CBS MOVIE TAKES FLAWED, BITING LOOK AT TV NEWS

Nothing could be all bad. Nothing except the news media, apparently.

The media are society’s true villains, if you buy prime time’s relentless portrayals of the press as some kind of evil, predatory monolith--”Jaws” in front of a camera or a word processor.

For every smug network promo glorifying Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings or Dan Rather, there are countless instances of the media being kneed in the groin by scriptwriters.

Most common is that old saw, the all-purpose shot of shouting, insensitive reporters and TV crews mindlessly ambushing suspects and victims emerging from courtrooms or vulturously camping on their front lawns.

More specifically, the depictions have ranged from the heinous newspaper editor who victimized Marlo Thomas in “The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck” to the greasy little rag where Mary Tyler Moore works in her new CBS comedy, “Mary.”

The media make mistakes and act irresponsibly, but not always.

“I don’t think that most stations would go to the extremes that this one does,” said Mike Robe about fictional KRKD-TV in the CBS movie “News at Eleven,” airing at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Channels 2 and 8. “But given the competitive pressures in news today, it’s plausible.”

Robe, who wrote and directed “News at Eleven,” is exactly right about high-stakes competition potentially leading the news media astray. And, too often, the potential becomes reality.

Yet slimy KRKD’s coverage of a molestation case involving a male teacher and a female student is so odious--so beyond the norm--that it almost detracts from the valid issues raised by this angry and otherwise bull’s-eye account of media abuse. Those issues--individual privacy, journalistic responsibility and the merging of newscasting and theater--are ongoing topics of concern.

The setting for “News at Eleven” is large-market San Diego, where returning anchorman Frank Kenley (Martin Sheen), fresh from bombing in New York, and incoming news director Eric Ross (Peter Riegert) are expected to lift KRKD’s “Action 3 News” from the ratings cellar. Kenley’s co-anchorette is Christine Arnold (Sheree J. Wilson), who has plenty of journalistic savvy.

“I love field work,” chirps Christine, who didn’t spend four years as a model for nothing.

This could be Local TV News Anywhere: big buildup for an incoming news team. Fatherly male anchor, gorgeous female co-anchor and all the other enticements to watch the news for all the wrong reasons.

But there is an immediate clash between the ethical Kenley and the flash-and-trash, ratings-first Ross on how to cover possible statutory rape by a high school drama teacher.

“We can’t do our job without hurting people sometimes,” says Ross, who is determined to sensationalize the case.

“But what if the guy’s innocent, for God’s sake?” Kenley protests.

Soon, however, with Kenley going along reluctantly, the story assumes a life of its own on KRKD, including splashy sidebars and guilt-implying interviews with molestation experts. The station commits its own brand of rape by revealing the identity of the alleged victim and later publicly humiliating another teen-age girl. This occurs during a critical ratings sweeps period, and KRKD rides its shoddy, exploitive, lecherous, self-serving coverage to the top of the heap.

“The message is we sell soap,” Ross snaps at an outraged Kenley. “What do you think pays your salary, pays your kid’s dental bills? You can wax noble ‘til the rest of us throw up. The truth of the matter is, we’re a business, a free enterprise in America. And as a businessman, I want to be No. 1.”

There are minor bones to pick with “News at Eleven.” It strains credibility that KRKD’s lowly 11 p.m. news would zoom to the top of the ratings in only a couple of weeks, and that the station’s competitors would sit back and be passive observers on this story. And no real station would use its 11 p.m. news to advertise an “exclusive” interview on its next day’s 6 p.m. newscast, giving its competitors time to get the same interview.

Although it’s hard envisioning any TV station being as low as KRKD, there’s a wide, unmistakable vein of truth underlying Robe’s story. He has a good eye. Even in exaggeration, his characters in many ways approach the cynicism and arrogance of some of their worst real-life counterparts.

Sheen is outstanding as the seething Kenley, a rare local anchorman with the news smarts to make valid editorial judgments. But when he protests that he is “in the news business, not show business,” a colleague reminds him: “Uh-huh, and how much did your agent negotiate for this latest job of yours?”

Riegert is just as compelling as the ruthless Ross, a metaphor for media at their worst--businessman first, showman second and journalist third.

“It used to be that TV stations had to show they were doing a good job with the news to keep their licenses,” recalled Robe, who worked briefly in TV news some years ago. “TV news used to be a loss leader. But that has changed. Now it’s a profit leader.”

And an entertainment leader.

The stakes have become too high to leave news in the hands of mere journalists, a grim point that “News at Eleven” makes so accurately. Yet another rip of the media, but a valid one.

NEWS AT 6. TV news isn’t always selling soap. That was illustrated recently when KABC-TV’s “Eyewitness News” granted reporter Wayne Satz more than half an hour to deliver a calm, thoughtful, balanced, clear analysis of the complex issues surrounding those child molestation charges at the McMartin School.

Good for Satz, who assessed no guilt or innocence, and good for Channel 7, which aired the Satz analysis a second time recently.

Satz, who was the first to report the McMartin charges and who has been a leader in the coverage, presented what amounted to a short documentary that reduced the case to a “credibility game.”

He faulted both sides for “incessant posturing and overstatements” and charged that the media “deserve some hard knocks” for some of their coverage. He even chided a reporter named Wayne Satz for predicting that the McMartin preliminary hearing would last possibly only a month. He was only 17 months off.