[BC] Regarding Interruptions

[Reader]

>At 05:42 AM 12/29/2006, stanleybadams wrote
>Man you guys just illustrate the rest of the hard nosed country.  An ex
>president dies and you just want you CSI or L%O or Sex in the City to just
>keep on spooling.

CBS refuses to be interrupted by Ford's death
By 
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0612290134dec29,1,5045035.column?coll=chi-news-col>Phil 
Rosenthal
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

When Lyndon Johnson died in January 1973, Tom Johnson, the former 
president's spokesman, first informed The Associated Press and United 
Press International and then the TV networks.

The wire services still were processing the information when Walter 
Cronkite took Johnson's call live on "The CBS Evening News," scoring a beat.

There was pride in relaying big stories first, putting one's stamp on 
them, reminding viewers this was the channel to watch for the latest 
news. But that was almost 34 years ago.

When Gerald Ford died Tuesday, CBS didn't even interrupt a "Late Show 
With David Letterman" rerun. It just ran the news as a headline 
across the bottom of the screen. NBC held to tradition with a 
bulletin during a rerun of "The Tonight Show," and ABC News 
immediately shifted gears on "Nightline" with a special report.

Forget about hiring Katie Couric, building a new set and the rest of 
the cosmetic changes. Maybe this is the reinvention of TV news that 
CBS Inc. boss Leslie Moonves promised, a recognition that news is 
available in so many places now that content you provide 
exclusively--even an old talk-show rerun--takes precedence.

Or it might just have been a mistake.

To ask CBS News for an explanation on its handling of the Ford story 
is to be told by a spokeswoman that no one is available to address 
the issue and be reminded the news was relayed in its own timely way.

But when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was near death in 2004, 
there were strict standing orders at CBS to run a "crawl" with news 
of his long-anticipated passing rather than interrupt programming. 
The producer who nonetheless cut into "CSI: New York" was fired.

A check of the CBSNews.com blog, Public Eye, which is where the 
network often does its soul-searching, finds it on hiatus until Jan. 
2. It may be instructive, however, to check a recent Public Eye 
posting on the dubious decision of Couric's "Evening News" to lead 
with a story on holiday shopping on the day Sen. Tim Johnson of South 
Dakota suffered a brain hemorrhage. The news of how Johnson's 
condition could jeopardize the Democrats' newly won majority in the 
Senate led on ABC and NBC but ran third on CBS

Public Eye's Brian Montopoli asked "CBS Evening News" executive 
producer Rome Hartman to answer criticism of that call. He got a no 
comment on that one too.

Note to CBS News: If transparency is to be anything more than a 
marketing gimmick, it's necessary for everyone to get close enough to 
the glass for us to see, hear and interact with them.

We all grew up in an era when the way to convey the importance of 
particularly momentous breaking news was to cut in with a "We 
interrupt this broadcast for a special bulletin" announcement. Once 
whatever relevant available details were exhausted, it was: "Stay 
tuned for more on this story. We now return you to our regular 
programming, already in progress." 
(<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0612290134dec29,1,5045035.column?coll=chi-news-col>more)