TMJ4 Dirty Dining Brookfield Perkins Update

On Thursday, TMJ4's Courtny Gerrish did another of her weekly "Dirty Dining" segments.

Once again, the restaurant featured was a small place, Haji's Red Hots.

The conditions at the place were really gross.

The "Dirty Dining" web page was updated promptly, the latest installment already online.

The person or persons responsible for updating the page do so in a very timely manner.

The weekly reports are all there; and when they move off the page, the reports can still be accessed by using the search function on the TMJ4 website.

There is one exception: the December 11, 2008, "Dirty Dining" Brookfield Perkins report.

It still has not been returned to the page after it was inexplicably removed and after Brenda Serio, programming, said that the news assignment desk was in the process of restoring it.

No, not there.

Did you think there was a chance that the story would be back?

I certainly didn't. Although I've come to expect this lack of professionalism from TMJ4 and Journal Broadcast Group personnel, it's still disappointing.

It's been two full months since the Perkins story disappeared. It's not coming back.

I really wonder what the deal is.

What does a targeted establishment have to do to get TMJ4 to scrub its website and make the negative report go away?

What's the price?

The small places, the ethnic places, the places owned by minorities apparently don't have the influence, the money, the muscle that the Brookfield Perkins has.

I don't know why TMJ4 continues the feature. What's the point of targeting these small places? It's a lame exercise. It's rather cowardly really.

Steve Wexler should dump "Dirty Dining."

It's clear that Courtny Gerrish isn't dragging cameras into more popular restaurants. She's avoiding them like the plague.

Who cares about the violations in these small, neighborhood places? It's not much of a public service because so few people are impacted by the reports. It's not valuable information for a large segment of viewers. It's just a freak show.

Sure, it's safer for TMJ4 to expose the powerless than expose the health code violations at a place like the Brookfield Perkins.

But why bother?