[BC] "Breaking News" Interruptions

[Bernie Courtney]

On 12/31/06, Alan Kline <akline at netins.net> wrote:
>
> > But radio often runs  a :60 news update at the top of the hour, if
> people
> > want more information they either go online or  turn on a news
> station  to
> > get the rest of the story.
>
> But they don't *encourage* the audience to do that. That's the point you
> keep missing. You *don't* encourage your audience to go elsewhere. You
> can't control what they really do, but don't make it any worse than it is.



I  nerver said they should tell them to flip over to CNN for more info, but
more that common sense would dictate this was a viable option for those news
junkies who wanted more information.



So, on Friday night, should a crawl have been enough to announce the
> death of Saddam Hussein, a foreign war criminal whose death was
> expected? CBS did a full network interrupt during East Coast primetime.
> Are you saying that Saddam was more important than a US President?


In my opinion I wouldn't have wanted my programs interrupted for that
either.  Luckily I believe Friday's prime time was mostly repeats so my DVR
wouldn't have been recording anyway- so no harm, no foul.