Cable does something about the local weather

See that nice young man delivering the Kansas City weather on Time Warner Cable's new Metro Weather channel? He's in Massachusetts. That anomaly aside, though, Metro Weather - the second hyper-local channel launched by Time Warner - makes perfect sense. I don't know why someone didn't think of it sooner. Unlike Metro Sports, which fills a niche that local TV stations all but abandoned years ago, Metro Weather (Channel 77) is a greedy grab for broadcasters' bread and butter. Those East Coast meteorologists work for Intellicast, a division of the Weather Channel, which provides the same climate data used by local weathercasters. Metro Weather covers local conditions and forecasts, national conditions for business travelers and more, every eight minutes, around the clock. In fact, you don't even have to wait that long. Just look at the left side of the screen, where a ticker continuously displays current temperatures and forecasted highs or lows for Belton, Independence, KCK and other areas. After a few weeks of training, the Metro Weather-casters now appear on screen, confident in their pronunciations of such places as Kearney and Olathe. Like their Weather Channel colleagues, they're anti-personalities, the opposite of local celebrity forecasters. They can't look out the window and see our weather, of course. And their segments are taped in advance and played over and over, which can have its drawbacks. One recent Sunday afternoon, the Metro Weather meteorologist made a Chiefs-game reference. Unfortunately, he spoke as though the game had not even kicked off, when it had ended 10 minutes earlier. Despite its shortcomings, Metro Weather is a welcome addition to the local dial. Channels 4, 5, 9 and 41 might disagree. "In Their Own Words: Nixon," 10 hours beginning 5 p.m. Friday, Discovery Civilization. Time Warner Cable also is fattening its digital lineup with two more offers from Discovery. At Channel 225 is Civilization, a joint venture with The New York Times that appears aimed at the History Channel Crowd. Channel 226 is Home & Leisure, a rival to HGTV spinoff Fine Living. (C-SPAN3 and Newsworld International, which used to be in those channel spots, have been moved to Channels 230-231.) This summer Civilization started airing the 1977 David Frost interviews with Richard Nixon. More interviews, combined with new reflections from Frost and Times reporters, will air Thanksgiving weekend with a five-hour marathon at 5 p.m. Friday and then 7 p.m. Saturday through Dec. 4. "Uncle Saddam," 6 p.m. tonight, Cinemax. Filmmaker Joel Soler has created an unusual if not entirely effective documentary about the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Under the pretext of filming the country's suffering under United Nations sanctions, Soler captured both the tragic and the darkly comedic aspects of Hussein's 30-year rule. Escorted by the Iraqi leader's various personal assistants, Soler captured some of the country's most breathtaking architecture - lavish shrines to the dictator that stand in absurd contrast to his country's suffering. Along the way, his travelogue is dotted with subversive little touches. The tour of the Saddam Art Center, a gallery filled with portraits of Hussein, is accompanied by the strains of "Mona Lisa." Helping Soler are two funnymen, Scott Thompson ("The Kids in the Hall"), who wrote the script, and Wally Langham, who reads it. As we gaze at the umpteenth likeness of Hussein, Langham explains, "Saddam likes to collect gold, especially when it can be combined with a nice self-portrait!" That's followed by chilling footage from Saddam's Hospital for Children, where the camera dwells on missing tiles and a cigarette butt on the unsanitary floor. We also get a whimsical overview of Hussein's sadistic family relations. The message of "Uncle Saddam" is clear: The United States is dealing with a first-class megalomaniac and nut job. Whether that justifies the hostile takeover of his country, however, is something this idiosyncratic portrait doesn't begin to answer. "The Osbournes," 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, MTV. They're back, and now everyone's famous - not just Ozzy Osbourne but his scheming cancer-surviving wife, wannabe pop star Kelly and even that lovable mope, Jack. Having made them stars, MTV has made the Osbournes' fame a story line for the show's second season. In tonight's episode the cameras follow Ozzy and Sharon to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, to which they have been invited by Fox News host and "Osbournes" fan Greta van Susteren. Even the president takes notice of Ozzy. Later, the old rocker gushes, "I had the best time of my life." It's an even less riveting scene than Kelly's stage appearance as she sings, or tries her best to sing, a remake of Madonna's hit "Papa Don't Preach." (We get about six seconds of the music.) Yet there are still enough of the oddly tender and amusing moments that made "The Osbournes" so appealing in the first place. In a limousine, Sharon cuddles next to her boy. "You smell nice," she whispers to Jack, who whispers back, "I showered." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:"Uncle Saddam," an unusual documentary about the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, airs at 6 tonight on Cinemax. @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:The Associated Press

