There's actually a media outlet somewhere that puts out "heartwarming" Thanksgiving stories? Most of them seem to run two kinds of stories on Thanksgiving:
1. "How dare you sit there in your warm living room with a full stomach when there are homeless people starving thanks to Bush's tax cuts for the rich!!!
2. "How dare you sit there in your warm living room with a full stomach when Bush is blowing up Iraqi babies in his illegal oil war!!!!!"
Well I recognize those stories you described, but my local media puts a special "red-state" twist on them to make them more heartwarming and values-oriented.
Our stories like your #1 have a heartwarming ending where the made-poor-by-Bush-tax-cuts starving person gets a delivery of hot turkey and stuffing courtesy of a Titans team member.
Since our media reaches to the families of Ft. Campbell, KY soldiers, the stories like #2 sound more like "How dare you sit there in your warm living room with a full stomach when Bush is making these nice young men and women blow up Iraqi babies in his illegal oil war!!!!!" Then we get to see the nice young man take a break from blowing up Iraqi babies so he can send Happy Thanksgiving wishes to grandma.