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Along comes something so wrong on so many levels, it requires careful dissection to fully appreciate the utter absurdity of it all.

Fox has a new reality show all about the trials and tribulations of making the awkward transition from bikini model to telvision news anchor.

NEW YORK — An upcoming Fox reality series about a model-turned-TV journalist is causing a stir in the East Texas city where “Anchorwoman” is being produced.

Model Lauren Jones arrived last week in Tyler, Texas, for a 30-day stint at KYTX-TV, a CBS affiliate, that will include co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast today. Jones, who was cast for the show by Fox 21 and the G Group, has been undergoing behind-the-scenes preparation as a reporter and anchor, her every move taped by a 40-member crew. “Anchorwoman” will run on Fox beginning in late August.

Jones is a swimsuit model and actress whose credits include WWE’s “SmackDown!” and “The Guiding Light.” She has no journalism experience; the show will be about whether Jones can hack it in TV news. She arrived in Tyler a week ago and has been put through what a station official calls intensive training in how to read a TelePrompTer and report stories on her own.

Jones (pictured - oh, of course I’m going to put up a photo!), is a popular bikini spokesmodel, whatever the hell that is, who appeared in an outtake video for RobotConferncing.com (their site no longer exists) where she and the director “debate the merits of why or why not a bikini model should take her shirt off in a television commercial.”

Maybe it’s just me and the years in college studying journalism, but I’m thinking that one week of study on how to read a TelePrompTer, bikini modeling, working for WWE and a stint on a soap opera doesn’t really qualify you for a job that people spend YEARS studying and working at crappy stations just to get a job in Tyler. I’m guessing most of my professors would not approve and neither do a few others it would seem.

“One of the last sacred grounds of integrity in local television is the local newsroom, so I guess I would say I’m disappointed to see a station, much less one in our own community, that has evidently sold its integrity,” said Brad Streit, vp and GM for KLTV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tyler.

Adds KETK-TV GM Mike DeLier of the NBC affiliate: “I see this as a stunt, and it’s a self-admitted stunt and not a journalistic endeavor.”

Al Tompkins, broadcast group leader for the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., is more blunt: “It devalues the work of real journalists who are trying to do real work. It doesn’t do anything to help the reputation of journalists there and around the world.”

I think a collective “Well, DUH!” would best apply to the above statements. Leave it to Fox to conjour something so stupid, but it’s a CBS affiliate that latched onto the concept and actually allowed this charade to take place on its watch.

KYTX station president and GM Phil Hurley shrugs off the criticism, pointing Friday to the big story on cable news.

“Journalism credibility? I think that’s somewhat amusing when all I see today on the cable news is Paris Hilton, nonstop,” he said. “This is a TV show. It’s going to be a comedy. They just chose to shoot it at our station.”

Hurley, whose station features Stormy the Weather Dog in every newscast, said it isn’t the money that’s driving him to participate. (The station and the participants are being paid to appear.)

First, (and with all due respect to Radar) may I say a hearty “Bravo!” to the writer for mentioning Stormy the Weather Dog in the description of the station. If that isn’t snark of the highest order, you can revoke my subscription to Salon right out.

Second, I would like to point out to Mr. Hurl(ey) that his comparison to cable news and its sensationalist coverage of Ms. Hilton and her trip to the pokey slammer joint - does EVERY word relating to Paris and jail have to sound dirty? - prison is highly flawed.

While it is regrettable that cable news (nevermind the rest of America) finds a celebrity’s arrest and incarceration worthy of near-24-hour attention, the networks in question have not yanked Lindsay Lohan out of rehab and threw her up alongside Nancy Grace to cover the evening news, though I’ll admit I’d probably drop $14.95 on pay-per-view to catch that extravaganza.

In your case, station manager Phil, you have turned your “news” station into a living, breathing reality series for the physically enhanced and mentally impaired making you more like Hilton’s handlers than the gossip reporters feeding them 20’s for the latest story about how often she takes a piss.