TV brings out the kid in him

Film critics have lifelong love affairs with the movies. Television critics have somewhat more complicated relationships with TV. It's not that we don't enjoy watching TV for a living. I certainly do. There's just not a lot of romance to it, that's all. Here's how glamorous this job is. Every so often someone actually says to me, "Would you like to become the film critic some day?" I try to keep the edge out of my voice as I respond, "No, I enjoy writing about television, thanks." If I weren't so polite I'd add, "Besides, most of the movies worth seeing are only on cable." Of all the critics writing in this space, only I must routinely defend my attachment to the medium I cover. "You have to watch TV all day?" people say when they learn what I do. Only the children understand my emotional bond. When they learn what I do, they ask me in amazement, "So you get to watch TV all day?" Of course I have ambivalent feelings toward TV. Everyone in my profession does. And I'm reminded of it every time a wide-eyed kid tells me I have a cool job. When I was growing up in Billings, Mont., TV was my most faithful companion. My mom remarried when I was 9, we moved twice, and I found myself out of sorts. I did well in school, except for that part on the report card where teachers commented on how well you got along with others. My stepdad took us on weekend camping trips. I wasn't too thrilled at first, because I couldn't bring the TV with me. Then I got a battery-powered Coronado audio cassette recorder for Christmas. I began taping TV shows off the air and replaying them over and over in the camper. I made audiotapes of "The Tonight Show," "Get Smart," stock-car races, "M*A*S*H" and "Saturday Night Live." I filled a 90-minute cassette with TV theme songs. I can still whistle the "Lou Grant" theme today. Today I'm glad I can look back at my childhood and see the budding TV critic at work. Still, I wish I had spent more time reading and less time marinated in media. I envy my wife. She grew up on a farm in Minnesota, where she and her best friend read books to each other. Books take her into anterooms of the imagination I wouldn't be able to find if you gave me a map. It wasn't until college that the wide world of ideas finally opened up to me. I weaned myself off the tube. At nights I came home from the library in time to catch David Letterman. But that was about it. After college I actually lived without TV for a while. Nearly a decade of prime time - a span from "Miami Vice" to "Twin Peaks" - passed without notice. I wanted to write about ideas. I tried working at a think tank in Washington, D.C. That lasted 14 months. Then I made a run at a Ph.D., which was even less successful. At least the D.C. job paid me to fail. Graduate school left me $25,000 in the hole. I took a secretarial job in Chicago to pay it off. It was then that I began noodling around on the Internet. Here, in hundreds of messages posted to various online bulletin boards, I began to find my voice. I didn't write about politics or religion or social policy or anything else I had studied. I wrote about late-night television. It was the one part of the TV schedule I knew and loved the best, and I found I had surprisingly strong views on the "state of the late." I began writing a weekly newsletter to chronicle the battle royal going on between my man Dave (then recently defected to CBS) and his archrival Jay Leno. Some of my Internet readers, it turns out, worked for newspapers, and soon I was writing for pay. Quite suddenly I had transformed myself into a TV critic. Less than three years later I was in Kansas City. You might conclude that I found writing about TV to be a bit of a comedown, a consolation prize for the frustrated academic. The honest truth, though, is that I feel lucky to be a TV critic. After my faith and my marriage, this newspaper job is the greatest blessing to have come into my life. The reason it has worked out so well, I believe, is that from the start my editors gave me the freedom to fashion my beat the way that I saw fit. I've done that by following two basic rules of thumb. They're not profound, but they do reconcile my two sides - the hyperactive, short-attention-span child and the intellectually curious truth-seeking adult. Rule No. 1: Keep clicking. The average viewer is a creature of habit, watching the same eight or so channels most of the time. My challenge is to persuade my readers to try worthy programs they would not have found on their own. I usually don't see more than three episodes of a series per season. I scroll through my TV's on-screen program guide, looking for new things to watch. In my weekly column, which appears every Tuesday in FYI, I review at least three shows that are as different from one another as possible. Even when I get stuck on a show - I've seen most of the new "Sopranos" episodes, for instance - you won't see me write about it more than twice in a season. I rarely watch TV passively. I talk back to my TV set. If a show catches my eye, I start scribbling notes on whatever is handy. Later I collect episodes on my office TiVo, then watch them all at once. After the review is done, I lose interest and move on to something else. Rule No. 2: Write about television as though it mattered. A TV show may not be of existential significance, and it may have the approximate life span of soda fizz. But when you write about TV, you write about something every American understands. It's as messy and profane and commercially corrupted as any institution in a democratic society. It has the power to shape public perception instantly. It is our shrine to 9/11 and Lady Di and O.J. It is your neighbor's first - and often only - source for news of the world. During my six years as critic, the landscape of television has shifted dramatically. More people, on average, are watching cable channels than broadcast TV. Digital television has arrived. Local stations have been pinched by declining viewership. More channels are owned by fewer companies. And I have seen television become more hyperactive, more demeaning and more corrosive. This doesn't bother me personally, because I'm an adult and I write for adult readers. But in the three decades since I was raised on TV, researchers have proven conclusively that it stunts creativity, fuels aggression and encourages unhealthy habits in our children. I know I sound like a hypocrite, but I believe parents should not let their kids watch TV until they've developed strong reading and play habits. I also believe that any good critic must be comfortable living with contradictions. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or online at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Aaron Barnhart has been The Star's TV critic since January 1997. @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:TIM JANICKE/The Kansas City Star

