We Interrupt This Program. . .

Today, Bill Griffiths is back for the second part of his two-part retrospective on those television moments that scared the hell out of us when we were little (and can still be unnerving today). Two weeks ago it was the weekly test of the Emergency Broadcast System; today, it's the interruption nobody ever wanted to see: the news bulletin. Take it away, Bill! 

by Bill Griffiths

When news breaks, we fix it!"—Promo for The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn, 1996

Previously I had written about the unpleasant childhood experience of sitting through tests of the old Emergency Broadcast System. Those tests were weekly requirements and by that knowledge were to be expected. What was never anticipated were interruptions for urgent news stories. Today the viewer gets something of an advance warning thanks (?) to flashy CGI graphics, dramatic music and in some instances a visual countdown that is designed to communicate that something important is about to be passed along. Sometimes that is actually true. Other times, well… I’ll have thoughts about that later in this essay.

When I was a kid, such disruptions were abrupt. You’re watching your favorite program and suddenly a slide/telop appears with words in big bold type such as 

NEWS BULLETIN or SPECIAL REPORT

This could be truly frightening. Sometimes the report was a simple voiceover with the accompanying graphic, or the appearance of a reporter in the channel’s newsroom or on location. Very few are of a positive nature such as on July 11,1985 when ABC’s Peter Jennings apparently broke into General Hospital announcing the return of Coca-Cola’s original formula following the launch earlier that year of "New Coke" (this also lead that evening’s World News Tonight). At other times rather than actually interrupting a show, there would be a crawl at the bottom of the screen. I actually remember one of these from 1979. I was 7, watching a CBS daytime repeat of M*A*S*H. It was the opening scene of the season three episode "Officer of the Day" where Private Igor accidentally aims a cannon at Radar’s bugle and shoots it out of his hand during the morning assembly. It’s a funny moment, but was ruined when a crawl from KPIX Channel 5 Eyewitness News streamed across the screen warning viewers that local utility PG&E may initiate rolling blackouts due to that year’s energy crisis. Scary stuff to a kid. Now I don’t recall the power going out that afternoon, but this random moment has strangely stuck in my memory.

For downbeat experiences, YouTube comes through again with a variety of national and local bulletins/special reports of years past preserved for our viewing displeasure when we want to put a damper on our day. Even decades later, it’s somewhat depressing to watch—more accurately hear as no in-studio camera was ready—Walter Cronkite interrupt the live November 22, 1963 telecast of As The World Turns with the first CBS News Bulletin that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas (west coast affiliates were being fed the sitcom Pete and Gladys). It’s actually remarkable this was recorded as the tragedy unfolded, most likely because CBS engineers were taping the popular daytime drama for later playback in other time zones. As such, it has become commonplace to see those initial bulletins used in various JFK retrospectives. One could be mistaken that most of America learned of Kennedy’s assassination from Cronkite where in actuality they likely heard the news from radio, a friend or neighbor, or at work or school. Cynical as it may seem, CBS News has no doubt made lots of money from licensing their coverage. As a footnote, the As The World Turns cast were unaware of the shooting until they concluded their (largely unseen) performances but the crew definitely knew what was happening as the show proceeded.

While that occurred before my time, just as mind numbing to rewatch were the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Vividly, I can remember delaying going into work as the first images were aired. Reporters and anchors speculated that it could have been a terrorist incident or an accident. As soon as I saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center, there was no doubt. Subsequent reports from the Pentagon and Pennsylvania only confirmed that this would be a long, horrific day. There is a benefit of having such live “as it happened” news available on YouTube. History classes can use these clips to enhance the instruction of those events. As an example, last year on September 11, my daughter’s History class learned in detail about the significance of that date and watched some of the real-time news footage. Upon picking her up from school, she talked to me about what she saw and was quite disturbed. All of her classmates found it unsettling. But she and I could have a thoughtful discussion with her seeing it from the passage of time and me having seen it occur live on television. Both of us

concluded that we should never forget what took place… and hope it won’t happen again.

The general objective of interrupting a program is to inform viewers of a very important news event that has just happened or is currently in progress, and the reporting cannot wait until the next scheduled news update or newscast which could be hours away. In the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, the networks became too eager to break into programming even if the story could have waited until more facts were available or the event itself simply did not warrant a show intrusion. This compulsion to interrupt programs became a source of irritation for viewers and led to a TV Guide investigation on the practice by Neil Hickey in its May 8, 1965, edition. It is worth reading because 60 years later with the proliferation of cable news as well as expanded local and regional news on broadcast stations, the problem has gone far beyond what any network executive back then could have imagined. Pick any national channel— CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NewsNation, Newsmax, etc., or a local broadcast. Stick around to see how long it will take to have the Swoosh-sounds, intense music and words that shout

BREAKING NEWS, DEVELOPING STORY, NEWS ALERT, JUST IN, PANIC TIME* appear. (*okay, I made that last one up— please don’t get any ideas if you’re a TV executive). It probably won’t be for more than a handful of minutes if not already happening when you tune in. Often this is accompanied by headline-style information in the lower thirds of the screen which became a regular feature of news broadcasting following the 9/11 attacks. How important is the information to warrant immediate increased attention? That is debatable. Supposedly in the past few years some stations have tampered down the use of such urgent wording in their reporting, yet I have seen little to no evidence of that being the case.

For many years there has been a need among news departments to be First and Fast with information. Note that I did not add “Accurate” to the equation. But is it asking too much to handle critical information with a degree of deliberation? Case in point from personal experience: some 33 years ago, I had aspirations of pursuing a career in journalism (given how reporting has evolved or de-volved, there is little regret that the profession did not pan out for me). I did spend time before heading off to the University of Oregon—GO DUCKS!—as an intern and later part-time reporter at my hometown radio stations KVON-AM/KVYN-FM in Napa, California. One truly dark and stormy night, I was the only person in the building preparing a report on flooding concerns for the next morning’s newscasts. Both stations were automated to satellite programming during the evening hours. Just after 9:00, all phone lines started constantly ringing with accounts that the west side of the city was without electricity. With little to go on, I made the decision to interrupt KVON’s airing of The Larry King Show with a brief live Bulletin acknowledging the power outage and that more details would be forthcoming momentarily. After contacting PG&E and City of Napa emergency officials, I went on the air again at 9:30 with a Special Report providing listeners with updated information of when the lights might go back on and assurance that there would no major flooding concerns the rest of the evening. The phone calls then stopped. Urgent news reporting can and does have a powerful impact, positive or negative. No reporter or anchor should take that responsibility lightly.

It may be on purpose that words such as Bulletin or Flash rarely, if ever, appear now in U.S. media, perhaps seen as antiquated terms. It is not difficult to see how we have become de-sensitized to breaking news reports and the often breathless displays of endless recapping and supposition. The era of the 24-hour news cycle is frankly exhausting. Yet, I and millions more continue to routinely follow the day’s happenings. Sometimes too much. It takes willpower to turn off the news and watch a classic rerun, a current favorite series, a sporting event, pick up a book or just take a needed walk outside. Otherwise, we can all be a little guilty of Information Overload.

WE NOW RESUME OUR REGULARY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING. TV