…has reached its biggest slump in 20 years. The studios, as can only be expected, are blaming this catastrophe on everything except the suckiness of their product.

But I don’t intend today to talk about that, at least not directly. Rather, I’m ranting against the “news” media’s whoredom to the sucky-movie biz.

Even “local” news media are enthralled by the films we all hate, but which the studios desperately want us to love. I can’t even watch the KCPQ or KONG morning shows, or NorthWest Cable News, on a Thursday or Friday, ‘cuz every non-weather-and-traffic-together minute on those outlets on those days seems to be devoted to introducing the studios’ video press releases for this weekend’s new sucky movies. Then the following Monday, these same programs can’t stop repeating the “box office countdown” stories revealing how few people saw these same sucky movies.

O, for the old days of John Proccacino and Greg Palmer, when local TV stations had arts-and-entertainment reporters who got to cover actual local arts-and-entainment stories.