Broadcast Networks

Anyone who can't wait to see the unexpurgated Bill Clinton better be wired for cable.If, as expected, Congress releases the videotaped grand jury testimony of President Clinton, the cable networks CNN, Court TV, Fox News and MSNBC plan to air the entire tape, getting it on the air as quickly as possible.Granting that the tapes may contain graphic language, officials of the cable stations say they don't want to be in a position of censoring what Congress thinks the American public should be able to see and hear.

HOT ON THE HEELS OF A SUM-mer that saw audience levels sink to an all-time low, the broadcast networks could be in for more pain yet tonight at the 59th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. The Emmy telecast is designed to promote the start of the new fall season on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW. But tonight's program on Fox could wind up celebrating the cable industry instead -- all those regulation-free channels that have been thrashing the networks in the ratings in recent months.

NEW YORK -- For the first time since the cable industry began its rapid growth more than a decade ago, the broadcast networks have been able to regain a piece of the audience they lost.While it is too soon to declare that broadcasting has finally bottomed out, many network executives hope the latest ratings are a sign that the networks may not irresistibly lose viewers to cable channels.The networks had help luring viewers back in February. CBS posted a big victory in the ratings because of its Winter Olympics coverage.

Who's the hottest blogger in Baltimore? The answer might surprise you. He is Brian Stelter, a 21-year-old student at Towson University, whose nonstop reporting of the ups and downs, ins and outs of the television news industry has earned him the faithful attention of a national audience of television news people and broadcast executives. Earlier this year, when CBS publicists handed out a photo of Katie Couric, altered to slim her by 20 pounds or more, it was Stelter who broke the news.

CNN Headline News reported its largest audience ever Monday night from 10 p.m. to 10: 15 p.m. when it carried the verdict of the O. J. Simpson civil trial live. The cable channel's coverage was viewed in 1.5 million homes, according to Nielsen ratings supplied by CNN.CNN's coverage of the State of Union address was seen in 1.6 million homes, which was the third-largest CNN audience for a State of Union of address. The most watched came in 1991 during the Gulf War when 4.2 million homes watched on CNN.Ratings for the broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- will not be available until today, according to the networks.

"Tried and true equals dead and buried."--NBC's Brandon Tartikoff,Summer 1990They gave us "Cop Rock." But we wanted "Matlock."They gave us "Hull High," but we said goodbye and hugged "Hunter" to our Nielsen bosoms like it was a hit show. Angela Lansbury was showing up on fewer and fewer episodes of "Murder, She Wrote," but more and more of us tuned in each week for our weekly fix of the known and predictable in Cabot Cove -- a sweet cup of Sunday-night tea. Meanwhile, almost nobody wanted to spend any time in Evening Shade, Ark."

While most of America's eyes are expected to be on ABC and its interview with Monica Lewinsky tonight, NBC will be the overall winner in viewers when the February "sweeps" ratings battle ends at midnight.Such big-ticket productions as "Alice in Wonderland" and "The '60s," along with the farewell episode for George Clooney's Dr. Douglas Ross from "ER," are the main reasons for the victory, NBC Entertainment president Scott Sassa said in a teleconference yesterday. "Alice" was the most-watched TV movie of the year, and Clooney's farewell brought millions of viewers back to the networks on Feb. 19, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Much as it did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, television is using its airwaves to not only cover the Asian tsunami but also to raise money for victims. In Baltimore, WBAL (Channel 11) will carry a one-hour, commercial-free special tonight at 7 produced by WNBC in New York, in conjuction with UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. WBAL anchors Rod Daniels and Marianne Banister will open and close the hour via local cut-ins. The national portion of the show will include Sarah Jessica Parker, Tea Leoni, Clay Aiken and Debra Messing, among other celebrities.

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court handed a huge victory to the nation's largest television networks and cable operators yesterday, ruling that the government had to reconsider sharp limits on the number of stations a network can own and striking down the regulation that had restricted cable operators from owning television stations. Unless overturned on appeal the ruling would remove significant impediments that have prevented companies such as AOL Time Warner, a big cable operator, from merging with broadcast networks that own television stations.

President Bush was not simply giving a speech at a sympathetic campus last night - although he was certainly doing that. Bush's first words - "I come here tonight to report to the nation, and to the Iraqi people" - made clear that he would be defending his handling of the war at a time when polls show Americans have growing doubts about his leadership. Yet, Bush's speech was not carried by any of the big four broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC - each of which decided to stick with their revenue-producing entertainment programs for the evening.

