Yes, it's hot and humid outside. And most of us knew this heat was coming, and would last through the week, thanks to pretty accurate weather forecasting.
That, of course, doesn't stop TV news from focusing on a sweaty city and how it's dealing with the 90-plus temperatures, and all that mugginess. And, generally, TV news likes to give a creative name to an ongoing story like this one.
But this time around, only one news operation seems to have tried to label this story: Channel 4, which really uses weather coverage to brand itself.
"EXTREME HEAT" sounds like the name of a show on Spike TV or some other young-male-skewing cable show. But it's the general title Channel 4 is using for its daily heat coverage.
Channels 12 and 58 were using a simple "Heat Wave" label on some of their coverage this week, while Channel 6 went without any label at all.
Whatever they call it, it's hot.
And, hey, how 'bout a story on how air conditioners are selling out? Oh, wait. I saw that one on Channel 58's 5 p.m. news yesterday.
OK, how 'bout a story about an egg frying on a sidewalk? If you see one, let me know.
On TV: Here's a big surprise, NBC has officially canceled the 9 p.m. Thursday summer show "Love Bites," which had few laughs, and fewer viewers. The Hollywood Reporter says the final episode airs this week on Channel 4.
- Expect a lot of specials to air in September around the anniversary of the terror attacks that hit Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, New York City's World Trade Center. One of them comes from Paul McCartney, a personal look at the pop singer's travels through the streets of New York. Showtime has picked up "The Love We Make," which will premiere Sept. 10 at 8 p.m.
- HBO will air a chat between Dick Cavett and Mel Brooks about Brooks' long, long career. It's scheduled for Sept. 9.
- CNN's Piers Morgan used to work for Rupert Murdoch, and the former tabloid editor is tweeting his support for his old boss. "Love him or hate him, does anyone genuinely think he's a crook or condoned crime? Because I don't. "
I apologize in advance: It's part of my job to bring you the bad news about media, and the worst news is the return of MTV's "Jersey Shore," in a season filmed in Italy.
The cable channel that used to play music released this promo for the upcoming Italian season of the one of TV's worst "reality" shows.
Remember, you don't have to watch, either the show, which returns Aug. 4, or this promo:
Get More: Jersey Shore, MTV Shows, Jersey Shore (Season 3), MTV Shows
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
