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Thank you ABC NEWS for being there last night

J

Jul

Guest
I would like to thank ABC for being the only network to have a newscast last night in the east and the central time zones. Diane Sawyer was anchoring World News because of coverage of the health care final vote . She even anchored a special report announcing that the bill had passed http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/house-passes-health-care-overhaul-bill-10165978 . I'm shocked that NBC did even brother to move its golf coverage to another channel so the affiliates can air their local news and NBC airing Nightly News following that.
 
Special Report @ 6pm, Fox Report @ 7pm on FNC. Shep Smith was in too, followed by O'Reilly, and then Hannity. If you want news, there's 3 cable news channels.
 
Bill_W said:
Special Report @ 6pm, Fox Report @ 7pm on FNC. Shep Smith was in too, followed by O'Reilly, and then Hannity. If you want news, there's 3 cable news channels.
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My post is about the coverage on the broadcast networks, not the cable news channels.
 
Julius May said:
I would like to thank ABC for being the only network to have a newscast last night in the east and the central time zones. Diane Sawyer was anchoring World News because of coverage of the health care final vote . She even anchored a special report announcing that the bill had passed http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/house-passes-health-care-overhaul-bill-10165978 . I'm shocked that NBC did even brother to move its golf coverage to another channel so the affiliates can air their local news and NBC airing Nightly News following that.
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The PGA is still big money for NBC, which is sadly lacking in other big-money sports (MLB, NFL, NASCAR, NBA). That's probably why they decided to stick with golf.
 
Whereas if this were ten years ago, and NBC was airing an XFL game, I'm sure they'd fidn a way to bump it to UPN or something had they been voting during the game...
 
And what did you expect, Julius, CBS to dump out of the NCAA tournament for a vote that was hours away? ::)

As for NBC, there was no need to "move" golf. The vote wasn't taking place yet, if you hadn't noticed.
 
Meanwhile, there was no sign of Brian Williams and Katie Couric on NBC and CBS respectively on Sunday.

But whatever; I'm sure most TVs were tuned to C-SPAN for uninterrupted coverage (as always) of the historic health care vote.
 
Fox Business (not to be confused with Fox News, although as I had expressed in a previous thread, sometimes I can't help but think that that is the intent, per Roger Ailes) even had live coverage on Sunday night, with Neil Cavuto. One of his guests, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay, was ripping Nancy Pelosi and predicting America will suffer, right at the moment the bill passed.
 
johnnya2k6 said:
Meanwhile, there was no sign of Brian Williams and Katie Couric on NBC and CBS respectively on Sunday.

But whatever; I'm sure most TVs were tuned to C-SPAN for uninterrupted coverage (as always) of the historic health care vote.
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Like we wanted to hear right-wing wackos who espouse Jesus on one hand, denounce a health plan that will help the poorest and neediest citizens of the country. Oh, I forgot, Glenn Beck denounced Jesus as a communist last week and told everyone to leave their churches. :D
 
The lack of network coverage last night was embarrassing. No matter which side of the issue you fall on, this was the biggest piece of legislation since the Civil Rights Act and Medicare- 45 years ago. Broadcast television stations' mission is to serve the public interest- not cutting away to report on the passage of this bill was an afront to their licenses. I'm not saying any one should be sanctioned, fined, etc. but just that is an embarrassment that they stuck with "Minute to Win It" rather than cover one of the biggest changes to American society and government in half a century.
 
Julius May said:
I would like to thank ABC for being the only network to have a newscast last night in the east and the central time zones. Diane Sawyer was anchoring World News because of coverage of the health care final vote . She even anchored a special report announcing that the bill had passed http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/house-passes-health-care-overhaul-bill-10165978 . I'm shocked that NBC did even brother to move its golf coverage to another channel so the affiliates can air their local news and NBC airing Nightly News following that.
Click to expand...

