Wiener of the Week

I'm sure you've seen it before if you've ever watched local news, regardless of your city, state, or municipality.

An attractive, smiling, talking head sits at the News Desk, some sort of graphic over his/her shoulder. He/she says in that Announcer voice, "In tonight's news...".

But what happens next isn't at all what you expect. And what happens next is why Local Affiliate News is my Wiener of the Week.

"In tonight's new, we get insert-your-city-here's reaction to insert-network-TV-show-here".

That's right - local affiliates are treating network television programming AS NEWS in a shameless attempt to garner ratings. Let me repeat: shameless.

And it's not like this is something that just started happening. I've noticed this for a couple of years now, particularly Fox stations humping American Idol, but also stations humping celebrity dancing, gawd-awful summer trash TV talent shows, etc.

C'mon, affiliates! Show some class! Network programming is NOT news! For treating it as such, you're my Wiener of the Week.