Turkey Sh*t

Breaking news: along with national news networks, all three locally-operated TV news stations are reporting today that many, many people are traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday. Almost all have confirmed this story by sending reporters to the airport.

On a related note, these same outlets have learned that some of those flying today are uncomfortable with the controversial body-scan

Readers Share Our Pain

We saw this story by Mike DCronemeyer on WOWT this morning but thought we were being too critical of the station's pathetic effort to match KETV's live reports during the early morning newscast. It turns out that we weren't the only ones who noticed, as evidenced by this alert reader's email:This morning I happened to have the TV on and it was turned to Channel 6 by accident. They did a small

Evidence

A couple of readers have suggested that the aforementioned "tea parties" were not anti-Obama and that the attendees were mostly sensible-looking folks.Apparently they missed the part where Texas's governor raised the specter of secession.We've taken a few screen shots from local coverage; you can judge for yourself.

Wednesday Night Alright for News

Two strong stories from Wednesday's 10 p.m. newscasts: one on Channel 7 and the other on Channel 3.At KETV, Carol Kloss did an excellent job with a story that could've been a warmed-over version of others that've been done on the topic—drunk driving. Instead, Kloss exposed and then went after a guy with multiple drunk driving convictions who not only has slithered out from under more severe

In Which the Writers Extol the Virtues of Ms. Madden and Offer a Bit of Unsolicited Advice to Her Pinhead Boss(es)

In an effort to be positive about what’s going on at WOWT, let us focus for a moment on Tracy Madden. As we’ve already noted, we couldn’t be more happy with her promotion to lead female anchor at the Big Six. And it appears to suit her well, too. In the weeks since the announcement that she’d be “movin’ on up,” Madden appears to be absolutely glowing.Don’t misunderstand: It’s not that she wasn’t

Stuffing

If we were narcissistic, we might think that SuxNews is just f-ing with us. Some of what they're airing lately is material that KPTM wouldn't have run even in its darkest days. That anyone can intro this stuff with a straight face (or any shred of self-respect) is truly remarkable.

Case in point: On Thursday's Live at Five, J-Pa "How Much Is That Hairpiece in the Window?" Knicely told viewers

A Different Sort of Shout Out

Tuesday was a little busy at the OMA News headquarters, so we didn't get to one item we can't let pass without comment.Part of sweeps at WOWT seems to be a tendency to strain to come up with "unique" angles to stories without realizing those angles are either unoriginal or just plain stupid. We're not sure where to file Jim Siedlecki's Monday night story about high school football games.The

Maltard Word of the Day

fulled: shorten by placing one part over another (Example: "Can you fulled the laundry?")

Grading Channel 6's Latest Hires

Who's doing the hiring at WOWT? Are on-air jobs now an entry-level, minimum-wage phenomenon at Channel Sucks? Looking at the characters they've been hiring lately, one has to wonder.Here's a brief report card on the latest batch of newbies at 35th and Farnam:Jaime McCutcheon is far-and-away the best addition to the station since MalorieMaddox came on board in the fall of 2004. While McCutcheon

Omarosa Doolittle

Before we put OMAnews on hiatus for a couple of weeks, we want to share this email from an alert reader, regarding the attire of Elictia "Omarosa" Hammond.Not sure if you saw today's morning show on KETV, but Elictia "Omarosa"Hammond wore a snappy black blazer and white shirt ... with jeans. Yes, jeans. With a small bleach stain near the left knee.You wouldn't have noticed her attire had she not

Math

If, like us, you've come to despise Mike Kelly's worthless column in the local paper, then you probably really hated Saturday's installment, which highlighted one of his more inane fetishes—what he calls "cool numbers."

Apparently, he found some guy who "was born on 10/10/55 and turned 55 on 10/10/10." Isn't it amazing?!

Let's add Kelly to the list of tired local hacks who need to go away— a

Will the Last Person Out of KPTM Please Turn Off the Transmitter?

Wow. The bloodletting over at KPTM has been pretty intense, even for that station, and is exceeded perhaps only by the bitterness that seems to be waist-deep at "Duct Tape 42." A correction and some highlights:Rumors of Taylor Wilson's departure were greatly exaggerated. Despite his absence from several new promos, he continues to anchor the 9 p.m. news and is said to have no job lined up

More FUBAR

Speaking of mannish features, an alert reader sends us this, regarding KETVNewswatchSeven's professional screw-up specialist, FUBAR Fazal:Don't know if you noticed or not, but last night (August 28) at the 10:00 news cast on Channel 7, Fubar was doing a story about that boat that burned and was sent floating down the river.  Fubar explained to us all that arson investigators were investigating

KMTV Takes a Stand

Like they were gonna say, "We're all for made-up stories."
KMTV STATEMENT REGARDING CBS NEWS

Maybe They Just Like That Name

Channel 6 just can't stop patting itself on the back for reuniting a cat lost in Council Bluffs with its Albany, New York owners. Now that "Bodhi" (pronounced BO-dee) is taken care of, maybe the Big Six will make lost pets a regular segment on "Live at 4," especially since KFAB radio no longer interrupts programming to mention that someone lost a dog in the area of 34th and Erskine. As for the

Replacement

KMTV has named a new news director: a guy named Al Carl.
According to his Facebook page, Carl is a graduate of Gretna High School and the University of Nebraska College of Journalism.
In the TV biz, since 1985, Carl's resumé includes stints in Scottsbluff; Mason City; Sault Saint Marie, Michigan; Saginaw, Michigan; Albany, New York; Huntsville, Alabama (two stations); Savannah, Georgia; and, most

Monotonous Mediocrity

One recent post asked if we were on vacation again. We wish.The explanation for the lack of posts on our part is this: nothing's happening. At least nothing that we haven't pointed out a dozen times. For example, this morning, KETV substitute traffic twit Veronica Todd alerted viewers to anticipated congestion "between 90th and West Dodge." (For those of you reading this who aren't familiar with

KETV Preparing to Challenge WOWT on Weekend Mornings

KETV is now advertising for an anchor/reporter, stipulating that the new hire will be anchoring weekend mornings. Informed sources suggest the new program will debut sometime after the first of the year.Maybe this will force Channel 6 to put a little more effort into its weekend morning McMess.

Wonder

On one of the WOWT "Weather Authority" promos, Chief Ejacucaster Jim Flowers assures viewers that, during a storm, all his station's "resources" will be brought to bear to help viewers.For those of you who may have moved here since June: Channel Sux possesses one "resource" that no other station has, and which it used for at least forty minutes during an overnight tornado last June (and we don't

FirstPrimeNewsWatchLive: Where the Bullshit Never Stops

• As we watched Ned Flanders Jim Flowers prattle through the weather segment recently on Channel 6, we were inspired to compile a list of meaningless phrases and useless add-ons we see on local newscasts. (Most of these have the stink of "Consultant" all over them.) The Big Six probably holds the lead in this arena, as well, but we could be wrong. Here's what we've come up with so far:Channel 6:

Losing Count

Watching multiple stations trying to cover a house fire in Council Bluffs Tuesday night was quite an adventure for anyone who might have been concerned about the facts. One alert reader was paying attention and notes the following:Channel 7 reported 6 family members in the house, 4 of whom were children.Channel 42 counted 8 in the house, 6 of them children.Channel 6 found 12 people living there,