And this is the thanks we get?
Last week, chatter on the pop culture front was all about the apology. First, Justin Timberlake apologized for participating in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl stunt, then Janet apologized, then Justin apologized again, at the Grammys.
There was so much apologizing in the air it was easy to forget about “I’m sorry’s” neglected relative, the thank you.
Take the local TV news, for instance. For most of my life newscasters left me with, “Thanks for watching.” “Thanks for watching” is OK, but after 20 or 30 years of viewing you begin to crave more. I’m not suggesting our news anchors sign off with, “I’ve never loved you more than I do right now,” but if all those promos I see are true, and my news anchor is really my friend, how about a sentiment that reflects this bond? How about: “Thanks for watching, and call me anytime. I’m here for you.” Or: “Thanks for watching, and can you have lunch next Tuesday?”
Instead, I have to make do with, “Thanks for watching, Jay’s got Charlize Theron on ‘The Tonight Show,’ ” or words to that effect from KNBC Channel 4’s Paul Moyer.
But Paul, don’t you realize? The way you led with team coverage of Michael Jackson or the police chase through Westminster? The way you looked deeply into my eyes the other night and informed me that it was drizzling outside and I should be careful on the roads?
Paul, you had me at hello.
Then recently I noticed something odd going on at KCBS Channel 2 and sister station KCAL Channel 9. “We know you have a lot of choices for news, and we thank you for choosing KCBS 2 [or KCAL 9],” the anchors now say when they sign off.
It took me awhile to figure out why this sounded so familiar. Finally, it hit me: This is precisely what the airlines say when you land. The wheels touch down, the plane’s taxiing, and you hear over the intercom how grateful Delta or American or United is that you chose them over the competition.
On its face, this new thank you raises a set of potentially disturbing questions. Why is my local news thanking me for shopping with them? They’re a public trust. I am not their customer in the strict sense. Money is not changing hands for goods and/or services. Yes, they get higher ratings when we watch, and higher ratings mean higher rates to charge local advertisers.
But they don’t give me peanuts or a complementary beverage. A flight attendant doesn’t appear at my sofa during the five-day forecast. I can’t order the kosher meal while I watch team coverage from Neverland Ranch.
Nancy Bauer Gonzales, news director at KCBS and KCAL, swears she didn’t mean to draw a comparison between her news stations and the airline industry. She says she came up with the new and improved thank you when “we were rehearsing the duopoly.” That sounds like something that might involve Harvey Fierstein, but in fact it means they were practicing being two news stations owned by the same company in an individual market, something the Federal Communications Commission used to prohibit.
“It’s just something I came up with to thank our viewers,” she said. She called it a matter of politeness, a way to communicate that KCBS and KCAL know you could have been at a movie.
“It also kind of avoids that awkward ad-libbing that happens at the end of every broadcast,” Gonzalez added. “If you watch the end of shows, there are more embarrassing, awkward, icky moments at the end. That’s really a point in time that you should be connecting with your viewer.”
She has a point. The other night I was watching the late local news on Gonzales’ KCBS 2. Channel 2, in what is surely a hostile gesture aimed at L.A.’s reigning TV Paul, recently hired Paul Magers, who had been starring as a news anchor in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Magers is a strappingly handsome fellow. In fact, he looks just like
“We know you have many choices for news, and we thank you for choosing KCBS 2,” he said as he closed the newscast.
Maybe it was Magers’ stunning good looks, maybe it was his authoritative pilot’s voice, but for the first time I found myself considering these words on an emotional plane. “We know you have many choices for news” has a Clintonian, “I feel your pain” aspect to it. It suggests empathy on a deep level and opens up your heart. So when the thank you comes (“We thank you for choosing KCBS”) you’re ready to receive it, to hear it.
The connection was so deep, in fact, that I found myself trying to put my sofa cushions in an upright and locked position. Then I reached for a seat belt that wasn’t there and began to stow things safely under the coffee table.
Paul Brownfield can be reached at paul.brownfield@latimes.com.
