Bush Press Conference Juggled by Local Stations : Television: KCBS viewers miss end of session entirely; two other stations cut away and then return to it.

President Bush was in the middle of answering difficult questions about the recent reversal of his “no new taxes” campaign pledge in a televised press conference Friday morning when, promptly at 7 a.m. on KCBS Channel 2, up popped the “CBS This Morning” team of Harry Smith and Paula Zahn. The pair were sitting on an L.A. patio, gabbing about being in town to “strut their stuff” for the CBS affiliate chiefs gathered here this week for annual meetings.

The conference, which had begun 6:30 a.m. Pacific time, was also interrupted at about 7 by network-owned KABC Channel 7 and KNBC Channel 4. But after a few minutes, coverage resumed on those stations and continued until the session ended at 7:15.

The reasons for the interruption differed by station.

At KCBS and KABC, the network feed of the conference was halted at 7 a.m. as officials at the two networks decided to resume regular programming. On the West Coast, the networks switched to their morning news shows, while in other parts of the country they went to such programs as “The Price Is Right” and “Home.”

“CBS This Morning” on Channel 2 did not return to the press conference, but on KABC, after the requisite commercials and the opening of “Good Morning America,” the network decided to switch back for the conclusion of the press conference.

Even though NBC stayed with the President until the last question was answered, Channel 4’s local news producers decided to break away from the network feed for a local news-and-traffic update and some commercials just before 7 a.m., and then rejoin the President several minutes later.

“We stayed with the President through what we thought were the pertinent questions,” a KNBC spokeswoman said, explaining the local news cutaway. “And we felt that our viewers were interested in an update on the fires and today’s traffic.”

CNN carried the press conference straight through without interruptions.

An ABC spokesman said that the network had determined that the press conference was winding down and that the main elements of the question-and-answer session had been covered when it decided to resume regular programming at the top of the hour. He added that cutting away from the last portion of a Bush press conference had been done before.

KCBS said that since the network was covering the press conference in Washington, and since the subsequent show was a network program, the decision to bail out was entirely a network call. CBS officials could not be reached to explain the decision.

A KCBS spokeswoman said that had the station been covering a local story--such as the recent fires or a press conference or speech by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, for example--it would then have had the option of preempting the network program in favor of the local event. In this case, however, KCBS had no choice but to air “This Morning” as scheduled, she said.