Last week's 'MNF' party needed more Cosell

Leave it to Disney, which owns the ABC network, to take a historic occasion and turn it into History Lite. The occasion: "Monday Night Football" (8 p.m. Mondays, Channel 9) marking its 500th telecast last week. When ABC launched "MNF" 32 years ago, it was a brazen experiment by a network even more desperate for ratings than it is now. Few thought football would work in prime time. But "MNF" defied the critics by becoming a huge hit. Along the way, football displaced baseball as America's No. 1 professional sport. Whatever baseball's other problems, it never completely adapted to the revolution that televised sports underwent in the "MNF" era. TV coverage of sports is now dominated by flashy highlights and outsized personalities. In both these areas "MNF" was not only peerless, it boldly led everyone else into the new age. But you didn't learn any of this watching last week's broadcast. After all, that would involve invoking the name of a certain outsized "MNF" personality over and over. The people tending ABC's cash cow today don't like to admit that Howard Cosell made their livelihoods possible by making "MNF" a cultural phenomenon. Last week's commemorative broadcast, then, was as anticlimatic as the blowout on the field. ABC dusted off some old openings from the pre-Hank Williams Jr. era, fitted current announcers Al Michaels and John Madden with retro-yellow blazers, hyped a meaningless online poll to decide the "greatest" Monday night game and trotted out Frank Gifford, the least valuable player of "MNF's" early years, for a pointless chat. Credit was given to Roone Arledge, the network executive who thought up "MNF." No one offered that Arledge's most important act was hiring (and later defending) Cosell. Nor was there any discussion of Cosell's "Halftime Highlights," which ushered in a whole generation of sports highlights shows. It also was one of the most amazing feats in television: Cosell did "Halftime Highlights" in a fever, in one take, with no script. Couldn't ABC have spared us just one week of Madden flogging his stupid video game and instead treated us to an ancient clip of the master in action? Cosell was to sportscasting what Edward R. Murrow was to newscasting. The difference is that Murrow made himself easy to admire, even venerate, while Humble Howard made himself a thorn in ABC's paw. Yes, he was a pain, especially in his later years. But when Cosell died in 1995, the people at "MNF" should have buried their grudges against him, too. Instead they continue to overlook his achievements, which only serves to diminish the house that Howard built. "Girlfriends," 8 p.m. Mondays, UPN (Channel 29). ABC isn't the only network sitting pretty on Monday nights. In fact, since Fox euthanized "girls club" after two weeks, no broadcast network has a Monday show considered to be in ratings trouble. That's a tribute to TV's strategy of carving the viewing audience into lucrative demographic chunks. While ABC chases after young males, CBS has older men and adult women locked in for a night of sitcoms and "CSI: Miami." NBC grabs guys with "Fear Factor" and women with "Crossing Jordan," while WB is in seventh heaven with its new hit "Everwood." UPN has the African-American audience cornered with four adult comedies. One of those, "One on One" (7:30 Mondays), is UPN's most-watched sitcom. I, however, prefer "Girlfriends," with its four women sitting around talking about the things they do with men. Sounds a lot like a certain HBO program, I know. But it's more clever by half than "Sex and the City," and in my book, clever counts for something. The women on HBO don't have to curb their tongues, though sometimes I wish they would. By contrast, it's fun to watch "Girlfriends" work with similar material while artfully dancing around what passes these days for broadcast TV standards. Monday's episode featured a story line with Toni (Jill Marie Jones) and a white doctor. The pleasant surprise was that not one joke got cracked about the man's race; the whole episode was about his height and, uh, length. If you find this kind of humor offensive, remember, that's why God made CBS. "Nova," 7 p.m. Tuesday, KCPT and Topeka's KTWU. "The city of Venice that you know today cannot be preserved," is one scientist's grim assessment about the Italian tourist spot. Built on a salt marsh in the middle of a lagoon, Venice is sinking - or the waters around it are rising, take your pick. With global warming expected to raise sea level by 18 inches in the next century, few hold out any hope that Venice will escape the fate of Atlantis. "Nova" does what a science program should do, talking to scientists and reviewing the city's controversial plan for staving off flood waters. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:The "Girlfriends" are (from left) Persia White, Golden Brooks, Tracee Ellis Ross and Jill Marie Jones. @ART CREDIT:UPN @ART CAPTION:Roone Arledge (left), the man behind 'Monday Night Football,' and Howard Cosell @ART CREDIT:ABC @ART:Photos (2, color)

