Late Friday afternoon, after exchanging emails with an assignment editor, KSDK reporter Ashley Yarchin came to Punching Kitty headquarters to do a story about our recent post “Craigslist: Anyone Seen the Cardinals Team We Had in April?” and in turn, Punching Kitty the blog.

Once setting up all the one-man-show reporter gear in our office we talked on camera about when I started Punching Kitty, what its about, then specifically about the Craigslist post followed by a dramatic reading of my posting. I mentioned the name of the site several times, we positioned shots so that the logo and name were on screen and when she left I gave her a sticker. Below is the piece KSDK aired Friday night during their 10 pm broadcast. Watch that like you don’t read this site and then see if you know where to go to find more of my writing…

Not one freaking mention. The first thing everyone has asked me about this was “Why didn’t you mention the name of the site?” Oh I did. I did indeed. Not only that, but there was some pretty impressive editing to get out all the environmental mentions in my office. My two monitors were filled with Punching Kitty’s logo and name, my “idea” board you can see in a few shots had it on there, and I have well over, and not kidding, 300 Punching Kitty stickers sprinkled on my desk. In fact, upon close inspection, there are two “accidental plugs” KSDK left in, by what I can only assume was an accident:

#1 When they showed the Craigslist ad:

#2 When they showed a wider shot of my desk, there is a Punching Kitty sticker on my monitor. You can’t make it out here, but it might be been a little something in High-Def…on a 60″ TV.

Even throughout the interview, it was clear that the point of the piece was about my blog. “How long have you been doing your blog?” “What is it about?” “What are you going to do next on there?” “Lets make sure we get this shot with the logo so we can get you a plug right?” All were direct quotes…none mattered once the piece aired. Lame KSDK. Very very lame.

I guess the important thing is that you filled out a slot in your Friday night “We don’t give a shit, put the JV anchor crew out there” newscast. Your main audience of people waiting to die was happy that they saw something about baseball and no one got offended or overly entertained which is the important thing…second only to finishing another day with out Leisa Zigmann’s nose falling off her face.

Jokes aside, I’m really not angered by this as much as I feel duped. Flat out, had they said from the beginning “We will not mention the name of your site.” I wouldn’t have done the piece. No malice behind that (at least at the time), it’s just that I didn’t want to have to run home on a Friday and take time out of my day to do this if there wasn’t going to be a promotional value in it. This site is growly at a crazy rate these days. It is well-read, especially for a locally-focused site and because of that I’m not at all worried about “just being on TV”, I only agreed due to the inherit promotion to keep this site growing at its current rate. In the grand scheme of things, the piece KSDK produced was a fine fluffy Friday-evening story that hurt no one, but that’s not at all how it was brought to me. Frankly that’s more than a little slimy, but looks worse on KSDK that this is the kind of games they have to play to fill 30 minutes these days.

A few final unstructured notes on this subject:

- Yes, I 100% realize the time constraints involved in something like this, but using that as an excuse to cut out every Punching Kitty reference is BS. I certainly wasn’t thinking this was going to be 5 minutes of our logo, but after my dealings with Yarchin I thought at worst I would get “Punching Kitty.com” under my name in the lower third. Nope. Nothing.

- One good “Old Media” thing I should note is that earlier in the day, Friday, our same story was mentioned in Derrick Goold’s great 10@10 post on STLToday. It originally appeared uncredited, but after myself and a few others reached out the Goold, he updated his post with attribution to this site and apologized via Twitter. He’s a class act, and an actual journalist who wants to source things correctly. Thanks again Derrick, we really appreciate it.

- Despite our brief interactions, I don’t think this was Yarchin’s call. Maybe I’m still being a little duped here, but I’m guessing the final editing of everything with Punching Kitty came from higher up. Is there a rule in place where you can’t mention outside sites? Maybe (let me know if you know something), but not long ago this very site was mentioned on KSDK.com on a story about the Crown Candy Malt record: “Crown Candy malt record still stands, but whose name goes on plaque?” Too bad the author, Mike Owens, is leaving KSDK. He appears to be the only one that know how this whole “sourcing” thing works.

- I emailed Ashley Yarchin Friday right after the piece aired to thank her for the time, but also explain my frustrations. No response yet.

- Oh yes, the online version! I almost forgot! No mention or link there either. I tried to comment on the story to leave a link back here and it was promptly removed. Stay classy butt-wipes. …people still say “butt-wipe” don’t they?

- Irony: When she was leaving, I asked Yarchin when this would air and if I could get the finished clip. “It will be online. Can you just link to our site instead of putting the video on your site though?” Yeah, gonna get right on that.

Short version: KSDK reporter Frank Wiley was on assignment and saw someone with a flat tire. He helped them out. Lets all congratulate Wiley on winning the “Way to Not Be A Dick! What Do You Want a Cookie Now?!” Award that KSDK is intent on giving him.

Lets run KSDK’s “story” about the amazing events through our translate-o-tron 3000 here at Punching Kitty HQ:

It’s not really news,

Good, we agree on something.

…but we wanted to applaud the work of our colleague, reporter Frank Wiley.

