Viewers Found to Confuse TV Entertainment With News

Americans are becoming increasingly confused about which television programs are news and which are entertainment, and they are divided over whether news programs should simulate or reenact real events, a Times Mirror survey released Wednesday reveals.

Half of those surveyed believe “America’s Most Wanted” is a news program, and 28% believe it is entertainment, according to the Times Mirror News Interest Index. The response was roughly similar for such programs as “A Current Affair” and “Inside Edition.”

Can’t Evaluate Shows

And, although the vast majority could not evaluate the two new prime-time network news programs--”Primetime Live” and “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”--those who did were similarly divided over whether they are news or entertainment.

The survey found that Americans “very closely followed” only two news stories in early August: the Sioux City, Iowa, air crash, followed by 53%, and the apparent murder of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, 49%. A distant third, at 26%, was the federal bailout of the savings and loan industry.

Although it had all of the ingredients of an espionage novel, the story of State Department official Felix Bloch, suspected of being a spy, generated relatively little public interest, 14%, despite wide news coverage.

The survey found that only 17% of the public could identify Bloch. Yet nearly double that number of respondents, 33%, reported seeing an ABC News video reenactment of Bloch’s alleged handing over of secrets or said they had heard about the controversy caused by the unlabeled simulation.

Americans are sharply divided over whether news programs should fabricate or reenact events, even if the staged reenactments are clearly labeled as simulations. Of those surveyed, 49% approved of reenactments if clearly labeled, and 44% disapproved.

Attitudes toward simulations divide partly by age. Of those under age 30, 64% approved, compared with 35% of those 50 or older.

Similarly, age apparently helps account for what people consider news. Younger people, who are lighter consumers of news, have a broader definition. Of those under 30, 65% consider “America’s Most Wanted” to be news, but the figure is 41% for those 50 or older.

Overall, about 18% considered the new NBC News program “Yesterday Today and Tomorrow” as news, but 14% considered it entertainment. ABC News’ “Primetime Live” was viewed as news by 26% and entertainment by 18%.

Americans were also divided over whether news programs should have aired a videotape of the purported hanging of Higgins, with 50% saying the programs acted improperly in doing so and 43% saying they thought it proper.

Half of Americans correctly responded that Higgins was supposedly killed in retaliation for the Israeli abduction of Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid.

But the 49% who said they had closely followed the hostage story still ranked far below the 80% who followed the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger or the 69% who followed the 1987 story of Jessica McClure when she fell into a well in Texas. Those are the two highest-ranking stories since Times Mirror began its index in 1986.

The survey interviewed 1,250 adults from Aug. 10 to 13. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, and questions and wording also can introduce error or bias.