Rather than harangue the mainstream media for playing all lovey-dovey with Mattel over it's TMX Elmo, perhaps the "cup half empty" folks at the CJR should be applauding the blood, sweat, toil and tears of the nameless PR team that executed such a coup.

I mean, c'mon. Anyone who can, acccording to CJR, get a "toy" (even if it is the super rad - yet kinda scary - TMX Elmo) mentioned on "four separate shows... including multiple segments of CNBC's own (Good Morning America) equivalent, Squawk Box -- segments that were teased incessantly, with help from a stuffed Elmo peeking around the camera and regular announcements ("In an hour and a half, Fisher-Price [a subsidiary of Mattel] will unveil the new Elmo right here on Squawk Box")," -- deserves a Daytime Emmy in my books.

As Squawk Box anchor Becky Quick replies when fellow Anchor John Kernan states (gasp!) that "this is definitely a gimmick", "I think [the gimmick] is working ... It's making us pick it up."

The horror. The horror.