KU Med, KCTV split over crime victim coverage

KU Med has severed ties with KCTV, and other hospitals may follow suit if Channel 5 doesn't stop reporting where crime victims are being treated.

At issue is a long-held understanding that TV, radio and print media will refrain from naming the hospitals involved when they report on violent crime, including domestic assaults.

Channel 5 news director Regent Ducas says it is the station's right to report all relevant facts to a crime story. Health care providers respond that giving a victim's whereabouts rarely adds anything to a story and potentially puts everyone in the named hospital at risk.

Local broadcasters have respected the hospitals' privacy requests for so long that area PR directors couldn't remember it ever being an issue. That changed June 10, after five people were murdered during a shooting spree in Kansas City, Kan. Another person was wounded and taken to KU Med for treatment. Other TV crews stayed away from the hospital, and most broadcast reports that day said the victim was at "an area hospital," the phrase often used in cases where privacy is requested.

KCTV, however, sent crews to KU Med. Its reporters appeared on-camera in front of the hospital on four separate newscasts that day, according to an independent TV monitoring service. Dennis McCulloch, the chief spokesman for KU Med, was alarmed. His concern grew after people identifying themselves as "associates" tried to visit the victim at the hospital. These people, McCulloch said, learned of the victim's whereabouts from television.

McCulloch called KCTV to complain. Later that day he issued a memo to all local media, citing "renewed concerns" over patient privacy. "When the victim of a crime is brought to any hospital, that victim is in danger," McCulloch wrote. "By reporting the location, you place the victim and our staff in jeopardy."

The memo did not name KCTV or the specific incident. In an interview this week, McCulloch said his conversations with KCTV officials had not been reassuring. Still, he hesitated to lower the boom on the station because, he said, "I thought that rationality would take over eventually."

On Sept. 16, it happened again. KCTV sent a reporter to KU Med to file a live story on a 16-year-old shooting victim. The girl's boyfriend, who was wanted in the assault, was still at large when the report appeared on the station's 10 p.m. news. This time McCulloch sent a letter to Ducas, informing him that since KCTV was "the only news outlet in Kansas City that does not put patient and staff safety first," the hospital would no longer give out medical conditions on any of its patients to Channel 5.

Ducas made no apologies for the reports. He said his reporters were simply doing what the station promised to do in its slogan: "live, late-breaking, investigative" news. "Our assignment desk has been around a long time," Ducas said. "People know we would never put people at risk. We just wouldn't do it." There has been "no overt change in (station) policy," according to Ducas, who worked in TV news in Detroit and Miami before joining KCTV earlier this year.

But he has a hard and fast rule: no deals with anyone. "We're not going to negotiate our journalistic ethics," he said. Doing so, he added, could compromise Channel 5's ability to release relevant medical information to the public. For instance, "if the president is shot and he's at KU Med," Ducas said, "we're going to go live in front of KU Med, even if the shooter is at large."

McCulloch replied: "That is the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard. The president of the United States, if he is injured, will be so well guarded that no one will come near him. Nobody will be intimidating the president as a witness. "However, if they revealed three names of people who saw the shooter, and the name of the subdivision in Overland Park where they lived, then those people would be in danger. That's the correct analogy here." McCulloch said that since Channel 5 hasn't replied either to his letter or one written by hospital president Irene Cumming, KU Med has extended its ban to include all health care information. He admitted that he occasionally returns Anne Peterson's phone calls - "just because she is Anne" - and KU Med remains a supporter of KCTV's broadcast of the Children's Miracle Network telethon.

Ducas doesn't see why KU Med is so upset. He said McCulloch was "on a campaign" against Channel 5, convincing others to write letters of protest to the station, including a local prosecutor and an executive of the Kansas Hospital Association. "There's no reason for it," he said. "It's a mountain out of a molehill."

