The Denver Postkobe bryant case
Stations' responses run gamut
Friday, September 03, 2004 -
Dan Abrams at cable's MSNBC was first on the air with news that a deal was in the works in the Kobe Bryant rape case, breaking the story at 2:45 Wednesday afternoon.
Local stations played catch-up thereafter. KMGH-Channel 7 was on the air with independent confirmation of that report at 3:12 p.m. Colorado's TV stations, with live trucks and satellite technology standing by in Eagle, were caught flat-footed at an hour without regularly scheduled newscasts. Making do with text crawls across the bottom of the screen, KCNC-Channel 4 and KUSA- Channel 9 waited until their 4 p.m. newscasts and Channel 7 waited until its regularly scheduled 5 p.m. newscast to broadcast further details. Splitting hairs, Channel 4 claims to have had the first specifics from the courtroom regarding details of the fact that the Bryant case was thrown out, going live at 6:30 p.m. "We were all pretty shocked that we were the only ones to do it," KCNC news director Tim Wieland said. But CBS-owned Channel 4 was hurt by not having a 6 p.m. newscast to keep going on the story. The station was in the midst of the network's telecast of the Latin Grammy Awards, which started at 6 p.m. News executives deliberated whether to break into lucrative programming in a case that has drawn national attention for more than a year. "What stories deserve program interruption?" KUSA's Patti Dennis asked. "There isn't a right answer. We're more cautious than ever about that. The information needs to rise to a certain level," such as urgent matters of national security, she said. Otherwise, station executives know, they risk angering their core audience. "Everyone was wired up for a 5 p.m. news conference that didn't happen until 6:33 p.m.," said Dennis, Channel 9's news director. Dennis made the decision to give viewers split-screen coverage of the press conference oddly juxtaposed with "Entertainment Tonight" at 6:30, with audio from the entertainment magazine. Channel 7 cut into one of its big revenue earners, "Wheel of Fortune," for eight minutes of the news conference in Eagle. "I chose to take the press conference; the others didn't," KMGH news director Byron Grandy said. While his competitors minimized the importance of prosecutor Mark Hurlbert's news conference, Grandy found it emotional, "an interesting contrast to 14 months ago." The decision to drop the case was dramatic but not unexpected. "Celebrity Justice," a syndicated TV show carried locally by KWGN-Channel 2, issued a press release outlining the events before they unfolded. On Thursday, local stations followed up on details pertaining to the civil case against Bryant as the national media decamped from Eagle. "The media are slowly breaking down and pulling out of town," KCNC's Andrea Lopez reported. TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com .
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