TV & VIDEO - May 1, 1989

KCBS-TV has made formal requests to Nielsen and Arbitron ratings services to exclude Thursday’s KABC-TV’s evening news broadcasts, which featured an extended live simulation of an earthquake disaster, from analysis in the just-begun May ratings “sweeps.” Four KABC news broadcasts--aired Thursday at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 6:30-- featured dramatizations of a major earthquake and its aftermath. Robert Hyland, KCBS vice president and general manager, submitted a letter to Nielsen and Arbitron Friday calling the broadcasts “a stunt.” He said that since the programs were primarily made up of scripted dramatizations, they did not qualify as newscasts. “Viewers interested in the news of the day who turned to KABC-TV found, instead, sensationalized fiction,” Hyland wrote. “Unfortunately, there is no professional organization set up to criticize questionable journalism, community damage and just plain bad acting.”