Perhaps, but that molehill is getting larger. On Oct. 30 the station named one of the hospitals of Health Midwest in a story about a shooting victim. Health Midwest vice president Chris Whitley called Channel 5 to complain and came away "perplexed" by the station's intransigence. "If this sort of thing persists, we might have to look at taking the same sort of action KU Med has taken against 5," Whitley said. "I would really rather not do that because, frankly, we need each other."

Other area broadcasters sided with the health care providers. "We don't identify the hospital of a victim of a shooting - ever," said Michael Sipes, news director of top-rated KMBC, Channel 9. KMBZ-AM (980) news director Scott Parks called it "common sense" not to give out a victim's location "if the perpetrator is still alive." Spokesmen for the Kansas Association of Broadcasters and Missouri Broadcasters Association say their groups do not have guidelines on releasing patient information.

The industry's leading professional organization, the Radio-TV News Directors Association, addresses the issue generally in its code of ethics: "Treat all subjects of news coverage with respect and dignity, showing particular compassion to victims of crime or tragedy." The Kansas City Star typically refers to crime victims being treated at "an area hospital." Steve Shirk, managing editor for news at The Star said, "We want to avoid putting innocent people in harm's way." The hospital where a victim is treated, Shirk added, "is rarely germane to the story."

Next spring new federal guidelines on patient privacy take effect. Hospitals that disclose any patient's condition without the patient's written permission could be fined up to $250,000 and individuals sentenced to prison time. Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-TV News Directors Association, said she is concerned that the rules, as laid out in the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, are too sweeping. For instance, the new law may make it illegal to report the physical condition of persons entrusted with public safety, such as airline pilots, or of public officials - say, the president. The federal guidelines could put hospitals and local media on a collision course over freedom of information.

But another news director in town thinks the opposite will happen. The hospitals "understand our frustration with these new rules," said Debbie Bush of KSHB, Channel 41. "They're working with us. And if they're concerned about patient safety and staff safety, we're going to work with them. It's a give-and-take relationship."

'Bonnie' works because it's different

"Life With Bonnie" is not the breakout comedy hit of the fall season. It's too divisive. For starters, the show airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC (Channel 9), which forces viewers to decide between it and a far more familiar comedy, "Frasier," not to mention two riveting dramas, "24" and "The Guardian." Then there's Bonnie Hunt's unorthodox ideas about what makes a good comedy. She plays a successful morning talk-show host in Chicago, and every episode features her on the air - a show within the show - interviewing a funny guest. These segments have a loose and unscripted feel to them, by design. A cooking segment featured two chefs Hunt had met in real life. They showed up on the "Life With Bonnie" set five minutes before cameras rolled. Apparently, some viewers don't like this part of the show at all. Why does Bonnie give up one third of her show to a guest star? griped a frustrated Internet fan. Well, because it's her show and she can. ABC apparently feels likewise; the network picked up the show's option for the season. What's puzzling to me is why anyone feels "Life With Bonnie" needs to be completely centered on the family living room, like every other family sitcom. If it weren't for the talk show, we wouldn't have been treated to a hysterical appearance by Martin Mull as a designer of dog fashions. He was channeling his classic "Fernwood 2Night" talk show, but so what? For that matter, what's wrong with not always being the star of your own show? It worked for Jerry Seinfeld. If you can't decide between Bonnie and Kiefer, cable has got you covered. ABC Family is rerunning each week's "Life With Bonnie" episode at 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. For that matter, each week's "24" is re-aired at 10 p.m. Mondays and 4 p.m. Tuesdays on FX. Newsworld International (Channel 226 on Time Warner Cable). Tired of cable news channels bombarding you with on-screen chaos? Sick of seeing human tragedy gift-wrapped in colorful graphics and designer music? Had it with white men screaming at each other? Try this alternative from the land of championship curling. You'll find it on digital cable next to C-SPAN3, the only channel to which it can even remotely be compared. Newsworld International is produced by the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster. Like the citizens of most advanced countries, Canadians prefer their news straight, unsensational, even a little boring. Imagine the nightly news as read by Brian Lamb and you get the idea. (In his new movie "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore shows Canadians watching CBC news as proof of their moral superiority to Americans.) At first it may seem strange not having news spoon-fed to you. Newsworld seems to think its viewers actually care about why the Chechens and Russians are still fighting, or the latest twist in Philippine politics. Ironically, Newsworld's weekly book program "Hot Type" (7 p.m. Sunday, repeating often) is one of the most exciting interview shows I've ever seen, thanks to its intellectually spirited young host Evan Solomon. "Frontline," 9 p.m. Thursday, KTWU (Channel 11), airing 9 p.m. Nov. 21 on KCPT, Channel 19, which is pre-empting programs for an auction. Alex Kotlowitz has devoted his journalism career to understanding poor people and what keeps them that way. Here he lets us hitchhike on his tour of marriage and divorce in America. Among the underclass of Chicago, where single mothers raise huge clans of kids, marriageable men are in short supply. But in Oklahoma, where people get hitched and unhitched at startlingly high rates, husbands are plentiful - as are ex-husbands, single-parent kids and welfare moms. Kotlowitz and his experts expertly explain why solving either problem, let alone both, is our latest American dilemma. "Talk Sex with Sue Johanson," 11 p.m. Sundays on Oxygen. For those who can't get enough explicit sex chat - or think that the Berman sisters of Discovery Health are too young to be dispensing gynecological advice - good news. Sue Johanson, Canada's candid "Sex Lady," has opened shop in the United States. Oxygen has ordered an American version of Johanson's "Talk Sex," which has played north of the border for 13 years. A registered nurse and birth control pioneer (she began dispensing condoms in high schools in 1970), Johanson takes your phone calls at 11 p.m. Sundays. Don't let her frumpy looks and wooden demeanor fool you; this show will burn your ears, at the very least. No word yet on whether Oxygen wants more episodes of my favorite Sunday-night show, Lizz Winstead and Brian Unger's wicked "O2Be," already in repeats at 10 p.m. Sundays. Now playing at the Cancellation Drive-In: UPN's "Haunted." Aaron Barnhart is at (816) 234-4790 and online at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:Mark Derwin and Bonnie Hunt star in "Life with Bonnie" at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on Channel 9. @ART CREDIT:ABC @ART:Photo (color)

