Scott Fybush, editor of the trade publication NorthEast Radio Watch, wrote me last night after seeing some of the stunning pictures being delivered from New Orleans by cameramen for NBC and ABC:
The photojournalists on the scene are doing yeoman work under unimaginable conditions. Yet CNN, and to a lesser extent the other cable networks, insists on burying those pictures behind a screen full of redundant, useless or even insulting information. I do not need a brightly-colored banner telling me I'm watching "BREAKING NEWS" or "DEVELOPING STORY" or, as Larry King's graphics told us last night, "KILLER HURRICANE KATRINA." Nor do I need text informing me that I'm seeing "GRAPHIC IMAGES FROM NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION CENTER." What I want to see are those images, not little bits of them behind distracting graphics. I single out CNN because it's decided to leave its lower-third graphics up nonstop. It's not only an insult to me as a viewer, it's an insult to the men and women putting their lives on the line to get these pictures to us.
I won't even get into "The Situation Room," where those pictures are then rendered into a meaningless visual jumble on a wall of mismatched monitors.
Well, then, I will.
"The Situation Room" is a travesty. First, there's the sterility of it: Wolf Blitzer in his hermetic bubble, far from the crisis. Then there's the display. "Meaningless visual jumble" is exactly right, Scott. Imagine if, instead of writing a column, I copied and pasted four sets of notes and two press releases and called it a column. That's the "Situation Room" effect -- no context, no room to breathe, just a bombardment of images. Is Condi Rice conducting a press conference worthy of a picture the same size as the other five? Then why include her?
Yes, I know they can join four pictures together to create an effect not much different from a traditional split screen. But the images I'm seeing on local New Orleans TV are so much more compelling, because they usually show just one at a time, and nobody is trying to pimp their news talent on screen.
During times like these, news directors should have a rule: One picture, one graphic at a time. Anything more creates circuit overload and emotional distance and reduces compassion.
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By contrast, "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (8 ET, MSNBC) has shown it understands the power of pictures. It also understands that sometimes, more is more. I've been struck by how long Olbermann lets the tape play out. He must have done 10 minutes on the crisis at the Convention Center, and nine of those minutes were of the NBC cameraman who took the pictures. The night before, same thing -- just letting the power of pictures and words overwhelm us. Olbermann has had a sense of urgency and outrage in his newscasts all week. He's to be commended.
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Miracle of miracles, CBS plans to devote a small amount of its prime time schedule to report on the crisis. Good thing "60 Minutes II" is regularly scheduled (although in three weeks it makes way for "The Ghost Whisperer").
Other highlights include a telethon at 8 ET on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC. And for something different, a Discovery Times series, "Only in America," begins tonight:
Kansas City Star | Barnhart | Rule No. 1: No cameras in the fight club
And on the jump page: Where's Charlie Rose?


It's official -- America has reached overload on paint-by-numbers procedurals. Now the influence of "Lost," "The O.C." and other serial dramas is being felt, as a new crop of serials (led by Fox's "Prison Break," photo) comes your way this fall. Here's my lookahead.