It's the day after Thanksgiving, which means leftovers from local TV's gaffes of the year. Dig in.

Attempt to relate to young viewers?

" 'Preciate your time, my brotha," WTAE anchor Wendy Bell said to a young Tribune-Review reporter following his live report last month.

Worst diss of a veteran

		Related story This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Brothers & Sisters," sweeps and local news in high definition. Read it at www.post-gazette.com/tv.

Earlier this month when WTAE anchor Sally Wiggin accidentally walked in front of a studio green screen during the weather (a little early to introduce her report), Bell quipped, "Sally's worked here, what, 30-odd years and she doesn't -- ah, that's all right."

Wiggin played it wisely but pointedly. When she began her report, Wiggin said, "Make that 26, Wendy," putting the apparent Eve Harrington of Channel 4 in her place. (A local blogger immortalized the moment online at tunesmith-anthony.com.)

Impressive tracking shot

Maybe WPXI reporter Amy Marcinkiewicz was inspired by the late film director Robert Altman, who's known for filming long tracking shots in his movies. Whatever the reason, Marcinkiewicz made herself almost breathless last week in a live shot that followed her from the front of an electronics store all the way to the back for a report on a new video game system.

It actually added a level of nervous-making "24"-style edginess to her report: Would she run into a customer? Trip over a cord? Run out of things to say before she reached her far-flung destination?

Love those young demos

The first morning of May sweeps coincided with "bring your child" to work day and an employee's child showed up on set during KDKA-TV's morning news, standing between anchors Sheila Hyland and Sonni Abatta. Anyone tuning in without hearing the introduction could be forgiven for wondering if the kid was a new hire given how much Pittsburgh stations love to hire young reporters. Stations can pay them less and, if they're young and attractive (and they almost always are), they can be used as demo bait.

Flustered much?

In that same newscast during a tease for the 7 a.m. news on WPCW, anchor John Cater became so flustered he actually asked, while on air, for someone to fix the TelePrompTer. Isn't that why anchors have a script on the desk, to avoid such embarrassing situations?

Not their bread and butter
I'm glad WQED's "On Q" exists to tell Pittsburgh's cultural stories that the commercial stations ignore. But why would "On Q" send a crew to the Super Bowl in January? Wasn't there enough hype and coverage in all other forms of media? Isn't that the kind of thing "On Q" should sit out so it can shine a light on Pittsburgh culture that too often is in the dark? There wasn't a dearth of Steelers stories that month and "On Q" didn't need to jump on that bandwagon.

KDKA airs hoax as news

This summer KDKA-TV aired a report that showed photos of piglets dressed as tigers near a mother tiger. The piglets were supposedly there to help the tiger get over a depression she fell into after her own offspring died. According to the urban legend Web site Snopes.com, the pictures that had been circulating the Internet were real, but the story about the depressed tiger was not. KDKA removed video of the story from its Web site. I e-mailed KDKA news director John Verrilli to ask if a correction ever aired; he did not respond.

Copycat-itis hits stations

This November sweeps period more than any other in memory, local stations have been copying one another's stories ad nauseam. It's not unusual for TV stations to cover the same news-of-the-day stories, but usually stations come up with their own, original sweeps features. Not this month.

Every commercial station in town did stories on where some of the Steelers players get haircuts. Both KDKA and WTAE did stories on "clean and green" property tax loopholes. Two stations did stories on the safest shopping malls and two stations did that old chestnut: stories on tax refunds that have gone uncollected.

If there are really no new ideas, can we just call this whole sweeps thing off?

Gambling? In Casablanca?

Kudos to WTAE's Bob Mayo for calling a spade a spade. Actually, Mayo said nothing, but let viewers draw their own conclusions while reporting on the abundance of self-promotion for Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl on the official city of Pittsburgh Web site. Mayo then compared it to other Web sites for other cities that are a little less self-promotional.

Ravenstahl claimed, disingenuously, the photos of him glad-handing had "no link at all to the campaign" to get re-elected mayor. Yes, and the Earth is flat.

Galling

Two weeks after a minister committed suicide following KDKA promotions for a report by Marty Griffin that accused the man of "public and illegal sexual behavior," KDKA, in a transparent attempt to heal its battered image, had Griffin report on another minister who was sitting on his roof, refusing to come down until he raised money to buy 1,000 turkeys for the needy.

Reporting on good deeds is something TV stations should do more routinely, but it was stomach-churning to hear Griffin refer to "the good pastor" given what had happened just a few weeks before.

What about the children?

It's not just TV stations that deserve occasional derision. Sometimes, sadly, it's the viewers themselves who don't understand it's their job -- as parents or grandparents -- to be media literate, to know what their children are watching and to step in when they deem a program unsuitable. Too often, children's caregivers abdicate this important responsibility.

Here's one example from a recent call I received:

Woman caller: Who can I complain to about this show I saw last night?

Me: What channel were you watching?

Her: I don't know. It was on at 10 o'clock.

Me: Without knowing the network, I can't tell you who to complain to.

Her: What is happening to TV? There were these two gay guys going at it and ...

Me: You can always turn off the TV.

Her: What about the children?

Me: Their parents should monitor what they're watching.

Her: You're a joke.

And then she hung up.

Well, my brothas and sistahs, those are the turkeys for this year. As one local TV news anchor might say, peace out.