There is no world out there. there is no world out there.

You must understantd that these companies worry about nothing but making money...Interrupting CSI will upset viewers that don't care about the world around them. This will somehow hurt the station's profit, making it a mortal sin to do so.

Adults behave so much like children these days...

I don't really see the problem, personally. They weren't exactly hiding the information; they just wanted to air it at a more convenient time. What's the big deal?

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS News has fired the producer responsible for interrupting the last five minutes of a hit crime drama with a special report on the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a network source said on Friday.

we wouldn't want to interrupt our shows for anything real, now would we ? besides, at 8:00 CST no one really cares.

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Original post by 23yrold3yrold I don't really see the problem, personally. They weren't exactly hiding the information; they just wanted to air it at a more convenient time. What's the big deal?

are you saying that if the world was ending, you'd put off biased news coverage until after CSI ? good idea. [grin]

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Original post by 23yrold3yrold I don't really see the problem, personally. They weren't exactly hiding the information; they just wanted to air it at a more convenient time. What's the big deal?

They were so pissed that this guy interrupted their precious show that they FIRED him. That's the point.

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Original post by tHiSiSbOb You must understantd that these companies worry about nothing but making money...Interrupting CSI will upset viewers that don't care about the world around them. This will somehow hurt the station's profit, making it a mortal sin to do so.

That about sums it up.

The producer didn't follow protocol, he pays the price. Come to think of it, I would have been quite pissed if SciFi decided to cut that last few minutes of Stargate to report this, if they were such a station.

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Original post by Tron3k They were so pissed that this guy interrupted their precious show that they FIRED him. That's the point.

It is a cut-throat business.

There should be some room for common sense to override protocol.

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Original post by Tron3k There should be some room for common sense to override protocol.

For what? For some old leader on his death bed kicking the bucket after rotting in a hospital for a week? That can wait 5 minutes.

Not to mention common sense was built into the protocol. He was instructed to show a news crawl at the bottom of the screen which would have been just as effective as showing some person saying it to you.

Yeah ... no I was pissed at the wrong thing. The company did the right thing. What I'm really pissed off about is that there is no way they could treat the people like adults, and they know it. They know everyone'll get pissed off because they missed 5 minutes of their god damn worthless show. I don't even watch TV.

And they couldn't have used a PIP, or a scrolling news ticker at the bottom to report that? The people who care about CSI and world event such as that would be able to flip between whatever channel CSI is on and FNN, or CNN, or MSNBC, or any of the other five-thousand news channels covering his death. I have to agree with Programmer One about this. If you want to watch news, watch a news station. If I'm watching CSI, or whatever, I want to see how it ends. That's why my remote control has a previous channel button!

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Original post by stormrunner are you saying that if the world was ending, you'd put off biased news coverage until after CSI ? good idea. [grin]

The problem with that statement is that the world wasn't ending in this case. A sick man died...he'd been in the news for several days about how sick he was, so its more an update to an earlier story than breaking news.

CSI:NY is still in its infancy...its off to a killer start, but if people thing CBS is willing to interupt it at the drop of the hat, they'll stop watching. As a producer, he's kind of responsible for making sure people don't stop watching. Clearly, he's not very good at his job.

CM

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From the article: According to the source, the producer failed to follow standard procedures that require a senior CBS News executive to be consulted before interrupting regular programming. The fact Arafat already had been reported near death for several days also figured in the network's decision. The source said the producer disregarded explicit, advance instructions that breaking news of Arafat's death -- if it occurred during prime time -- was to be reported with a news "crawl" at the bottom of the screen.

This thread is stupid.

I certainly cared more about the last five minutes of the show than a man that showed up to a UN general assembly wearing a gun. Man of peace my ass.

I would've run a crawler, personally. Full-on interruption of a television program really isn't done anymore except in the case of amber alerts and public safety broadcasts (i.e. omfg your house is about to get pwnt by a tornado!11 now back to csi)

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Original post by Oluseyi Quote: From the article: According to the source, the producer failed to follow standard procedures that require a senior CBS News executive to be consulted before interrupting regular programming. The fact Arafat already had been reported near death for several days also figured in the network's decision. The source said the producer disregarded explicit, advance instructions that breaking news of Arafat's death -- if it occurred during prime time -- was to be reported with a news "crawl" at the bottom of the screen. This thread is stupid.

