Tuesday, November 29, 2005

By Chase Squires
St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
Published: 11/08/05

Excerpt:

But when "The Today Show" is routinely used to hype primetime shows, and local news programs base segments on hit series, such haziness is nothing new, notes Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the St. Petersburg Times.

"The war to separate news and entertainment was lost a long time ago," Clark said.

Sunday's mock debate, between candidates to replace Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) as president, featured Jimmy Smits as Democratic congressman Matt Santos and Alan Alda as Republican Arnold Vinick. Both took predictable stances based on party affiliation. There was some speech making about the nature of liberalism, global warming, oil drilling in wildlife refuges, and a very careful and roundabout mention of the war in Iraq.

Former newsman Forrest Sawyer played a stern moderator, and NBC employed its cable news arm MSNBC and reputable pollster Zogby International to report in real life on how viewers feel about the "candidates."

Clark said he has become so used to the blurred line (and trained himself to ignore the proliferation of on-screen geegaws networks have added) that he didn't notice the news logo (known in the news biz as a "bug") and didn't believe its use would harm the news operation's credibility.
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