KCBS Not Wearing Its New Motto Well

KCBS-TV Channel 2’s stated motto is: “In service to the community.”

So no wonder the station’s kinder, gentler, exorcised “Action News”--its former newscast name, when it was still ruthless, cruel and demonically unethical--is earning the admiration of experts, last week being named an Emmy finalist for the Southland’s best 60-minute (at 6 p.m.) and 30-minute (at 11 p.m.) newscasts.

I’m pleased to offer my hearty congratulations. This is in keeping with my own kinder, gentler attitude toward “CBS-2 News”--the new, nobler title--a personal conversion noted amiably in a recent staff newsletter circulated by KCBS. The item said that my recent column lauding Channel 2’s proclaimed transmutation to loftiness was my first positive one about the station in 12 years.

Excuse me! Hello! That’s a particularly galling error. Will someone start doing some research over there? Actually, it’s been longer than 12 years.

Despite that quibble, I’m gratified that Channel 2 is not questioning the sincerity of my conversion to the theology of good thoughts. Believe me, it’s genuine. This despicable sinner is reborn.

But enough of that. These opening paragraphs of praise are more than sufficient.

No . . . more . . . Mr. Nice Guy!

Flash back to Wednesday’s “CBS-2 News” at 11 p.m. You know, the news program competing for an Emmy in the half-hour category against KABC-TV Channel 7’s “Eyewitness News at 6”?

Channel 2’s lead story was an “exclusive” interview in the Beaumont home of Ernesto and Diane Medina. She is the mother of Anthony Michael Martinez, the slain 10-year-old whose body was discovered recently in the desert. I wondered about the “exclusive,” given that Diane Medina had spoken at some length about Anthony’s murder at a televised press conference only two days earlier.

But that was only Channel 2’s intro.

The gracious, composed Medinas sat on a sofa opposite reporter Dave Lopez, holding in front of them a large framed montage of Anthony’s photos that they were planning to bury with him. The photo display was so big that it blocked almost their entire upper bodies. So when Ernesto Medina handed the display to someone off camera, viewers for the first time could see what the couple was wearing. And it was jolting.

Channel 2 T-shirts, each with the station’s news logo prominent on the left breast.

Is this what’s meant by “service to the community”? Tragedy bent to the self-serving agenda of Channel 2 hucksters? The Medinas--whom Lopez noted were “grieving” and “in mourning”--turned into a living commercial for Channel 2? Diane Medina facing the camera in a 100% cotton billboard for Channel 2 as she spoke glowingly and lovingly of Anthony and her trust in God, evoking the name of Jesus and expressing no hatred for the killer?

Did the station try to have its logo put on Anthony’s coffin, too?

“CBS-2 News” is always saying it’s “bringing balance back to local news.” And the same old self-promotion.

Newscast chauvinism comes in many shapes and sizes, from the basic mike clip with a logo and channel number that has been employed by stations for decades to Channel 7’s former practice of beginning local stories by mentioning its blue news van, and then positioning it like signage in the background of its reporters doing live stand-ups.

But what Channel 2 did was stunning, outrageous and inexcusable even by the standards of Los Angeles, where “ethics” and “values” are all too often regarded as ugly epithets never to be mentioned in TV newsrooms. Why . . . it was almost as if “CBS-2 News”--despite advertising itself as cleansed and dramatically upgraded--had been reimpregnated by the demon seed and was again “Action News.”

I tried to envision some scenario under which this T-shirt spectacle could happen:

* The Medinas flat-out refused to be interviewed on camera without wearing Channel 2 shirts? In that case, Channel 2 would be heartless to deny them that small pleasure at a time of such sadness.

* They were cold, so Lopez loaned them the T-shirts for warmth? In that case, he should be celebrated for this humanitarian gesture.

* Neither Lopez nor anyone else connected to Channel 2’s 11 p.m. newscast noticed that the Medinas were wearing station T-shirts? In that case, shouldn’t Lopez and Channel 2 be lauded for focusing only on what’s important--the story?

* Channel 2 refused to interview Medina and her husband unless they wore the T-shirts?

Should that be true, what would it bode for the future? Channel 2 declining to interview or televise anyone who isn’t displaying the station logo? We’d like to interview you, Mr. President, but first, how about putting on this snappy little number? Extra large is your size, isn’t it?

Of course! Now the “exclusive” tag applied to the Wednesday night interview becomes clear, and “CBS-2 News” was correct in using it. It’s true that Diane Medina had spoken about Anthony on TV previously, but never while wearing a Channel 2 T-shirt.