Channel 5

At Blue Mass. Group, David Kravits makes the case. At issue: What Coakley said in response to some question by Janet Wu on Channel 5's new political show. Speaking of which, KennedySeat.com wonders when the adults will show up on the show:

... In the three episodes of this show I have watched (I skipped Christy), I have continually been struck by how the guests just run circles around the hosts, who are clearly overmatched. Even Pagliuca, who is a neophyte in the political world, handled the Channel 5 team easily. ...

John Carroll sat amazed last night as he watched Rhondella Richardson narrate a report on swine flu with a face mask on - because she was standing outside the house of somebody who apparently had it. Or as he puts it:

A surgical mask?

Really?

When Richardson was nowhere near the maybe-infected family?

Really really pathetic.

Ross Levanto watches it this morning, gives it high marks, except for the Andy Hilleresque pop quiz.

Is it sweeps week? Do they even have that anymore?

The Globe reports that Price, mutual agreemented from Channel 7, is being considered for an anchor job at Channel 5.

A 30-minute special every three months.

Does anybody in Boston TV actually take the T?

In a story about the alleged grampa groper, Channel 4 said he was caught on the MBTA commuter train. In its story, Channel 5 said he was caught on an Orange Line trolley.

Surprisingly, the Pervo Post, um, the Herald, has yet to report on the arrest.

A 30-minute ad for ABC shows that uses those pop-up bubbles that were old on VH1 five years ago? ABC shows that, except for "Dancing with the Stars" and "Lost," will all be cancelled within two months? Really, ABC?

Dave Alpert doesn't mind that the WCVB weatherman boasts of meeting Jewel. What frosts him is how Wankum says he met Jewel:

... Mike Wankum explained that he met Jewel because at a KISS Concert they invited "my daughter and I back there" [to meet her]. That is retard English, ENTIRELY unbecoming of a TV celebrity with an advanced degree (and from a man that innocent, grammar loving children look up to). Shouldn’t he be punished like Phelps???? ...

Would it be obnoxious to point out that Alpert made a grammatical mistake in complaining about Wankum's grammatical mistake?

Jim Morelli is out of a job come April 7, Michael Page reports. Morelli had been at WCVB for five years.

Or as Lori Magno puts it:

So I must have missed the updated forecast that went from 3-6" to the 16+" we received since Saturday night.

Dan Kennedy: Boyd harks back to a different, better era for local television news.

Liz Bruner just informed us that the winter storm warning runs until "3 a.m. in the morning." And then she repeated that, just in case we missed it.

Fortunately, Dickie clarified that the warning only runs until "3 o'clock in the morning."

We went to French Toast Code Orange earlier this afternoon based on this forecast. And now Harv confirms we were right to panic: Look, he's posted his dread three exclamation points of wintry doom!!! So you know we're in for a rough weekend.

Chronicle tomorrow night features the work of independent video producers, including our own Steve Garfield, who posts photos of a video crew shooting him shooting interviews.

On the steps of City Hall, Chuck Turner is saying he can't talk about his criminal case on the advice of his lawyers. But he can talk about the press:

I am not being judged by jury of my peers. I am being judged by the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, Fox News, Channel 5, Channel 7, etc., etc., etc. News outlets that would not cover my work as a city councilor are now knocking at my door almost every hour, demanding that I speak to them as if I have some responsibility to their bosses. That is absurd! Their behavior has been so obtrusive, so offensive, so oppressing, that my wife and I yesterday had to call the police department to give us protection from the press! Channel 5, people, would not leave my porch even when the police came! ... Once the police were gone, they came again. They are criminals! Why aren't they being arrested? ...

I will not sit back silently and allow my reputation that I struggled to build for 45 years to be ripped to shreds by employees of rich media corporation owners who have one desire and that is to silence anybody who is willing to speak up about oppression in this city, in this state, in this country.

Also, Maureen Feeney is a meanie who is attempting to strip him of his constitutional rights by taking away his committee chairmanships:

How can she strip me of my power as a committee chair especially of education and human rights without saying I know you're guilty Councilor Turner? How does she know I'm guilty?

And then he looked at reporters:

If you can stand in front of my house 12 to 14 hours a day harrassing me and my wife ... then you have a responsibility to ask Councilor Feeney why she has determined that we are guilty.

Because you do. Well, some of you, at any rate.

Over at Channel 4, David Wade reports on a "news tip" Channel 4 got from a regular viewer this morning:

... FYI to David W. Don't mean to be mean, but your hair needs a little help this AM. It's not very flattering when you look straight on at the camera :( ...

Oh, as long as we're on the vanity issue, mad props to Ed Harding for being cool enough to let Chronicle last night show the box he uses to stand on for those standing shots in front of the anchordesk.

Channel 5 reports the shocking news (to them, anyway) that Green Line and bus drivers often wave passengers on without bothering to see if they have passes or money. It was, at least, good to see Dan Grabauskas acknowledge that fare collection is, indeed, a priority at the T. Again.

I turned on Channel 5 just now (for the first time in awhile), because I just can't get enough indicted-Senator news. All their live reports now feature this sort of flashing star thing in the upper left corner. For those of you who grew up in video arcades in the 1980s, it'll remind you of the sparkly thing in Qix that chases you around the screen. It's very annoying, you keep looking at that thing instead of Janet Wu or whoever.

Rachel spots the headline of the day on the Boston Channel.

At 5 p.m., their lead story was basically: On a recording, Neil Entwistle sounded surprised when he talked to police about his dead wife and baby.

Meanwhile, today, a Dorchester guy was sentenced to FOUR CONSECUTIVE LIFE SENTENCES for slaughtering four people.

Eh, just a bunch of poor people in Dorchester, happens all the time, not even newsworthy, right, Channel 5?

Working at home today, I get to enjoy StormPanic 5 roughly every 90 seconds alerting us to the fact that Palmer or Springfield will be wiped off the face of the earth in 19 minutes. At one point, I swear Dick Albert said something like "If it gets really dark out there, better come inside."