Some viewers love to loathe local TV news and frequently I play the part of chief scold. Often that righteous indignation is justified. But not always.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, it's worth noting that for November sweeps, which ended Wednesday (ratings will be released next week), Pittsburgh stations were relatively restrained.

There were only a few overblown reports and few faux "investigations" that didn't merit the label. Yes, there were obvious sweeps cliches -- diet stories, reports on coupon clipping savings, etc. -- but not many reports that were destined to enrage discerning viewers.

Even so, we can always find a few turkeys:

Larry Richert -- Reporter or pitchman?

KDKA's competitors have long suggested the station sells appearance spots in the channel's "Pittsburgh Today Live" morning show but Channel 2 general manager Christopher Pike maintains that's not the case. Still, I could not help but raise an eyebrow when I saw what was clearly a commercial for a new grocery store fronted by KDKA-AM employee Larry Richert. It ended with Richert encouraging viewers to "learn more tomorrow at 9 a.m. on 'Pittsburgh Today Live.' "

His KDKA-TV report the next day on the opening of a new Giant Eagle Market District at Settler's Ridge was no more effusive -- though certainly longer in duration -- than a gushy Kimberly Easton report on the same subject on a WPXI newscast. But the fact that Richert's role as a reporter was promoted in a Giant Eagle commercial -- complete with a store logo graphic -- for which he was essentially the pitchman felt like a step too far in blending commercialism with TV news.

In April, Channel 11 took a snickering, frat boy approach to its tease of a story about the Steelers' Super Bowl rings:

ANCHOR: What is [Steelers player] Ike Taylor talking about?

IKE TAYLOR: They're nice, they're big and they're juicy.

ANCHOR: We'll explain at 5:30.

KDKA's Trina Orlando must have drawn the short straw. Or maybe it was just her proximity to the story as Westmoreland County bureau reporter. Either way, her July interview with the ex-Mrs. Joe "84 Lumber" Hardy included the question used in promos for the report: "What's it like to be intimate with a man who's 60 years older than you?"

Andrew Stockey -- He did not ask the sex question.

On the one hand: It's a nosy, sleazy question better suited to "Inside Edition."

On the other hand: C'mon, it's what everybody is wondering, right?

Of course the answer revealed nothing. The whole exercise was just an opportunity for Kristin Georgi to promote her planned book: "Most of that will be saved for my book, which is almost finished, actually," Georgi said in answer to Orlando's query.

Maybe that non-answer is what KDKA deserves for doing a silly story and going a step further than WTAE's interview with Georgi, in which anchor Andrew Stockey did not ask the question.

Makes me wonder though, how much do gender politics dictate which reporters can (female) and can't (male) ask the sex question? With Orlando, it's nosy but not creepy. With Stockey, had he asked the question, it would have been both nosy and creepy. It's definitely best that he avoided it.

It's certainly newsworthy that the long-running "Oprah Winfrey Show" will end its run in September 2011, but did it really deserve the lead story coverage it got one morning last week on ABC's "Good Morning America"? Or was the decision to lead with the Winfrey story motivated more by the fact that the show is carried on many ABC stations?

Oprah Winfrey -- Was ABC trying to boost her ratings?

Winfrey's show drives viewers to early evening newscasts in many TV markets, but in recent years the show has routinely placed third in overall ratings in its 4 p.m. weekday time slot on Pittsburgh's WTAE behind news on KDKA-TV and "Judge Judy" on WPXI.

Last month, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" perked up to second place in household ratings, and it routinely ranks No. 2 among the younger viewers prized by advertisers and No. 1 among women ages 25-54. WTAE's 5 p.m. newscast has generally ranked second to KDKA in household and demo ratings in recent sweeps periods, so there's not as much of an "Oprah" boost in Pittsburgh as in some other markets.

The end of Channel 4's contract to carry "The Oprah Winfrey Show" would allow the station to add another hour of news at 4 p.m. A station spokeswoman said no decision has been made about how the time slot will be filled.

WPXI went overboard with its coverage of the first snow on Oct. 16 in Indiana County.

Vince Sims -- Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

"We did have the first snow of the year today and it was a big deal," said Channel 11 reporter Vince Sims. Hmm, does wishing make it so? The report showed occasional light flurries but not a snow-covered road in sight.

WPXI's report looked even more exaggerated when compared to the reaction of WTAE meteorologist Demetrius Ivory, who greeted the non-event of flurries, saying, "It was kind of a gee-whiz thing but no accumulation for Pittsburgh."

There's certainly nothing wrong with noting the first flurries -- some video during a weather segment would be appropriate -- but making a big deal about it by sending a reporter to stand on a road that's merely wet is unnecessary and just encourages viewers to roll their eyes at another local news excess.

Similarly, last Thursday it seemed like tabloid ridiculousness that WTAE opted to lead with a live report from St. Clairsville, Ohio, on the court case involving charges that a police chief broke into the home of the surrogate who carried twins for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.

It's a court case happening in the viewing area, so it makes sense to cover it -- but it did not warrant lead story treatment at 5 and 6 p.m. If not for the celebrity angle, it's hard to imagine the story getting placed so high in both newscasts.

And, of course, sometimes we, the viewers, are responsible for turkeys of our own when we infer, suspect connections where none exist and jump to conclusions.

This fall when Comcast moved MSNBC and other channels to a digital tier for some suburban customers, there was another outbreak of paranoia as conspiracy-minded liberals suspected it was all a plot to stifle liberal voices. (The same theories broke out a year earlier when Comcast made the same move in the City of Pittsburgh and the angry voices would only be quieted when Keith Olbermann told the Post-Gazette the exact same thing I had been saying: It's a business move, nothing more.)

Keith Olbermann -- No conspiracy, just business.

Politics aside, the distinction between analog and digital won't matter come a year from now when all standard cable channels -- 23 through 72 -- have moved to a digital tier throughout the region as part of Comcast's "World of More" initiative.

Still, these liberal conspiracy theories pale compared to the fever dreams of conservatives who were convinced this month that "Sesame Street" had it in for them through a play on words with Pox News and a character who said of Pox, "now there's a trashy news show."

Nevermind that their ire was directed at a rerun that first aired in 2007 and had been written in 2006, long before Fox News butted heads with the Obama administration this fall. The same skit referred to CNN as GNN, the Grouch News Network.

"Children who watch 'Sesame Street' (and adults who remember what it felt like to be a kid watching 'Sesame Street') know that Oscar the Grouch is a contrarian," wrote Sesame Workshop executive Miranda Barry in the PBS Ombudsman Column this month. "He lives in a trash can and loves everything 'yucky,' and 'disgustin'.' For a Grouch, 'Trashy' is high praise! Not only would child-viewers be unlikely to connect 'Pox News' to Fox News, in the context of this scene, they would understand the characters to be saying that 'Pox News' is better than 'GNN.' "

"The writers expected that adult viewers would make the connection to Fox News as well as the connection to CNN," she continued. "This was equal-opportunity parody -- Oscar always tries to offend everybody!"

Seriously, how out-of-their-minds are people these days?

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