How did GUARDIAN readers see all the contests of local TV reports? Did KBCI even have a crew in Arizona at all? What will the media kids do with no football…always the legislature to predict and explain to us.

“I don’t know if Dope Awards cross state lines, but this is classic Dope Award behavior. The story is from the Associated Press in Cleveland.

A television news cameraman paid a $145 fine after police said he enticed three teenagers to ride their bikes through waist-high floodwaters.

The boys told police that Gary Abrahamsen of WEWS-TV in Cleveland offered to put them on TV if they rode through the water on a bridge, according to a police report. They said A REPORTER WADED INTO THE WATER so they would be riding behind her in the video.

Police cited Abrahamsen with misdemeanor disorderly conduct June 22. He paid the fine June 28, according to Norwalk Municipal Court.

AP reports the station has no comment. No word if the reporter was wearing a yellow shirt and hard hat.”

Not even with our twisted sense of absurd humor would we run a picture of a horse’s patute–with tail raised no less–under the headline, “STILL SINGING OF IDAHO AFTER 116 YEARS.”

This may the first time in journalistic history the once proud Boise daily newspaper has published a photo featuring a horse’s ass that wasn’t running for office or a member of a political party!

TV KUDOS

The GUARDIAN was deprived of TV Dope Award potential Monday as the first wildfires of the season made news in the Foothills of Boise. Both KTVB-7 reporter Ysabel Bilbao and KBCI-2 reporter Michelle DeGrand appeared on camera dressed like professional news reporters sans yellow shirts, hard hats, and grimy faces so common of TV-actors.

A DOPE REPORTER award is automatically bestowed on any TV reporter caught on camera wading in flood waters…the GUARDIAN source said Vogel was wearing boots and reporting at noon Friday from the Hailey area where the Wood River has overflowed its banks.

Only the actor-reporters on TV seem to qualify for the Dope Awards. It has little drama for a radio reporter to say, “I am standing in water up to my knees as I speak.”

Same is true for print media reporters who would be laughed out of the newsroom if they wrote, “This reporter waded in the water to get the story and photos.”

We love the video flood followers because their actions elicit so many comments on the GUARDIAN.

I’d like to nominate Melissa Paul (KIVI 6) for Dope Reporter this week. Did you catch her swinging in a playground mid-report???

In the interest of fair play we have to make a nomination for STEVE LIEBENTHAL, the KBCI-2 anchor who spoke of the Spanish named Mercado Mall as “mer say doe” mall in Caldwell.

So far it seems like channels 6 and 7 are front runners with 2 making a respectable(?) showing in this reverse ratings game. Does anyone watch the kids on 12?

Johnson was spotted on the evening newscast April 17 standing on a picnic table surrounded by water!The actor/reporter was dry, so he had to have either helicoptered or boated to the table to stand and talk to the camera.

He is the second Channel 6 reporter to win the award. Brandi Smith was our first winner from that station. She stood in water up to her knees wearing a fashionable skirt and bare legs. Scott Logan at 2 and Ysabel Bilbao at 7 are also previous winners.

The GUARDIAN served notice April 5 that reporters caught on camera in flood water would receive the Dope Award and be subject to public ridicule.

Johnson was spotted on the evening newscast April 17 standing on a picnic table surrounded by water!The actor/reporter was dry, so he had to have either helicoptered or boated to the table to stand and talk to the camera.

He is the second Channel 6 reporter to win the award. Brandi Smith was our first winner from that station. She stood in water up to her knees wearing a fashionable skirt and bare legs. Scott Logan at 2 and Ysabel Bilbao at 7 are also previous winners.

The GUARDIAN served notice April 5 that reporters caught on camera in flood water would receive the Dope Award and be subject to public ridicule.

Johnson was spotted on the evening newscast April 17 standing on a picnic table surrounded by water!The actor/reporter was dry, so he had to have either helicoptered or boated to the table to stand and talk to the camera.

He is the second Channel 6 reporter to win the award. Brandi Smith was our first winner from that station. She stood in water up to her knees wearing a fashionable skirt and bare legs. Scott Logan at 2 and Ysabel Bilbao at 7 are also previous winners.

The GUARDIAN served notice April 5 that reporters caught on camera in flood water would receive the Dope Award and be subject to public ridicule.

Johnson was spotted on the evening newscast April 17 standing on a picnic table surrounded by water!The actor/reporter was dry, so he had to have either helicoptered or boated to the table to stand and talk to the camera.

He is the second Channel 6 reporter to win the award. Brandi Smith was our first winner from that station. She stood in water up to her knees wearing a fashionable skirt and bare legs. Scott Logan at 2 and Ysabel Bilbao at 7 are also previous winners.

The GUARDIAN served notice April 5 that reporters caught on camera in flood water would receive the Dope Award and be subject to public ridicule.

The GUARDIAN wants to serve notice here and now that any TV news reporter caught on camera standing in floodwater will be subject to public ridicule and shame. The only thing worse is to sit in the studio during fire season in a dirty yellow shirt.

All your mommas taught you better than to play in the water wearing your good clothes!

Award winners will be posted below and we accept nominations by name and channel call letters.

WE HAVE A WINNER!!

BRANDI SMITH of KIVI at “TODAY’S 6” is the first DOPE REPORTER AWARD winner. She was nicely dressed in a blazer and skirt caught standing in dirty flood water up to her bare knees not even wearing boots in Eagle. What a brave reporter to take off her shoes and wade in the flood water for the camera! Congratulations Brandi as the first dope reporter award winner this season. 10 Pm Wednesday show.

SCOTT LOGAN of KBCI Channel 2 confessed that he too had been caught on camera wading in floodwater. Apparently Guardian readers don’t watch that station–despite intellectual coverage for the most part–because no one reported his misdeed. He claims to have slogged on camera to reach people he interviewed. Probably worth the DOPE AWARD for being on camera, but BRANDI still is our leader. Wading is OK, just don’t do it on camera.

A Reader nomination:
Ysabel Bilbao, Idaho Snooz Channel-7, was seen crossing the ‘raging flood waters’ to get an interview with a man whose house was “on an island.” She even looked back at the cameraman while she was making her way to the interview while carrying the tripod. What a trooper. In her good clothes too!