Should CBS Have Interrupted The 'Late Show' With News Of Ford's Death?
(AP)
"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," writes Rosenthal. He argues that the era of people like Frank Stanton, "the man who made it possible for Edward R. Murrow to go after Sen. Joseph McCarthy," has "probably" "passed" at CBS.
I asked CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus to respond to Rosenthal's comments. He did so in an email. "…I think our extensive coverage of the funeral, including breaking in Friday for over 20 minutes during a live football game and the coverage of the Saddam execution and breaking into the network for that, shows that our commitment to covering the news and breaking stores is as strong as it has ever been," wrote McManus.
The decision to break into the football game, in fact, garnered complaints of a very different shade than Rosenthal's. "CBS broke into the Brut Sun Bowl game just to 'let us viewers see' Pres Ford's casket being carried out of the hearse at the family's funeral service. It's the family's private funeral after all! Good grief!," wrote one e-mailer to Public Eye. "Now they have a big mouthy political analyst yapping."
Wrote another: "Please stop interrupting our football game today with long, wasted TV shots of the church and finally Ford's casket.....interrupting for a minute or two wouldn't be so bad....interrupting for a long period of time when obviously anyone watching is on CBS for the football game is stupid."
The death of a former president puts television broadcasters in a difficult position. Obviously, it's impossible to please everyone with your coverage. Ford's death probably did merit at least a brief interruption of the Late Show, and interested viewers could have switched to a news channel or gone online for more extensive coverage. One can even look at the decision not to break in as evidence that entertainment trumps news at CBS. Of course, the decision to interrupt the football game provides evidence in the opposite direction.
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The people who tuned in to watch the Sun Bowl for the most part were avid football fans, and alot of college students. Most of which weren't even alive during Ford's presidency nor even had a good grasp on who he was. The Sun Bowl is a once a year event and with all the other news channels showing this I would think if they really wanted to see what was going on they would just switch over. I know that means perhaps a loss of edge in news, but really... if the people watching CBS wanted news they wouldn't be watching football.
Now, while I disagree with interrupting the Sun Bowl, a regular season game would be acceptable or any other regularly broadcasted show (such as the late show or CSI). Odds are there will be another showing or it will be on again tomorrow. Given the once a year bowl, this stands a little more important than typical broadcasts. Not to mention the money Tositos paid CBS for advertising to host the game would prolly prompt them to rethink broadcasters next year.
While I think the death of a former president is a moment to be marked, I don't see the need to interrupt regular programming. I think a crawl is sufficient.
Interested viewers can then switch to a news channel or go online for more information.
The issue is not one of valuing entertainment programming over news. It's one of valuing the audience the network is serving at the time.
The situation would be different if the death was suspicious or premature. Ford's death, while sad, was not unexpected at his age. Truly, what is the purpose of breaking in to regular programming for such an event?
Honestly, I don't think special report bulletins should be determined by whatever ENTERTAINMENT programming is on. So what if one of CBS's biggest shows is airing? If they really wanted to show the end of the episode, they could either delay the schedule by a minute or two (as they do for football and golf all the time) or, and this is extremely unlikely, delete a few commercials.
The worst part is that someone at CBS News was actually fired for interrupting CSI to report a breaking story, no matter how expected it might have been.
I don't care how extensively CBS News covered Ford's death in the week-plus that followed, it doesn't absolve you of covering a breaking story. The website didn't even carry the news for about a half hour after CBS ran the ticker.
My guess is that it wasn't a decision that was made so much as it was the only option: CBS News didn't have enough people standing by overnight during a holiday week. You were simply unable to do any better.
It's sad.