From the You Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Have To Hand It To department comes a truly baffling email from Reelz PR. Before I share what arrived unprompted in my inbox last Thursday, I will note that I have in fact sort of “handed it to” Reelz in the past — namely, in a Primetimer piece from early 2021:

Reelz does get my begrudging respect for not pretending to be anything other than sleazy and exploitative. … Like it or not, there's a market for slapped-together trash like World's Most Evil Killers, and Reelz wisely dispenses with any notion that it's performing some kind of cultural or journalistic public service.

Cut to four days ago, when the network sent a mailer…claiming that it’s performing some kind of cultural or journalistic public service.