Over the past 24 hours, TV newscasts have been making hay about an elderly woman stealing a $40 table from a front porch.

A Vernon homeowner's videotaped footage shows her shuffling around, possibly peering into a window, and then picking up the small piece of furniture.

Some of these images have been shown before TV commercial breaks as a teaser to keep the audience hooked into the next block of news.

Nobody knows if this woman is suffering from dementia or a gambling addiction. Nobody knows if she might be so poor that she needed to grab something to sell so she afford to buy food. Canada's guaranteed income supplement of $17,088 for single seniors doesn't exactly leave them flush after paying today's rents.

Not one person has suggested on TV that maybe she should be allowed to keep the table and be spared any punishment.

It's sad that such a nonevent has received so much publicity. And it's tragic that this senior and possibly her family have been humiliated around North America when most petty thieves, even those who are young and healthy, aren't subjected to such notoriety.

I know why those images of the senior were broadcast. It was for the purpose of generating ratings so TV stations could sell larger audiences to their advertisers.

The broadcasters decimated the woman's dignity to line their pockets. So who's the real thief?