Much as it did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, television is using its airwaves to not only cover the Asian tsunami but also to raise money for victims. In Baltimore, WBAL (Channel 11) will carry a one-hour, commercial-free special tonight at 7 produced by WNBC in New York, in conjuction with UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. WBAL anchors Rod Daniels and Marianne Banister will open and close the hour via local cut-ins. The national portion of the show will include Sarah Jessica Parker, Tea Leoni, Clay Aiken and Debra Messing, among other celebrities.

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Big Media - by which I mean the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) and the most "influential newspapers" (i.e., The New York Times and The Washington Post) - have been "voting" for the next president for much of the last two years. In their news pages and on their news broadcasts, the Big Media have backed any Democrat over George W. Bush, and now the long-awaited mystery of which candidate they would officially endorse is over. May I have the envelope, please? The winner of the editorial endorsement of both The New York Times and The Washington Post is: John Kerry!

With the approach of June 30, the "official" day upon which power was to be handed over by the United States to the Iraqis, American television networks sent big-name journalists to Baghdad and planned elaborate coverage of the event. So yesterday when a makeshift ceremony occurred two days early - with scant warning and at about 2:30 a.m. - TV journalists scrambled to air stories that, at least initially, were noticed by few. "We woke up and got a Monday surprise," said Jon Banner, executive producer of ABC News' World News Tonight.

President Bush was not simply giving a speech at a sympathetic campus last night - although he was certainly doing that. Bush's first words - "I come here tonight to report to the nation, and to the Iraqi people" - made clear that he would be defending his handling of the war at a time when polls show Americans have growing doubts about his leadership. Yet, Bush's speech was not carried by any of the big four broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC - each of which decided to stick with their revenue-producing entertainment programs for the evening.

ARLINGTON, Va. - The resignation of two top editors at The New York Times last week was the journalistic equivalent of bringing down a president of the United States. But the initial reaction from inside the journalism establishment does not augur well for any lessons that it should learn from this affair. The New York Times will investigate, study and examine what happened, but it is unlikely the newspaper will reach the right conclusions. The problem for the Times and for much of "mainstream journalism" is that large numbers of people no longer trust what they read (or see on the broadcast networks)

ARLINGTON, Va. -- President Bush has soberly and systematically laid out his case for why Iraq's Saddam Hussein must go. In a speech Oct. 7, delivered to an audience in Cincinnati and carried only on the all-news cable channels (more about that in a moment), the president lifted the curtain on some of the intelligence information that has led him to oppose further delay in forcing Mr. Hussein to disarm. He said he believes delay is the riskiest of several options. Calling Iraq's leader "a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction," the president said Mr. Hussein is developing an "arsenal of terror" with crude but effective delivery systems that include "a growing arsenal of unmanned aerial vehicles" (UAVs)

ARLINGTON, Va. - The resignation of two top editors at The New York Times last week was the journalistic equivalent of bringing down a president of the United States. But the initial reaction from inside the journalism establishment does not augur well for any lessons that it should learn from this affair. The New York Times will investigate, study and examine what happened, but it is unlikely the newspaper will reach the right conclusions. The problem for the Times and for much of "mainstream journalism" is that large numbers of people no longer trust what they read (or see on the broadcast networks)

Some clerics admonish their congregants: Hate the sin, love the sinner. So what's the media corollary: Mistrust the news, love the anchor? A study released this week by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that levels of public trust toward the media have largely dipped to the uneasy levels found before last September's terrorist attacks. After the attacks, public faith in the media rose with admiration for government officials, religious institutions and other major parts of the establishment.

Some clerics admonish their congregants: Hate the sin, love the sinner. So what's the media corollary: Mistrust the news, love the anchor? A study released this week by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that levels of public trust toward the media have largely dipped to the uneasy levels found before last September's terrorist attacks. After the attacks, public faith in the media rose with admiration for government officials, religious institutions and other major parts of the establishment.

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court handed a huge victory to the nation's largest television networks and cable operators yesterday, ruling that the government had to reconsider sharp limits on the number of stations a network can own and striking down the regulation that had restricted cable operators from owning television stations. Unless overturned on appeal the ruling would remove significant impediments that have prevented companies such as AOL Time Warner, a big cable operator, from merging with broadcast networks that own television stations.