Will KCBS Gain After Lippman? : Television: Sweeping away the controversial news director will be meaningless unless the news philosophy he preached is swept away with him.

The marriage ended badly, but at least it ended.

Friday’s firing of KCBS-TV Channel 2 news director John Lippman ends what may have been the most volatile staff-management relationship in the history of television news here. This was war.

The bulk of Lippman’s staff not only had disdain for him as a journalist--he tried mightily to fool the public with flash and fright shows--but truly loathed him as a person, generating an on-going torrent of horror stories about his nastiness toward employees and others. Even allowing for hyperbole, there were just too many foaming-at-the-mouth, anti-Lippman reports from station insiders to disregard, and the intensity of their criticism was awesome.

Channel 2 has had its troubles over the years, at times becoming a laboratory for goofy news experiments in its quest to raise ratings and, as a possible bonus, regain its former greatness. However, the “Action News” instituted by Lippman broke all records for mutation. So cheers for the Dear John letter, and good riddance.

However, you don’t end capital punishment by changing executioners.

Although it may improve the working climate at “Action News,” sweeping away Lippman will be meaningless unless the abhorrent news philosophy he preached is swept away along with him.

If the “Action News” practice of scamming the public continues, if the gratuitous live reporting and chopper coverage continue, if the preemptions for high-speed car chases continue, if the ethical corner cutting continues, if the hiring of incompetents and rejects continues, if the sloppy, inaccurate and phony stories continue, if the self-promoting cross-promotions continue, if the contempt for viewers continues . . .

. . . Then nothing much will have been accomplished.

And you have to wonder if any of the above will change significantly, given that the “Action News” that Lippman gave Los Angeles was fully endorsed by his CBS bosses back East. They are the ones ultimately responsible for this debacle. What Lippman did, he did with their blessing.

Lippman has never hidden who he is. He did not arrive here from KIRO-TV in Seattle in early 1992 as a closet Dr. Mengele disguised as Mother Teresa. The news butchery he sustained at Channel 2 was an extension of what he did at KIRO. He had a record, a visible trail of sleaze and staff rebellions. So CBS knew exactly who and what it was getting.

Thus, why was he fired? Although there was probably a number of contributing factors, surely one loomed above all others. You don’t get fired in the TV news business for being an SOB. You do get fired for being an SOB with lousy ratings. And entering the critical May sweeps, Lippman’s ratings were lousy, so much so that they may have helped diminish the audience here for the CBS prime-time schedule. Nor was the network happy about Lippman’s low-rated 11 p.m. news being the lead-in to David Letterman’s coming CBS late-night show in the national’s second largest TV market.

Despite everything else, you can bet that Lippman would still be at his desk if overall “Action News” ratings were moving sharply upward instead of downward. And that, as they like to say at “Action News,” is the bottom line.

* HIS TURN: The former KCBS news director talks about his tenure and departure. F6