Grading local stations

Here is what the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonprofit group funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, had to say about Kansas City's four local 10 p.m. newscasts in its 2002 survey of television news: "KMBC. Grade: B. Missed 'A' by half point. Strong story by story. Solid at everything, lacks enterprise (investigations). "KSHB. Grade: B. Decent station. Focuses on ideas, avoids crime. Needs better sourcing, localism. "WDAF. Grade: C. Hurt by lack of enterprise, weak sourcing and one-sided stories. "KCTV. Grade: C. Heavy on crime, disasters, one-sided stories, and lack of enterprise." The project, in its fifth and final year, has reviewed newscasts in dozens of markets, grading each story by seven criteria: topic range, focus, enterprise, expertise, number of sources quoted, viewpoints and local relevance. KSHB and WDAF have recently replaced news directors, so those stations' grades reflect the work of their predecessors. The study also asked 103 news directors around the country to name the most serious obstacle to producing high-quality news. By a wide margin, these executives picked "not enough staff."

'Early Show' idea deserves some time to grow

My, my, my. The critics certainly didn't waste any time unloading on the CBS network's newly revamped "The Early Show" (7-9 a.m. weekdays, Channel 5). The new morning format, in which four hosts take turns reading headlines and interviewing guests, debuted last Monday. By Tuesday the vultures already were circling. "Messy," said one. "Boring," yawned another. "Four's a crowd," said a third. Not that anyone remembers, but The Washington Post declared "Nightline" an instant failure, too. After seeing Tuesday's and Wednesday's editions, though, I thought "The Early Show's" new producer, Michael Bass, might be on to something. The former No. 2 producer at NBC's "Today" show seems to have figured out how CBS can compete with its slicker, higher-priced network rivals. And no, it's not by creating "The View" of morning news. That's what we smarty-pants in the media thought when we first laid eyes on "The Early Show's" racially mixed, female-skewing panel. In fact, the show's real inspiration is local television. News directors in most big-city markets figured out a long time ago that diversity sells. The more people on screen who viewers can identify with, the more viewers you're apt to keep. Another quality of local news that's evident in "The Early Show" is its almost calculated display of blandness. Rene Syler and Julie Chen, the show's minor anchors, are pleasant and inoffensive. Harry Smith, the polished, understated and utterly humorless male anchor, is the embodiment of bland professionalism. He could never work on "Today" or "GMA," but he lasted a decade in his first tour of duty here, before CBS foolishly pushed him aside for Bryant Gumbel. Last week I watched Smith interview a traumatized witness to the Arizona nursing-school attacks. He relied on grace and tact. He kept his questions short and didn't try injecting phony sympathy. If there were any justice, he would have the 7 p.m. show on CNN and Connie Chung would be stuck doing "Biography." The other major anchor, Hannah Storm, seems to have made the transition from sports to mornings in record time. Though gregarious and fun, Storm also lacks that sharply defined "personality" preferred by critics. Again, that may not be such a bad thing. Fun is not "perky." Perky is Katie Couric, and as her harried handlers at NBC have learned, perky is always much fun. The quicker clicker "Journeys With George," 8:30 tonight, HBO. Alexandra Pelosi followed the Bush campaign caravan for NBC News during 2000. Along the way she took home movies of the candidate clowning around, ribbing her good-naturedly, expressing his love of bologna sandwiches and Western wear. After Bush was elected, Pelosi, whose mom happens to be a Democratic congressman, decided to turn her video into a documentary. While others debate the ethics of that decision, Bush's handlers can't be too unhappy with Pelosi's film. It shows a truly interesting side of the future president. We're told that Bush campaigns best one-on-one, and watching him cuddle up to Pelosi over several months, it's easy to see why even those most antagonistic toward Bush are often charmed by him. That's