CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Can someone tell me why the TV channels that show movies right before the news are obsessed with showing a head shot of the newscaster (we all know what he or she looks like anyway) while giving teasers of the news to be presented?

When they do this, the cast credits are pulled into an insert so small they are unreadable. Some artsy TV directors even tilt the insert. (Audio direction for embellishment on Calendar’s letters page: Readers point your forefinger upward and move it in a circular motion. Now all together shout, “Whoopee!”)

By the time the self-indulgent little dance is over and the credits are returned to full screen, we don’t know who the actors and actresses were but we’re on top of who the construction foreman, head carpenter, assistant hairdresser and wrangler were.

I suppose the purpose for the whole charade is to hold the audience for the upcoming news. It doesn’t hold me--in fact I select another channel to watch my news because of these senseless promotion antics.

DON KUMFERMAN, Ridgecrest