Not so fast. The point of this thread is not whether or not rules were followed - we know they weren't. The point is whether or not it's ok to say fuck the rules. I say it is. Maybe if the Teeming Mass of Morons were treated like adults once in a while, they would grow up. Hell, interrupt their god damn shows, interrupt them every hour. Force them to be aware of more than their petty lives. Then maybe Americans wouldn't be so damn misinformed, and you wouldn't have the Village Idiot in charge of your country.

I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but I'd like to see it.

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Original post by Tron3k Not so fast. The point of this thread is not whether or not rules were followed - we know they weren't. The point is whether or not it's ok to say fuck the rules. I say it is.

Really? So there should be no regularity in television programming? Local execs of national stations should be able to pretty much do whatever they want to?

Arafat dying is not information. It's not even news. He's dead; so? What geopolitical impact is that going to have, given that he's been marginalized in Israeli-Palestinian relations for a good while now. His death is a historical footnote.

Stop being so pig-headed and self-righteous. And stupid. If we wanted to be instantaneously interrupted by the least significant "current event," we'd be watching Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg or any of the other news channels. Hell, we'd be watching news television while listening to news radio!

It's our right to be dis- and misinformed if we so choose. Don't like it? Get over it.

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Original post by Oluseyi Really? So there should be no regularity in television programming? Local execs of national stations should be able to pretty much do whatever they want to?

Not even the point.

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Arafat dying is not information. It's not even news. He's dead; so? What geopolitical impact is that going to have, given that he's been marginalized in Israeli-Palestinian relations for a good while now. His death is a historical footnote.

Not true. His death removes the key scapegoat for the inability of the world (and the US in particular) to ensure peace. What happens next will be important.

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Stop being so pig-headed and self-righteous. And stupid. If we wanted to be instantaneously interrupted by the least significant "current event," we'd be watching Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg or any of the other news channels. Hell, we'd be watching news television while listening to news radio!

If you noticed, my rant was basically, I don't care what you want.

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It's our right to be dis- and misinformed if we so choose.

Not in a democracy.

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Original post by Tron3k Not so fast. The point of this thread is not whether or not rules were followed - we know they weren't. The point is whether or not it's ok to say fuck the rules. I say it is. Maybe if the Teeming Mass of Morons were treated like adults once in a while, they would grow up. Hell, interrupt their god damn shows, interrupt them every hour. Force them to be aware of more than their petty lives. Then maybe Americans wouldn't be so damn misinformed, and you wouldn't have the Village Idiot in charge of your country. I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but I'd like to see it.

I agree, 100%. In fact, I propose that the next time an old, sick person dies, NBC should send out swarms of people to knock on doors, just in case anybody happens to be not watching TV when the guy eats it.

Important news gets a crawler, alerting people to the news, and giving them the choice to switch to a news network if they want to learn more. See, choices. Adults are supposed to be able to make them on their own.

CM

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Original post by Conner McCloud Quote: Original post by Tron3k Not so fast. The point of this thread is not whether or not rules were followed - we know they weren't. The point is whether or not it's ok to say fuck the rules. I say it is. Maybe if the Teeming Mass of Morons were treated like adults once in a while, they would grow up. Hell, interrupt their god damn shows, interrupt them every hour. Force them to be aware of more than their petty lives. Then maybe Americans wouldn't be so damn misinformed, and you wouldn't have the Village Idiot in charge of your country. I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but I'd like to see it. I agree, 100%. In fact, I propose that the next time an old, sick person dies, NBC should send out swarms of people to knock on doors, just in case anybody happens to be not watching TV when the guy eats it. Important news gets a crawler, alerting people to the news, and giving them the choice to switch to a news network if they want to learn more. See, choices. Adults are supposed to be able to make them on their own. CM

Yeah, well, they can't. Sorry.