We filmed it too. Our boss hopes this is a tax write-off.

Frank took time from his hectic day to rush to the aid of a woman in a Manchester neighborhood who had a flat tire on her SUV.

Frank wasn’t an asshole and helped a completely non-threatening soccer mom with a flat tire. He jumped over 10 line-up homeless guys to “rush to her aid” too! It was amazing!

Even though he was wearing a dress shirt and tie, Frank wasn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and get a little dirty to help the woman get her tire changed and be on her way.

By that we mean he literally rolled up his sleeves. It’s not a euphemism for something much more difficult. All he really did was roll his sleeves up.

Way to go Frank!

God August is boring.

KSDK.com’s little sister site MomsLikeMe.com recently took a look back with some old photos from the KSDK staff’s past.

Some are quite cute, like little Kay Quinn in her Hawaiian outfit:

Awww.

Next up? Art Holliday, the target of all spilled affection on the Art Holliday Facebook Fan Club. We had no idea he was a Little Rascal.

Next up? Sports guy turned anchor Mike Bush! A few things to note in this picture: 1. His hair wasn’t always varnished down like that! 2. It appears Mike was staring in the gay porn version of Gilligan’s Island when this photo was taken.

…oh speaking of hard-core 70′s pornography here’s Punching Kitty’s favorite reporter that just tries so hard you just want to pinch her cheeks, Leisa Zigman!

Hey baby. We noticed you noticing us noticing that you aren’t wearing a bra. Call us!

Lastly, just so we don’t leave you with a confused Leisa Zigman chubby, here’s Jennifer Blome‘s creepy eyes peering in to your soul. She knows all about you and those eyes see everything. Even when you poop.

Enjoy the news tonight!

via MomsLikeMe.com

KSDK made one hell of a production effort for one of their lovely little in-house stand-ups during a recent local news broadcast about the recent might-have-happened-but-who-knows school “shooting” incident involving Parkway Central at the little moron’s Facebook page. They even went to the trouble of bringing up that very Facebook profile in question, blowing it up on the large video monitor beside the reporter.

One thing though: He’s an uncharged minor. You aren’t supposed to be blasting his name everywhere!

It’s cool though, they thought about that little fact…about 5 seconds too late.

Reporter: [Points to screen left of camera] Now this is the profile page in question.

[Camera pans to screen showing full view of profile, including name and photo]

Reporter: …actually, lets come back to that because…uh…come back to me.

[Camera returns to reporter]

Reporter: We are going to protect this student’s name…uh…because he has not been charged.

Thanks KSDK. That’s probably all the “protecting” the kid can take today.

We aren’t sure of the ramifications for their quick legal blunder, but even it amounts to nothing, this is still pretty bad. We also still can’t figure out why they would put the profile up on the big screen if they knew they shouldn’t be showing it. In our mind, everything was cool until the minute they showed that boy’s name and some old guy in the back that’s worked there for years and hasn’t talked in months yelled out “You can’t do that! It’s agains the law!” Old guys always know the law better than anyone. Probably why the always vote and read the news and stuff. We don’t have time for that crap because of all the loud music we listen to while we horseplay.

What?! Transcripts are good enough you say? Good thing our eagle-eyed tip-daddy managed to grab a little video evidence of the “minor” mistake (Click through the jump to see the video)

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We know what you are thinking: “Gosh I wish there were more shows about football on, and specifically shows about the worst team in the league.”

Well buddy, we have a surprise for you!

KSDK-TV said Tuesday that it will launch a new, half-hour Sunday morning sports program in September as part of a new agreement with the St. Louis Rams.

Tentatively titled “Rams Tailgate,” the magazine-type program will showcase the lives of Rams players and coaches both on and off the field, the television station said, and “go beyond the traditional X’s and O’s of typical football pregame programs.”

See the marketing magic here is telling everyone it won’t be the same football show and then just make what we all know they will make: 30 minutes of Frank Cusumano blathering on about how excite Mike Martz was.

The need for this show arrived when KSDK realized that once the Cardinal’s season was over they had no way to interrupt good sports coverage with the crappiest sports coverage as possible just long enough to ruin the sporting event you can only watch on their station.

Well played.

via St. Louis Business Journal

Watch out folks. Gonna be hotter than hell on Monday.

Kinda hope this is true. We’d get some odd satisfaction of watching each station’s weather person go crazy over the now destroyed all time high temperature record in May…and right before they pitch it back to sports, they burst in to flames.

via Davbak on Reddit St. Louis

Kelly Jackson left KSDK a few years ago to sow her wild oats at other stations no one’s ever heard of…but now, she’s back!

Do you remember her, because we sure don’t.

We do know that while she was gone from St. Louis news she got a little national attention for screaming like a wuss when some masked goblins ran across her set. The clip went, as the kids say, viral and even appeared on CNN (embedded below).

After the scare Jackson (second from the right in the video) was quoted as saying:

I always wondered if any sound would come out of my mouth if I was frightened, and I didn’t disappoint! It was a Scooby Doo moment!