Pelosi's point. At one point in "Journeys With George" she notes with irony that those reporters who are closest to Bush often have the least perspective. While his opponent, Al Gore, was routinely pummeled by the press corps on his plane, Bush usually got a free ride. The only thing stranger than fiction, it seems, is election night. With that in mind, Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" airs an election special at 10 tonight. Then, for one night only, "ABC News Nightline" airs at its god-given time of 10:35 p.m. The one-hour special is followed by local and national coverage. (KCPT, KCTV, KMBC, KSHB and WDAF will begin carrying election results starting at 9.) "Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story," 8 p.m. Sunday, CBS (Channel 5). William Hurt is convincing as the devout Catholic and loving husband who sold out his country. This two-part miniseries is based on research into the former FBI agent, now serving 15 life terms for selling secrets to the Soviets. The screenplay is by Norman Mailer, which may explain the heavy emphasis on Hanssen's sexual weirdness. In case you're wondering, CBS has canceled "Bram & Alice." That show joins ABC's "That Was Then" and "Push, Nevada" on the discard pile along with Fox's "girls club" and "The Grubbs" (which was yanked before a single episode aired). Forecaster Marc Berman says the next three to go will be NBC's "In-Laws," UPN's "Haunted" and Fox's "Firefly." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Harry Smith, Hannah Storm (from left), Julie Chen and Rene Syler will anchor "The Early Show." @ART:Photo (color)

Hope for sweeps redemption; KCTV and KSHB made big changes in pursuit of better ratings

As he does every Halloween, KMBC's Larry Moore told spooky stories on the news last night. But the real spine-tingling drama is taking place at Channel 9's rivals.

Thursday marked the beginning of the November ratings "sweep." It is Nielsen Media Research's first major audience measurement of the TV season. At KCTV, Channel 5, and KSHB, Channel 41, staffers will be anxiously awaiting each morning's overnight ratings. By Thanksgiving, they'll know what viewers think of their newly overhauled newscasts. This year KCTV and KSHB have each hired a new manager to run their newsrooms. In turn, these news directors have reshuffled their stations' on-air lineups and shaken up their newsrooms.

"My No. 1 priority is to get back to doing news," said Channel 41's Debbie Bush. "We need to settle down and do real news. We haven't been doing that."

"My number one goal is content," said Channel 5's Regent Ducas. By "content" Ducas means "live, late-breaking, investigative," the by now extremely familiar slogan KCTV adopted in July. Ducas uses the phrase often, and it rolls off his tongue as a single adjective: live-late-breaking-investigative.

KCTV and KSHB are playing follow-the-leader to KMBC, the perennial powerhouse, and WDAF, Channel 4. WDAF is actually third in overall viewers at 10 p.m., but nearly all its newscasts rank first or second in the key audience groups cherished by advertisers. It's pretty hard to lose money in local television. Still, industry watchers say channels 4 and 9 are raking in considerably more than channels 5 and 41. Revenues from commercials during newscasts are the reason.

Bush grew up on a farm in Kansas and was once a news director in Topeka. She knows that channels 4 and 9 have been eating her station's lunch for a long time. Her agenda for change is a simple one. "It's Journalism 101," said Bush, who arrived this summer from the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis. Like Ducas, she emphasizes the need for breaking news and investigative features that get viewers' attention.

Upon arriving in Kansas City, however, Bush's first order of business was finding a co-anchor for Elizabeth Alex. She chose Mark Clegg, a silver-throated afternoon anchor from Indy's top-rated NBC affiliate. For her part, Alex said she was ecstatic about the hiring of Clegg. Solo anchors, she said, have to do twice as much work as co-anchors. "You're just reading news all day long," she said. Bush is the third news director to try matching Alex with a male anchor. Both women agree that this time they picked a winner.

"What I like about him is he comes from a culture of winning," Alex said.

