Friday, May 8, 2009

Dirty Dining: Red Dot, Not a TMJ4 Sponsor

"Dirty Dining" on TMJ4 -- a sign that the weekend is almost here.

You must be wondering which Milwaukee area restaurtant TMJ4 chose to target this week.

No?

Well, I'll tell you anyway. (I always do.)

Of course, you know it's not Perkins. That's a given.

Last night I saw a Perkins commercial on TMJ4. I'm sure I didn't see it during the 10:00PM news because I watched FOX 6 last night. The commercial may have aired during Jay Leno or Jimmy Fallon. I'm not sure, but I was reminded that TMJ4 gave the Brookfield Perkins very special treatment after Courtny Gerrish and those involved with the feature screwed up by highlighting the restaurant's health violations on a "Dirty Dining" segment.

TMJ4 doesn't want to slam its sponsors.

The TMJ4 news is corrupted by advertising dollars. Its "news" coverage can be bought.

Read more here.

Thursday's featured DIRTY establishment was Red Dot on Milwaukee's east side, 2498 N. Bartlett St.

As usual, the violations were disgusting -- mold growth in the soda holsters, improper cooling of food, old dried food debris on the meat slicer, cross-contamination risks, filth caked on the floor, etc.

Nasty stuff.

Bar manager Mike Rebers told Gerrish that all the problems were cleaned up the next day.

It's too bad for Red Dot that it doesn't advertise on TMJ4. If it did, TMJ4 never would have brought the violations to the public's attention.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The same thing happens with all the stations' consumer helpline, i.e. Contact 6. American TV has been subject to complaints, but somehow it's never on the news. Could it be because they're advertisers???

Mary said...

It's possible that the advertising bottom line drives newsroom decisions at other stations.

Do you know the specifics about these complaints?

TMJ4's "Dirty Dining" feature is in a league of its own.

How the Brookfield Perkins story was handled and the subsequent runaround I received when I inquired about it was a profile in poor journalism and public relations.