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LAST SUMMER, the gossip column in The Chicago Tribune reported that a news director at the city's ABC owned and operated station hall instructed his staff to pay close attention to USA Today for possible stories. The implication was clear: WLS-TV was looking for a new influx of light, superficial stories to bolster its sagging ratings. Several years ago, the station had pioneered the so-called "happy talk" style of local news featuring the likes of the ever-smiling and recently fired Good Morning, America weatherman John Coleman. But the item so angered the news director that...
...TODAY mirrors local TV news in other ways as well. Before each commercial break, an anchor gives a brief run-down of "what's coming up," teasers that, though uninformative, keep viewers watching. When Dan Rather replaced Walter Cronkite, the CBS Evening News joined ABC and NBC is the some practice, one which many newspapers follow as well, but one which USA Today takes to ridiculous extremes...
...same Korean girl grieved on ABC and NBC; the same act from the Moscow Circus performed on NBC and CBS; predictable American-flag graphics, to illustrate a succession of stories, appeared on ABC and CBS. On Wednesday, a viewer could look from screen to screen and see, simultaneously, three images of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, then three images of Secretary of State George Shultz, then three images of Washington...
Preliminary ratings showed little movement from the week before, when CBS led with 26% of the TV audience, while ABC and NBC were roughly tied for second with 20% each. But then, if the promotional hype is discounted, the new season for TV news is not much of a change. Jennings has been anchoring ABC's show for two months, and Brokaw has been NBC's co-anchor (with the ousted Roger Mudd) for more than a year. Rather has been in place since March 1981. CBS News President Van Gordon Sauter cautioned, "There will...
Howard Cosell, 63, is not exactly the penitent type, but there he was on the phone last week apologizing to the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Cosell's offense: during ABC's Monday-night broadcast of a football game between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys, he referred to Alvin Garrett, a black wide receiver for the Redskins, as "that little monkey." Cosell's remark "was a slip that reflected a thought," said an incensed Lowery. Cosell, who at first denied the comment, was less abject than adenoidal, even though...