A story Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ promoted for sweeps as “an explosive I-Team investigation months in the making” about a Milwaukee police officer taking money from a man at an ATM has landed the station in hot water with the Milwaukee police chief.

“People deserve to know the truth,” said Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn in a press conference the morning before the story aired. “And I have no confidence that that truth will be known watching this TV story’s coverage of its own sweeps story.”

The promo (above) shows surveillance video of a Milwaukee police officer at an ATM with a man in February.  The promo copy says, “It’s the video that has everyone talking. A Milwaukee police officer taking a man’s cash out of an ATM. Then walking off with that cash in hand. What’s really going on? The Milwaukee police department has some explaining to do.” Read more

Indianapolis FOX affiliate WXIN entered YouTube territory during its morning news show yesterday.

While promoting Saturday’s Professional Bull Riders event in Indianapolis, the station was visited by Megan and Sam, two Pop Tart eating Border Collie riding Capuchin monkeys who make up “Team Ghost Riders.”

WXIN anchor Angela Ganote introduced the pair along with trainer Tim ‘Wild Thang’ Lepard. The monkeys the showed their stuff by racing up and down one of the station hallways. Megan and her steed crossed the line first, helped by the fact they only raced halfway and then turned around while Sam dutifully ran the whole route. You can watch the video after the jump. Read more

Longtime KSTP chief meteorologist Dave Dahl invited cameras into the operating room as he underwent surgery to remove spots on his chest and leg that had been diagnosed as non-melanoma skin cancer.

Dahl, whose career has been dedicated to keeping viewers informed about potentially dangerous weather, used his skin cancer surgery as an opportunity to raise awareness about the dangers of sun exposure.

“It’s scary,” Dahl told reporter Joe Mazan. “It’s just one of those things like, ‘Wow.’ You never thought it would happen to you” (video inside). Read more

After spending three weeks acting as if the story had never aired, WCCO quietly issued an “Editor’s Note” last week about its notorious Chinatown dog meat story.

Here’s the note, which was posted to the station’s website…

On Oct. 31, WCCO aired a story during our 10 p.m. news about a dog breeder who was found to have sold nearly 1,400 dogs after her USDA license to sell was terminated in August 2010.

While investigating where those dogs ended up, we discovered an address where, on 12 separate occasions over a period of approximately a year, a total of 168 dogs were shipped. At that address in New York, we found two business establishments including a market. During our visit we found no evidence of the dogs. Read more

KLAS chief investigative reporter George Knapp made a disturbing discovery while reporting on Nevada mortgage fraud for “Desert Underwater,” the station’s series for sweeps: he was a victim of the very mortgage fraud he investigated.

As part of his reporting, Knapp interviewed a foreclosure attorney who told him that many people who purchase homes out of foreclosure have fraudulent paperwork associated with their chain of title. Read more

Sweeps does strange things to people.  Journalists who appear rational and level-headed for much of the year begin taking their clothes off, dating prostitutes, and ordering dog meat.

So what gives?

TVSpy asked a handful of veteran news directors from around the country to weigh in on the all-important sweeps periods.  We asked them about what makes a good story, the pressure reporters may be under to deliver big ratings, and the mistakes stations often make when sweeps roll around.  Here’s what they had to say… Read more

When WJXT chief meteorologist George Winterling spent most of September in the hospital, the Jacksonville station shared virtually no information about his illness.

Now, in a multi-part sweeps series titled “George’s Miracle: What Really Happened,” WJXT is telling the story of Winterling’s apparent brush with death.  It turns out that the veteran meteorologist’s heart stopped and paramedics spent two minutes shocking him to get his pulse back.  Winterling then spent 11 days in a coma, with his body temperature reduced for much of the time to prevent further damage. Read more

It has all the makings of a classic sweeps story. High-profile crime? Check. Courthouse confrontation? Check. Topless Reporter? Check… wait, what? Yep, topless reporter.

Last week a 28-year-old woman led police on a drunken high speed chase in northern Ohio and, after finally surrendering, she exited her car to reveal that she was wearing next to nothing. The blurry police footage of the woman flipping out in the back of a squad car, wearing little more than a thong, made the internet rounds and was picked up by a handful of international news outlets last week. Read more

In a classic case of sweeps spin, rival Cincinnati stations WLWT and WKRC are both claiming to be #1 in the mornings.

In WLWT’s press release, president and general manager Richard Dyer boasted that the NBC-affiliate “is once again proving to be the Tri-State’s choice for how to wake up in the morning.”

Across town, Les Vann, Dyer’s counterpart at WKRC, proclaimed that his CBS-affiliate is “proud to once again be the market leader,” with “Good Morning Cincinnati” claiming the top spot in the morning.

So who’s really #1? Well they both are, to an extent.

WLWT finished in the top spot at 4:30 a.m. as well as 6:00 a.m. in Adults 25-54, while WKRC was #1 in Adults 25-54 from 5:30-7 a.m. Everyone’s a winner! [Via John Kiesewetter]

“Certainly during May, we were driven in large part by the rising Mississippi river waters and flooding in the area,” said WWL anchor Mike Hoss, describing the latest sweeps period for the New Orleans market.

Here’s how stations fared in the Crescent City during May sweeps (change from May 2010 noted in parentheses)…

Household:

	6:00 a.m.	5:00 p.m.	6:00 p.m.	11 p.m.
WGNO (ABC)	0.7 (-22%)	2.4 (+72%)	1.6 (-12%)	3.1 (+25%)
WWL (CBS)	8.2 (-26%)	10.9 (-12%)	10.6 (-22%)	10.5 (-11%)
WDSU (NBC)	5.4 (+22%)	6.0 (+23%)	6.9 (+19%)	6.0 (+34%)
WVUE (Fox)	3.2 (+17%)	5.7 (-7%)	N/A	8.0 (+14%)