But, what makes this even more laughable is how he tries to show that, above all, they want to maintain respectability by setting ethical standards.

“As the new guy in town, we saw it as a promotional tool to show a lot of sampling in our newscast,” Hurley said. But he nixed Fox’s plans to use billboards showing Jones in a bikini.

“We said we don’t have any anchors that do the news in a bikini. They sent a revision, and it was about half of her body, and we said, ‘No, no bathing suits,’ ” Hurley said. Promotional billboards around Tyler show Jones’ face only.

Well, thank the Lord that you draw the line at reporters in swimwear. Why am I guessing that some ad weasel at Fox is running to the president of the network with demographic numbers on how near-naked hotties reading the nightly news would boost more than ratings. Imagine how much Viagra would pay for 30-second ads on that newscast. Shudder.

The project, more than two years in development, has been controversial from the get-go. A leaked concept video showing a “Simple Life”-like treatment to Tyler found its way to YouTube, irking residents who didn’t want to see their city lampooned. Tyler is a city of about 100,000 halfway between Dallas and Shreveport, La.

Hurley said he rejected that idea out of hand well before the video got to YouTube.

“We’re a middle-market television station and town, and we’re not hillbilly heaven here,” he said. “It’s a middle-class, upper-middle-class town that really is a great place to live, and we thought it would be fun to have Tyler shown off.”

Tyler may not be hillbilly heaven, but it’s no shock that someone at Fox figured something along the lines of, “Ok, we want to do this show and we need a news director dumb enough to allow it and a town ideally suited for looking like redneck idiots. Hmmm…Mississippi? No, too black. Louisiana? No, too flooded. Alabama, Georgia? No, too eastern. Hey, what about east Texas? They’re all freaking idiots down there!”

Hurley got involved after meeting creator/executive producer (and former “American Idol” producer) Brian Gadinsky at the 2006 NATPE convention in Las Vegas. Gadinsky returned to Hurley with a new idea. (Gadinsky could not be reached for comment.)

Hurley went to the station’s staff members, and their reaction was mixed. He said there was “some real apprehension” on how it would go and whether Jones would be expected to do the job. Only two of the station’s 70 employees have opted out of appearing on “Anchorwoman.” Fox’s news release said the entire newsroom “thinks the boss has made a giant mistake.”

(It is only out of respect for my girlfriend, who loves American Idol, that I don’t make some scathing comment about the involvement of a former AI producer…moving on.)

How shocking! The station employees didn’t like the idea? Well, who wouldn’t want to have on their resume the following:

• Researched and wrote news copy
• Edited story material
• Provided live on-camera reports
• Wrote pithy dialogue between anchorman and brainless bikini model whose reality show put her on our station

Oh, yeah, that will really forward a career.

And, not surprisingly, many Tyler residents are responding unfavorably as well.

“Some community people were not happy to see some of the references that would be negative toward the city, making it look like a backwater, hick type of place,” said Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce.

Mullins and Hurley said separately that they made their concerns about the community’s depiction of Tyler known to Fox; they’re satisfied that things have been resolved and praised Gadinsky’s efforts to make things right.

Oh, yeah, because no reality show producer EVER lied about how they would portray anyone on camera. Um, guys, you are only adding to the gullable, hick town label by being dumb enough to believe that Tyler won’t come off looking ridiculous. If Earl Campbell were dead, he’d be rolling over in his grave.

And speaking of sounding stupid…

Barbara Cochran, executive director of the Radio-TV News Directors Assn., said that among her concerns is viewers will get a distorted picture of what goes on in a newsroom.

“At a time when journalists are getting a lot of criticism, it’s going to present a picture that doesn’t show the hard work and deep thought that goes on in every newsroom,” Cochran said.

No? Really? Welcome to the party Mrs. Obvious.

Best of luck to Tyler, Fox, Phil Hurley and Ms. Jones. You’ll all need it.

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