Earlier this week WMC Newschannel 5, the NBC affiliate in Memphis, kicked off the February ratings period with an "exclusive" feature: a patron in a McMinnville, Tennessee restaurant had taken cell phone photos of Mary Winkler on New Years. For the unfamiliar, Winkler is the preacher's wife accused of murdering her husband in Selmer, Tennessee and fleeing with her kids to Alabama last March. As she awaits trial, she's living with her kids in McMinnville, about four hours east of Selmer.               

Considering she's a preacher's wife, these photos were supposed to show a different side of Winkler. Instead of showing the grieving widow or allegedly abused wife who has been taken in and supported by good church folk, the photos were supposed to show how Winkler might be taking advantage of all that goodwill. They might, if the photos weren't so damn blurry. WMC says, “In the pictures featured [...] you can see her bellied up to a bar, cigarette in hand and a bottle of beer in front of her.”               

To be sure, you have to read between the lines: "the beer in front of her." After paying for these pictures, WMC could not confirm whether the beer actually belonged to Winkler, but the station tries to establish guilt by association nonetheless. Winkler's attorney denied the beer belonged to his client, and even if it did she wasn't violating the conditions of her release. She can drink, but not in excess. She was at a restaurant, not a bar.                 

In the Memphis newspaper, Commercial Appeal, Winkler's attorney Steve Farese said, "It's like Mrs. Kravitz on Bewitched," referring to a character from the 1960s TV sitcom. "There's always some nosy neighbor who wants to gossip and make something out of nothing. That's the way the world is. People wanting to interject themselves into a story."                  

This is particularly interesting, especially at a time when media outlets are encouraging citizens to contribute to the news. How should the media weed out people who simply want to "interject themselves"? Better yet, what extra work should the media do to make sure these citizen contributions are in proper context?                   

WMC is pushing the powers that be to review the pictures and see if she did violate something. It's quite shameless for such a non-story. Unless Winkler is skimming cash from the register, selling laundered dresses out of the trunk of her car, or wildly gyrating as she karaokes "It's Hard Out Here For Pimp," then there's no story there at all.                   

WMC's fellow Raycom Media station in Huntsville, Ala., WAFF-TV, ran the same story - same text, same sources, different reporter. (As an aside, WAFF's news director has been hired as WMC's new news director. Sada tai.) I'm used to corporate-owned radio stations deceiving their listeners by running national contests as if they were local, but I never expected two corporate owned TV stations to try and pull the same scam.