feature brings together online chatting and local TV news, two things that go together like power tools and