Hmmm. We don’t remember any hysterical black women on Scooby Doo, but you know, those were different times.  They had the Harlem Globetrotters on there, but we aren’t sure that counts.

Last night we ran across the Art Holliday Fan Club on Facebook.

Seriously.

It gets better though. It’s 350 members actually aren’t just there for the irony. They make use of the discussion board with topics like “Art’s Many Looks” where Patricia Cashman writes:

He has got tons of class. He always looks like he is straight out of GQ, but honestly, when he wears his suspenders without his jacket on…I just think he makes all the other men in the news business look like wimpy. Jennifer always says that he is the “best dressed male anchor”. I think he is perfectly, flawlessly groomed in ANY group of men. I’ve never seen him in his tennis clothes, but I wish someone would post a picture!!

How can this get any better? …what if the actual Art Holliday fully participated in his own fan club and dropped in non-sensical one-liners?

I never disagree with a woman holding a gun.

Art Holliday

That, from the man himself, was the next post in the discussion. Also, we love it when people don’t at all get the internet or facebook and “sign” their comments as though we don’t see the author’s name at the beginning of the comment.

KSDK mornings partner chimes in as well. Jennifer Blome drops this note:

OKAY fans, did you ever wonder what Art does during the commercials?
Little know fact…During the McDonald’s commercial, he sings along.
Imagine if you will…”Give me back that fillet of fish. Give me back that fish”
Wish you all could be here!!!

…to which Art replies…

That crazy song is on a loop in my head. I’ll never look at a fish sandwich the same again.

Art

…and then some other person says…

HAHA! That story just made my evening! Thanks Jennifer!!

What?! How could that have possibly made your evening?! How horrible of an evening could you have been having that a story about Art Holliday singing to a commercial “made” it for you?! Were you being viciously raped by an escaped lion? Did you contract a flesh-eating virus? Did the naked Puerto Rican you keep in your basement escape? How could that have in any way made your evening! Impossible.

Is this for real? I know this post has no structure, no meat to it, and we’re very sorry, but we are just in awe of the awesome weirdness of Art Holliday’s Facebook Fan Club…that he himself joined…and so did Jennifer Blome.

What the f*ck is going on here?!

KSDK weather man Anthony Slaughter was one of nine speedy car breakins early Sunday morning which happened right outside of the KSDK offices in downtown St. Louis.

Mike Owens reporting for KSDK -

The suspects pulled up in a white Pontiac a few minutes after 3:00 a.m. In less than 2 minutes, they had broken into two cars and were on their way. One of the cars, an older model Chevrolet, is owned by NewsChannel 5 weathercaster Anthony Slaughter.

Slaughter didn’t realize his car had been broken into until he left later that afternoon. He came back inside to look at the security camera video and found the crooks from three different angles. Unfortunately, none of the angles showed clear images of the crooks or their license plate.

First you have a job as a weather man that makes you work early Easter Sunday morning and then you get to watch security footage of your car getting jacked.  Sounds like someone’s living the dream!  We’re betting that when Owens got this story he was like “Who?! I thought that guy was an intern!” Well, the good news is, people are finally hearing your name Tony! The bad news is, I talked to the cops and they said you shouldn’t hold out hope for the Creedence dude.

Speaking of which, Anthony Slaughter is so close to being a sweet name. Go by Tony. Tony Slaughter. That’s badass. Sounds like the name of a smooth detective…that hangs around with an old guy, his helicopter flying buddy and tons of hot chicks that are attracted to his full mustache. Wait…I think that is already something. Oh yeah!

Me.

This KSDK “I’m Just Sayin’” thing is such a trainwreck I can’t help but not mention it just one more time here.  Why?  Because I finally remembered again that KSDK was doing this and found one I was looking forward the most on their site: Tammie Holland.

If you aren’t familiar, this is the spicy little vixen that had this crazy off the cuff conversation igniting statement in channel 5′s promos for the “I’m Just Sayin’” feature:

Ladies here’s a tip. If you own one of these..

[points to her cellphone]

Keep your clothes on.

Oh man.  She did not just go there.  I can’t wait to see the heat she brings in her full feature!

So you get your chance to be featured as the token black person a radio host on channel 5 and you bring the heat with “What’s with all the people selling girl scout cookies at work?”  What didn’t make the cut Tammie? Did you think of other burning topics like “How ’bout this weather huh?” and “Geez.  Look at that guy.  No no, the other one. What’s that about?”

Then she pulls out the ole “Are we being too easy on our kids?” argument saying that schilling for cheese and sausage at work is making little Billy soft.  Yeah, I don’t think a sign up sheet taped to the outside of your cubicle is making Billy a pussy, that’s already been taken care of by the peanut allergy you assumed he had and the 6 ADD drugs you pump in him daily so he’ll just listen in class.

Well, we just don’t know how Tammie Holland does it, day in and day out, bringing up the tough topics. Don’t miss her exciting next KSDK turn where she throws around verbal blows like “Have you ever noticed how different guys are than girls?!  It’s like they’re from another planet!”

Oh man! Can’t wait!  Derp!

via KSDK