Friday, April 17, 2009

Dirty Dining: MORE Blue Ribbon Awards

For the second week in a row, TMJ4's "Dirty Dining" segment wasn't about dirty dining in the Milwaukee area.

Once again, Courtny Gerrish gave out Blue Ribbon Awards to two restaurants.

The first went to Meze Cafe & Lounge on Jefferson St. in Milwaukee.

The second went to Conway's Smokin' Bar & Grill on Wells St. in Milwaukee.

The Blue Ribbon Awards are sort of strange. Why would a newscast recognize restaurants for having health inspections with no violations?

Are dirty restaurants the norm, so the clean ones are newsworthy?

How are the award winners chosen?

Who chooses them?

Are restaurants with good inspections contacting Gerrish, asking to be featured?

I could understand why. It's free advertising.

Maybe the names are picked out of a hat.

I wonder if the Brookfield Perkins, in TMJ4's spotlight on December 11, 2008, as a dirty "Dirty Dining" restaurant, has taken care of all its health violations yet. Will it ask to be recognized for cleanliness?

It's strange that TMJ4's "Dirty Dining" web page has been updated to include Blue Ribbon Award winners, but the recent Thursday segments featuring restaurants with violations haven't been posted.

Weird.

I think it's time for TMJ4 to ditch the feature altogether.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Your probably right about dropping the features.

The reason behind the blue ribbon could be a carrot to the business.

Mary said...

When advertising dollars control the content of the feature, that's a serious problem.

That's not news. The feature lacks integrity.

It should be dropped.

debbie Thatcher said...

HI, I'm the owner of Conway's and I just would like to tell you that this is not the first time that I have aced an inspection, It's a pretty regular event. So the last thing I expected was for Channel 4 to walk in and thank me for that. How nice to be recognized for keeping a clean house. I've waited 30 yrs. for that. Thankyou Channel 4.

Mary said...

Congratulations on your award.