At Channel 5, Ducas has presided over more change this year than the station experienced in the entire decade before his arrival. On camera, viewers saw a new set, new anchor teams and the departures of seasoned veterans like Reed Black, Geri Gosa and Krista Klaus. Behind the scenes, Ducas has been pushing his reporters to do more live-on-the-scene shots. "The rule is, you're going to be live," Ducas announced at a staff meeting this summer. He also wants more pep in those live shots and has been coaching reporters in the art of walking-and-talking.

Ducas is equally obsessed about breaking news, particularly on the 4:30 p.m. newscast, the first afternoon local news of record in the market. When KCTV led off Tuesday with the John Robinson verdict, announced less than an hour earlier, the station scored the highest rating in that newscast's brief history. Live, late-breaking ... let's see, what's the third part? "We plan on having at least a dozen quality investigations in November at 10," Ducas said.

KCTV led off a newcast this week with a probe of the soda-pop contracts that public schools have signed to generate revenue. Some Channel 5 watchers wonder if the November ratings will determine the future of Anne Peterson and Russell Kinsaul. That's because of what happened to the anchors they replaced at 10 p.m., Dave Helling and Dee Griffin. Those two were re-assigned less than a year after being named co-anchors. Ducas, however, said he's made all the changes he cares to make. "I'm very, very confident with all the anchor teams right now," he said. Compared with "live, late-breaking and investigative," anchor business "is just not on the radar screen for me."

KSHB has several investigative reports planned for November. The most distinctive stories, however, may be those captured by Alex's video camera during recent trips to Gaza, Romania and Uzbekistan. A married mom, Alex has become the station's ambassador to children here and abroad. This fall she revived the weekly child-adoption feature popularized 20 years ago by then-WDAF anchor Cynthia Smith. Alex said that Smith was very supportive of the new feature, called "Monday's Child." Other stories include Alex's odyssey as she tried to bring a Palestinian child with birth defects to the United States for surgery, and an Olathe woman who's made it her mission to get Romanian orphans placed in loving families.

FBI criticizes local TV promotional spot on missing men

A local TV station drew fire from the FBI Thursday for the way it promoted a news story that suggests three former area men may be linked to international terrorism. That link, a bureau spokesman said, does not exist. The case involves three Olathe men who vanished last year, along with $150,000, just before the Sept. 11 attacks. KSHB, Channel 41, is airing the story in two parts this week under the title, "Into the Night." "Is Kansas City Harboring Terrorists?" asked a news release e-mailed to area media by a KSHB publicist. A promotional spot on Channel 41 asked, "Does Kansas City have ties to terrorism?" FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza, who was interviewed for KSHB's story, called the publicity "sensationalistic and inflammatory," adding, "members of our Joint Terrorism Task Force were very surprised with the way the segment was being promoted." KSHB's general manager, Jim Swinehart, defended the station's story and its publicity. "The promotion that I saw on the air accurately portrays the story and the questions that it raised," Swinehart said Thursday. "If we promote something and don't deliver on it, we're ultimately answerable for that with our viewers." Part one of the series aired Thursday night. Part two airs at 10 p.m. tonight on Channel 41, repeating at 10:30 p.m. on KPXE, Channel 50. Thursday was the first night of the November ratings "sweep," a four-week period of audience measurement. The report, which was previewed Thursday by The Kansas City Star, told the story of three Pakistani nationals who owned and operated two 7-Eleven franchises in the Olathe area from 1999 to 2001. On the night of Sept. 5, 2001, the three men disappeared. Although the Olathe Police Department began the investigation, the FBI became involved after Sept. 11. It was one of hundreds of leads the bureau looked into involving possible terrorist activity. Police think at least two of the missing men flew to New York with reservations on another flight to Pakistan after they abandoned the stores Sept. 5. The third man rented a U-Haul in the area and presumably drove off, officials said. Police do not know whether the men left the country or, if they did, whether any of them have returned. They did, however, leave behind tantalizing clues, including fake IDs and unexplained travel receipts. Those clues are the focus of KSHB's story by reporter Michele Rooney. Lanza and Olathe Police Sgt. Scott Russell are both quoted in Rooney's story. Russell said Thursday that as long as Rooney said that police found no link between the three men and terrorist activity, he had no complaint. Rooney's story cites both men saying just that. Lanza said that KSHB's publicity "does not mirror the FBI's interest in the case," and he stressed that the FBI "examined the situation and found no link to 9/11 or any other terrorist activity." Olathe police are investigating the case as a theft of about $150,000 from two 7-Eleven franchises and credit card companies. They took the case to the district attorney's white-collar crime division Tuesday so a prosecutor could offer suggestions for further investigation. - The Star's Richard Espinoza and Mark Morris contributed to this report. - To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com