SEDATE RYAN WOLF ESCHEWS CHEEZMEH, TAKES NEW TONE

By Juan Montoya
A new-and-improved Ryan Wolfe with Channel 4's Food 4 Thought segment is showing a propensity to list dates and document health inspector's reports sans the inflammatory accusations after the fact that had characterized past broadcasts.
Now, instead of appearing on the scene like a dining knight in shining armor skewering the health and sanitary rules violators cited by city health inspectors, Wolf is making out more like a conciliatory counselor ready to live and let live.

And that is really all he can do now that people have learned that some of his broadcasts were made long after the errant restaurants had corrected the violations listed on health inspectors' reports. In prior reports, Ryan had neglected to tell his viewers that the reports and follow-up corrected reports had been made weeks, and in some cases, almost months before he appeared with his camera for his signature ambush-style reports.
In some cases, Ryan didn't even go to the eateries, but was content to telephone the restaurants and speak with a manager if the owner wasn't there.
People began to doubt the veracity of the Food 4 Thought broadcasts after it was shown that in at least one occasion, the business targeted by the segment had closed (Panaderia Capistran on Southmost) and was being remodeled by the new owners who had no inkling of the fact that the prior owner had been forced to close.
In another (Mr. Taco, also in Brownsville), the owner had received a citation on July 25, corrected the violations July 26, and received a clean bill of health  from the inspectors on the same day. Nonetheless, the violations and gory details of the first inspection report were aired by Ryan almost a month later without mentioning that the story, as was the Food 4 Thought report, was already stale.
"That was highly unfair to the owners of this small business," said a critic. "Why not mention that those issues were a thing of the past and that it was deemed safe by the health department to eat there?"
Now we are seeing a reformed Food 4 Though approach to the dirty-restaurant segment.
In the latest broadcast involving the case of the Four Corners on 4434 East 14th Street, Ryan arrived at the restaurant with an inspector's report showing – among other things – that a fly had been photographed on a slab of raw bacon. Restaurant owner Albert Trevino owned up to the error and said that a torn screen on a window had been the cause of the citation and that, as well as other violations, had been addressed.
"What's your reaction when you see that?" Action 4's Ryan Wolf asked.
"What happened is that we had a screen that was not in place but course it's all been taken care of," Treviño said with regards to the flies.
Albert says he used the violations to course-correct the business and step up efforts to prevent future dirty dining as evident on a clean re-inspection.
This, of course, is a clear shift from the prior Ryan broadcasts. In this segment he reported the dates when the violations were cited and the date when they had been corrected, a 180-degree shift from prioor broadcasts when it was made to appear that the citations has been issued just recently.
Of further interest to Ryan's critics is his apparent shedding of the Cheezmeh "grassroots" advocacy group that is suspected of shaking down barrio small businesses like Panaderia Capsitran with the threat that their businesses would be targeted by the segment unless they bought ads on their webpages.
"If this is a signal that the program will now be focused on reporting the sanitary and hygienic practices of restaurants and day cares to protect the public, that is well and good," said the same critic. "Small businesses in the Brownsville barrios are struggling to make it in these rough economic times. They don't need someone strong-arming them to cough up dough so they won't get burned by Channel 4."