Well, ABC didn't have a NBA game this week (probably mostly due to not competition with CBS' NCAA basketball tournament), and their games often run into the 6pm ET hour, although the worst that would happen would be World News Sunday being delayed in the Eastern and Central time zones (and depending on the affiliate, probably blown-off altogether). CBS did a West Coast edition of the Evening News, and I believe the health care vote was the lead story.
 
The way Diane Sawyer was talking (at the end before what was NOT "Funniest Home Videos") I was afraid "Desperate Housewives" or "Undercover Boss" would be interrupted. Fortunately, it didn't happen.
 
justpassingthough said:
The lack of network coverage last night was embarrassing. No matter which side of the issue you fall on, this was the biggest piece of legislation since the Civil Rights Act and Medicare- 45 years ago. Broadcast television stations' mission is to serve the public interest- not cutting away to report on the passage of this bill was an afront to their licenses. I'm not saying any one should be sanctioned, fined, etc. but just that is an embarrassment that they stuck with "Minute to Win It" rather than cover one of the biggest changes to American society and government in half a century.
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Yeah, regardless of where you stand personally on the bill, it's a telling moment in American media that the biggest story of the 21st Century was all but ignored by the mainstream media. At least, as the vote was being taken. However, the actual vote on the bill itself happened well after 9pm Eastern time (according to the House clerk's website), so it would have taken a "breaking news" break-in to tell people the news. Even that didn't happen.

I feel strongly that the media has let us down in so many ways, so much so that I didn't even turn on the TV last night. I had C-SPAN on the computer. It seems I missed nothing.

But stations haven't considered themselves a "public trustee" in many years. News departments certainly don't - they're glorified cheerleaders (or infomercials using VNRs as their vehicle). The FCC will never revoke a license, unless a station is blatantly violating the terms of its license (and even then, I'm not sure they'd pull a ticket).

Television is dead. It just doesn't know it yet.
 
There was no news to cover. The Congressional session last night was nothing but a political version of a stage play. Anyone who didn't know what the outcome would be is an idiot.
 
justpassingthough said:
The lack of network coverage last night was embarrassing. No matter which side of the issue you fall on, this was the biggest piece of legislation since the Civil Rights Act and Medicare- 45 years ago. Broadcast television stations' mission is to serve the public interest- not cutting away to report on the passage of this bill was an afront to their licenses. I'm not saying any one should be sanctioned, fined, etc. but just that is an embarrassment that they stuck with "Minute to Win It" rather than cover one of the biggest changes to American society and government in half a century.
Click to expand...

a Conspiracy Theorist might posit that the mainstream press was providing cover for Members of Congress who were voting for a highly unpopular piece of legislation. But I digress...

Truth is weekend sports programming is a revenue-generator, and not that many people were interested in the weekend newscasts
even before several rounds of budget cutting and layoffs. I would be surprised if 2 of the big 3 are even doing news on weekends
five years from now. Local news is the big ticket item.

Maybe the beef should be with Nancy Pelosi for scheduling votes on historic legislation at 11PM on a Sunday in the middle of March Madness.
But then again, I digress....
 
WPPCProductions said:
I didn't catch the news on tv,but I got the newsflash the old fashion way,The radio.
Click to expand...

You are far luckier than I then. Several weeks ago we had a major blizzard with widespread power
outages. Most people were having to rely on their radio for news. It was a weekend. Our all-news
station was running medical infomercials and ouir "full service" station would not break out of their
Ask the Handyman program.
 
With all the non-stop coverage the past few months on the HC bill I doubt there are many TV viewers who didn't know the vote was to be taken Sunday evening.

That said, the vote could have been delivered with a simple crawler. For ABC to interrupt the last ten minutes of an hour-long show to do nothing more than show the "excitement" on the floor of the House when the bill was passed is a lesson on why broadcast news is not what it once was.
 
There was no Sunday newscast (5:00 PM or 5:30 PM) in the Mobile-Pensacola TV market, as WEAR-TV has not aired such a newscast from ABC in years.
 
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