Sinking

An alert reader notes Maladroit Maddox's latest pronunciation ailment: her rendering of Amana, the name of an eastern Iowa town and countless microwave ovens.Maddox calls it "ay-MAHN-ay."Is someone putting lead in her coffee?Her gaffe tops that of sports director Dave Webber, who on Friday night referred to Kearney High School's football team as "the Lopers." (The team is the known as the

The Lloyd Christmas Award for Dumb Remarks

As if to remind us that only half of Omaha's stupidest anchor team is "retiring," WOWT's John Knicely has been getting extra airtime the past couple of weeks, filling in on "Live at Four" for Brian Mastre, who is keeping the "Live at Daybreak" seat next to Malorie Maddox warm during May sweeps. During Tuesday's broadcast, viewers were treated to the following display of Knicely's trademark

Behold the Grueling Four Day Work-Week

FYI, as a rule, OMA News will henceforth publish on Mondays through Thursdays. Except in extraordinary cases, Friday will be part of the weekend as far as we're concerned.

Persaud Leaving WOWT

WOWT will announce Pat Persaud's exit tonight during its 10 p.m. newscast. According to sources, Tracy Madden will move up when Persaud leaves the station on May 25th.In a memo sent to WOWT staff this afternoon, News Director John Clark says that it is "with mixed emotions" that he announces Persaud's "retirement." The memo goes on to say that Persaud is leaving to devote her full-time energies

And Now for Something Totally New and Different

That bastion of serious journalism and the region's Opinion Leader, Omaha's daily newspaper, has gone out on a limb and declared itself AGAINST METH in today's editions (registration required). Now that's leadership. [OWH](We know this really has nothing to do with local TV news, but it seems like the bold journalistic stand we usually associate with "For What It's Worth.")

KETV Fires the First Salvo of Sweeps Idiocy

On Thursday, Channel 7's answer to "Inspector Gadget," Carol Kloss, "investigates" steroids. Apparently, they're bad for athletes. Who knew?

Underwhelming

Every time we think the SuxNews team has run out of stupid, it manages to surprise us with its ability to produce more.Today's exhibit (don't worry, there'll be another tomorrow, and the next day, and the...) is "Haley's Comment," WOWT's latest attempt at innovation. The idea, from what we can gather, involves sending a local college freshman named Haley Hatter, who was going to attend the

Name These Anchors, If You Can

In our YouTube explorations, we came across this item, labeled "KETV Retro Promo." While we pride ourselves on knowing most anchors going back as far as Lee Terry, Sr., we have no idea who the two kids at the anchor desk are. Anyone know?

Local Outlets Stage "Phone-It-In Tuesday"

Even the most forgiving viewer might have been hard pressed to find evidence of anyone really trying on Tuesday's 10 p.m. newscasts. Examples? • Channel 7 devoted early moments of its cast to two non-stories. The first centered on a kid being lost for about an hour. The reporter said that "everyone" found the little rascal, causing us to picture more of a mob scene than was probably present. The

Mal-Tard Word of the Day

(submitted by an alert reader)sir: conduit (usually underground) for drainage and waste (example: "Oh no! The sir backed up into my basemint!")

Changing the Channel

With the final three days of Queen Pat's reign approaching, we thought it would be refreshing to think about something else. Acutally, anything else. As a change of pace, we offer another list of things we'd like to see more of...• A dedicated reporter for "Live at Daybreak." Face it: there are only so many times WOWT's Malorie Maddox and her co-anchor can pretend to care about "First Birthdays"

If She Keeps Up This Pace, "Retirement" Is Going to Feel Extra Sweet

For the first time in nearly a month, WOWT anchor Pat Persaud has shown up at the anchor desk for a third consecutive day. If our earlier speculation is correct, it has now been 72 hours that the 6News team has been locked in the studio, part of an effort by management to get PP on the air more. As we understand (or imagine) it, John Knicely and fill-in sports anchor Merlyn Klaus hold Pat down