[BC] "Breaking News" Interruptions

[Alan Kline]

Ignoring the disrespect to Mr. Ford, you're still missing the point.

If you're running a news organization, then you've got to make the 
commitment to *be* a news organization. CBS is using the slogan, "See It 
Now. Any time. Any where". If you're going to use a slogan like that, 
then by gosh, when news happens, get on top of it. The network has the 
people and the resources to do it. What appears to be lacking is support 
from management.

How many times have you heard a radio station play the intro of a new 
record, and then tell the audience, "For the rest of this record, tune 
to WXXX". Easy. You haven't. Stations are not in the business of sending 
their audience to the competition, and neither are networks. There's 
enough audience erosion as it is, without encouraging it.

Am I suggesting that CBS should have pre-empted the rest of Letterman to 
go wall-to-wall with this? Of course not. A brief interrupt would have 
been enough.

Alan

Bernie Courtney wrote:
> The guy was already getting cold, I really don't see the need to 
> interrupt a
> networks' broadcast day (especially while still in prime time out west) to
> have a talking head report said news.  The crawl gave all the info that
> people needed to know, and if they felt watching clips of his life they
> could tune out over to CNN or the like to see them.  If not, they just kept
> watching their programs and went to bed.  Its not like a missile was headed
> our way or some other developing story- the guy was dead, its not like he
> was going anywhere :-)
>