Huh?

Dumbest remarks made by local media types about college football on Saturday:Radio Blabberer Matt Davison: "The unknowns are always a question mark."WOWT's Merlin Klaus: "Northern (Iowa) is getting hard today."

Oops

Why, when story after story had mentioned that actress Natasha Richardson had been flown to a New York hospital, did Brandi Peterson open her report on Richardson's death begin, "Sad news coming in from Hollywood tonight..."?Do news people ever actually pay attention to what's going on in the world?

Is Channel 3 Onto Something?

Say what you will about Action 3 News, it has certainly shaken things up and made for an interesting February sweeps period.There is much to scoff at in KMTV's execution of the new format so far, and we've documented at least a couple of instances where the coverage is downright comical. Part of that is a function of having to implement the new strategy using existing staff, a staff which is

Collide-a-Scope

Someone needs to tell Angry Old Man Lee Terry, Sr. to shut the hell up.KETV's "Kaleidescope" has been hijacked by the graceless former news anchor, and the other passengers need to overpower and, perhaps, bind and gag him until landing.The program, which purports to be thoughtful, respectful discussion of current events by three panelists from different points on the political spectrum,

Jimmy Thiedlecki Name of the Day

THIG-ur-thun: Surname of Omaha City Council member who resigned Thursday. 


Do you suppose they giggle in the control room when they give him copy full of "s" words and he starts reading? Somewhat like this, perhaps?...

Omaha TV Newser of the Year

When it came time to gather the editorial staff to choose our Newser of the Year for 2006, there was no clear consensus, as had been the case a year ago, when we bestowed the first annual award on WOWT's Tracy Madden.A couple of voices suggested KMTV's GM, Steve Wexler, for giving Channel 3rd a makeover that pulled the station into the 21st Century and (finally) forced WOWT to adopt a new

OWH News Flash: Johnny Carson Was Funny

Deftly mixing his paper's trademark tepid television coverage with its fondness for local "brush with greatness" stories, OWH columnist Michael Kelly delivers anecdotes from frequent Tonight Show guest Jim Fowler and an Omaha man who once lent Johnny Carson clothing that he wore on the air. Does it get more exciting? Check it out here.

More Complete, Live, Local, Late-Breaking, Clear, Accurate, To-the-Point Prime Coverage...of Ratings

Thanks to an alert and helpful reader, here are more precise numbers from the May sweeps. Let's compare the actual numbers with what we said in our first and second posts:What we wrote:WOWT's decision to milk Pat Persaud's departure and the giveaway of a few stray Paul McCartney tickets for ratings paid off; viewers turned out in droves to watch Pat salute herself, giving Channel 6's 10 p.m.

Channel 7 Gets It Up Again

Is that a new tower on 72nd Street, or are you just glad you can spell the new morning co-achor's name?
Tower Is Live: What You Need To Know

Separated at Birth? Part 2

WOWT's Malorie Maddox and Olympic Softballer Jennie Finch.A much more pleasant pair than we featured in Part 1, doncha think? But we still want more cowbell.

Weekend Notes (or While You Were Shivering)

• Taking a page from the KETV playbook, WOWT has decided to put its best anchors on the Sunday 10 p.m. newscast, which is traditionally the most-watched of the week. John Knicely and Tracy Madden were on duty Sunday night, as were Channel 7's Rob McCartney and Julie Cornell. KETV began deploying its primary anchor team on Sunday nights during sweeps periods a while back, and it has apparently

Keep It Tactful

That's what we keep reminding ourselves to do with this post.See, there's this poor five-year-old kid who was badly injured a couple of years ago when he was attacked by a pit bull. Channel 6 has dutifully provided updates since then and has worked to draw attention to a fundraiser for the lad's reconstructive surgery. Fine, right?The problem is that EVERY time John Knicely mentions the kid, he

Nugget

OK, faithful readers, now it's your turn to make yourselves useful.Last December, a Channel Sux control roomer with our sense of humor cut quickly from a taped story to a live shot of idiot loud-talking anchor Jimmy Thiedlecki picking his nose (trolling for breakfast, perhaps?). As soon as Jimmy saw he was caught, he quickly pulled out. It was priceless.We DVR'd the whole ugly incident, but

Announcing the Logitech Revue with Google TV

The momentum keeps building for Google TV. Hot on the heels of our recent announcement about our content partners for the launch, our friends at Logitech have revealed a host of details about the Logitech Revue with Google TV. In a blog post, they have detailed pricing and hardware specs for the Revue and have added information about various compatible accessories (two remote controls, a video camera, and compatible Android/iOS apps).

This is just the beginning of the adventure and we’re excited to be working with Logitech, who bring three decades of experience building best-in-class computer and TV peripherals. With one remote control you can now intuitively access almost all your TV, DVR, web, and digital media content on the best screen in the house.

Posted by Peter Sherman, Product Marketing Manager, Google TV

Misc.

• KETVNewswatch7's Brandi Peterson and Rob McCartney did a live shot from somewhere or other on Saturday morning. It's hard to remember where because it didn't take long for the camera to pull back and reveal that Peterson was wearing shorts—shorts that showcased some startlingly Hillary Clintonesque calves. It didn't help that she was standing next to uber-thin McCartney, but these would've been

Omaha TV Newser of the Year

We're awarding our first annual pick for Newser of the Year to WOWT anchor Tracy Madden, one of the few bright spots in that station's lineup.Madden earns this prestigious honor for several reasons. First, she improved the quality of Channel 6's evening newscasts just by taking over for human pall Pat Persaud when the latter woman "retired" in May. That was the official handoff date, anyway. In

Create Your Own Adventure

We're too busy and too tired to write today. Therefore, we're declaring this "Audience Participation Thursday." Here's the plan: we'll supply the topic we'd write about if we had time; you write the smartass observations and nasty remarks in the "Comments" section. Here we go:• Hair Crisis Mussing Omaha's Female Anchors: Deb Ward, Calvert Collins and Tracy Madden. If you saw 'em last night,