It seems American Idol even outranks storm coverage here in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.
While watching the NCIS season finale on the CBS affiliate WUSA Channel 9, the program was interrupted by severe thunderstorm and tornado alert coverage. One cannot argue that this is not important news, but I don’t see why a news ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen could not suffice. Apparently, a modified version of such a warning was sufficient Friday night during the JAG season finale when the picture was shrunk half the size and a weather map placed off to the side.
No doubt as a result of getting numerous complaints, meteorologist Topper Shutt snapped the show just had to be interrupted pursuant to public safety and FCC licensing requirements and that the popular military crime procedural would be rebroadcast at a later time or date. Channel 7 WJLA with Doug Hill and Channel 4 WRC with Bob Ryan followed suit with the same overkill.
Channel 5 WTTG, the local Fox affiliate, at first did not alter their feed but eventually split the screen with a severe weather icon and a scrolling ticker. However, their regularly scheduled programming did not come to a screeching halt in favor of “the sky is falling and its the end of the world” style coverage.
Guess the management at Channel 5 would rather take their chances with a tornado than incurring the wrath of disgruntled American Idol fans. Given my recent run-ins with Idol worshippers, can’t say I blame Channel 5 for their decision.
Copyright 2004 by Frederick Meekins
No comments:
Post a Comment