American to Feature CNN News--Minus Air Crashes

American Airline flights will feature taped CNN newscasts without pictures of plane crashes after CBS balked at the airline’s request that it cut such stories from its in-flight programs.

American did not renew its six-year contract with the “CBS Morning News,” and the last program will be shown on the airline before Feb. 28, said David Berman, a vice president at CBS Broadcast International.

Under American’s guidelines, he said, CBS has pulled entire news programs with reports of airline crashes or “virtually anything detrimental to the airlines.”

But CBS refused American’s request to delete adverse airline news “and deliver the remainder of the show,” he said.

American’s rationale may be to avoid alarming passengers, but “it’s like passing out newspapers with holes cut in them,” Berman said Thursday.

American’s decision to drop CBS was financial and wasn’t based on an editorial dispute, said Mary O’Neill, a spokeswoman for the airline. “We didn’t feel we were earning enough profit from our agreement with CBS,” she said.

She said the new CNN arrangement, in which video portraying airline crashes will be deleted, was worked out after American’s surveys showed that its passengers complained that pictures of airline crash scenes disturbed them.

American’s new in-flight agreement for Cable News Network newscasts is with Turner Home Entertainment, a division of Ted Turner’s Atlanta-based cable empire that merchandises CNN productions.

None of the 10 other airlines using CNN has asked for edited versions of the news, which is recorded from live feeds, a CNN spokesman said.

CNN is the only network with the capability to send live news feeds around the world to be taped for international flights.