Headline News Faces Criticism for Channeling Viewers

It’s just the kind of behavior that worries critics of the ever-growing entertainment and media conglomerates: Since its launch two weeks ago, CNN’s new Headline News has made the evening TV lineup at some of its sister networks a regular part of its news headlines.

Last week, the rotating “Headlines” part of the crowded screen, in between carrying sports scores, celebrity birthdays and breaking news, plugged upcoming movies at sister networks TNT, Turner Classic Movies and the WB.

On Tuesday, the headlines promoted the Walter Matthau-Jack Lemmon movie “The Odd Couple” on TCM, while Wednesday’s tune-in headline was devoted to the WB’s airing of “Beetlejuice” and TNT’s “American Graffiti.” TCM’s “Gigi” and “An American in Paris” were plugged Friday, along with TNT’s “Lethal Weapon.”

After a call from The Times, a network spokesman said late Saturday that the practice would be amended so as to not favor Time Warner outlets, although he denied it was policy. “If it happened, it was inadvertent,” said Brad Turell. “That’s not our policy, and we don’t expect it to happen again. Chalk it up to early glitches.”

In an interview earlier in the week, Headline News executive vice president Teya Ryan adamantly denied any connection between the headlines and the parent company. She says the TV tune-in headlines are up to individual producers and not meant to be partisan. Indeed, on Tuesday, Headline News also promoted Fox’s “Murder in Small Town X” and on Thursday, it advised viewers about UPN’s “WWF Smackdown!”

The headlines promote “whatever the producers think the audience would be interested in,” Ryan said. “It’s an equal opportunity space.... There’s no intention to simply promote Time Warner networks.” However, programs on rivals Fox News Channel and MSNBC are off-limits, she concedes.

But some Headline News producers must have believed their viewers would be most interested in other AOL Time Warner networks, because that’s what the majority of the TV headlines last week favored; the first week of the revamped Headline News was the same, according to one source who watched extensively from the Aug. 6 relaunch.

One headline last week even seemed to make a sly play to boost AOL Time Warner’s chance to lure NBC’s Katie Couric: “Come With Us, Katie,” read the headline, followed by news about the courting of the “Today” show anchor, whose contract is up next year.

There has also been extensive promotion of upcoming programs on sister network CNN, a policy that Headline News announced when it launched.

Policies on Promoting Upcoming Shows

“We do have the intention of moving audiences back and forth between [CNN and Headline News],” Ryan said. MSNBC and Fox News Channel said they also use their on-screen headlines to promote topics and guests for upcoming shows, but not to promote other channels in their respective corporate empires.

A CNN spokeswoman said another daily segment called “tv 2night” includes news anchors providing coverage of what’s on other networks. Friday’s segment plugged NBC’s “Dateline,” a show on Discovery and one on VH1, and movies on HBO and TBS.

Synergy has been a driving force since AOL merged with Time Warner earlier this year, and the CNN part of the company has done its part.

CNN’s afternoon show “Talkback Live,” for example, pushes AOL’s instant Internet messaging system so viewers can submit comments and questions to be read on air.

CNN has been actively working on even more media consolidation, holding high-level, separate talks with both CBS News and ABC News about a joint newsgathering operation that would save money by pooling resources.

Last week, mid-level executives at CBS News toured CNN’s Atlanta operations as part of the ongoing discussions about a possible deal.

Separately, CNN is expected to announce this week that Jack Cafferty, an anchor at its CNNfn sister cable network, will host an early morning program for the network.