Guardian – the time is right for a new TV Award. May is ratings month!!!! You know what that means. The geniuses at our local stations are doing all sorts of revealing “investigative reports.” 🙂

7 revealed to us that when Idaho Power sold some old computers on e-bay, they darn near tipped off Al-Queda on how to shut off the power in Boise, Idaho, something Osama has surely been trying to figure out for some time now. Thank God some computer geek bought the units before the terrorists noticed the deal, otherwise we could all be trying to type in the dark right now!! 🙂

The anchor-kittie on 6 my daughter describes as “real scary” looking, gave us a potential Murrow Award winning piece, revealing that teenagers today are into
methamphetamines!!!! Oh my, right here in the Treasure Valley!! (be nice to her, she is relatively new to the neighborhood and probably doesn’t realize teens have been into meth for several years now).

Tonight (Tuesday) 6 revealed the existence of something called the “Deadly Delay Zone” for firefighters. Apparently someone has determined that if the fire trucks don’t arrive on scene within six minutes of getting a call, then the potential for death and disaster just does right through the roof. And, guess what? They don’t always make it. Sometimes traffic gets in the way!!!! Sometimes those windy streets in subdivisions, or maze-style driveways in apartment and office building complexes slow them down!!!

It’s is just an absolute miracle that any of us are still alive, and in fact, tomorrow night, this “investigation” will continue with new information that will help us realize that any one of us could be living in a “Deadly Delay Zone,” thereby senselessly endangering the lives of our families.

Wow. I am already ashamed of myself and thinking about calling channel six to send a crew over to let me go on the air and ask forgiveness from my family for being so stupid. Next they’ll be telling me that some of the household cleaners under my sink are also deadly; that the kitchen in my favorite restaurant is not germ free; that the sheets on the bed in that motel we stayed in on our last vacation were probably full of bugs carrying deadly diseases; that I got ripped off the last time I took my car to the repair shop and who knows what other horrible things are lurking out there that I “might be surprised” to learn!

Shouldn’t certain worn-out phrases be banned from the airwaves? Like, “you might be surprised at what we found.” – “the shocking results of our investiation, at Ten” – “you won’t believe what we found out about ____”

Come on tv people – the only thing that surprises us is how you just keep getting funnier and funnier, as you continue to lower the standards for what used to be called “journalism.”

Give us a break. Start your newscast one night during the month of May with something profound, like “We have no phony investigations for you tonight and no sensationalized crap, we’re not going to try to be your mother or anything, we’re just going to report some news for the next few minutes and we hope you’ll find some of the information useful.”

Naawwww, on second thought, that wouldn’t be any fun to watch. Never mind.

Gotta go with John on the Meth story. I do want to mention one EXPOSE that Chet left out: The “does anybody think there is still prostitution in Boise after a couple of oriental spas were raided?” story. Did anyone watch this thing. Here’s some guy, sacrificing his reputation (or affirming it) actually HAVING SEX on the “massage table” with bare hiney pixilated (sorta), just to prove that there’s still trouble in River City.

We laughed our tails off. (not that prostitution or the addition or human trafficing that go along are funny) DO they think we’re idiots, because that would be my assumption? Did they have to PAY this guy? Was he a station employee? Were the camerapeople grossed out as bad as I was? Did we learn anything new? Geez, just do the news!

I am not disagreeing with Chet that ALL news (local and national) sensationalizes stories especially during their “ratings period”, but I do have a problem with people who always act like they are all-knowing. I have actually been watching Ch. 6 alot lately, and their “ratings stories” have been good investigations. Last night (Wednesday) “deadly delay” was a telling (although the name was corny)look at how three of the fastest growing cities in Idaho are dealing with slowing emergency response times.
-Meridian acknowledged they are well below par because of traffic issues….but they are actively pursuing major changes/adding more fire houses.
-Eagle acknowledged they are well below par and officials giving the city’s residents the choice to vote on building more.
-Kuna ackowledged the problem and said they are doing NOTHING…..I.E. Never getting rid of the volunteer fire dept (straight from the mayor’s mouth).
Let me guess….Chet has known for YEARS that there is a problem….AND…..he has all the solutions….Give me a break.