Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 24

24 Section 1 Chicago Tribune, Friday, May 9, 1997 Springer CotmNUED FROM PAGE 1 Springer on board and let Marin go also looks like a business debacle in the making, a case of a financially successful, if not market-leading, operation being profoundly disrupted with little immediate return. Gone from the NBC-owned station is a demonstrably popular anchor. Gained is a reputation as the station that wanted Jerry Springer on its news, for however short a tenure. And potentially lost, if ratings continue at the lowered levels exhibited this week through the rest of the all-important May sweeps ratings period, is advertising revenue "in the tens of millions," said one news business insider. "We're not apologizing for it," Cheatwood said Thursday of the decision to let Springer go.

"What we are saying is that, once again, we have tried to push forward, and have had to make a course correction in the process of doing that. Hopefully, it will demonstrate that we are responsive." The public statement General Manager Lyle Banks issued Thursday began by saying the station "sincerely regrets the personal attacks Springer has endured." It said the decision to agree to Springer's request was motivated by viewers. And, said Banks, "It was truly unfortunate that the beginning of his tenure as a guest commentator was unfairly associated with the departure of Carol Marin." Marin had no comment Thursday. A representative said circumstances that might see her return to the station were nearly unimaginable. Her previous public statements suggest there was a strong link between Springer's arrival, which signified to her a newscast becoming more tabloid, and her departure.

When she learned in February Springer might be brought on, she told management she objected to that and other disquieting newscast trends, she has said. Her lawyer then asked on March 6 for her to be released from her contract Permission was not granted until May 1, eight days after the Springer commentary role lasting through May, was announced. Springer said in a resignation note he sent to Banks and made public, that "it's gotten too personal" and "it's probably not worth it considering the flak and all" Monday's intensively publicized Springer commentary debut on WMAQ still failed to beat rival WLS-Ch. 7 for first place at 10 p.m., and the Tuesday and Wednesday 10 p.m. Channel 5 broadcasts had 35 percent and 33 percent lower ratings than on those days the previous week.

Ironically, WMAQ's best 10 p.m. ratings in all of this came May 1, when Marin informed the public of her departure. That broadcast drew 50 percent higher Nielsen ratings than those for the previous Thursday's newscast "This is going to sound disingenuous, but it's not," Cheatwood said. "We really didn't pay that close attention to the numbers." When the decision to pull the plug on Springer the pontificator was reached, he had done only two commentaries. The first slammed Marin as an "elitist" who did not support free speech in the manner that he, as Cincinnati's mayor and the son of Holocaust survivors, had done when he let neo-Nazis march there.

After that first broadcast, an M00U6SS? 1 UtJdl mmmsmmmmm SONY. COMPAQ. mm HEWLETT LmJ PACKARD mm i i i rrs s'7, pentium IH MH1W lllnl I ill 1 lit if! ifil Im 0 I I pentium MO pentium AS LOW As $27 As LOW As 67 PCV-120 Personal Computer With 200MHz Pentium Processor With MMX Technology Hewlett-Packard Pavilion 5320 Multimedia Per MoNiHt Presario 1075 With 150MHz Pentium Processor With MMX Technology Per MONTHt Computer With 150MHz Pentium" Processor AS LOW AS $49 32MB EDO RAM 3.8GB Hard Drive 16X Maximum CD-ROM Drive 256KB Pipeline Burst Cache Per MoNiHt $1QO' PRICE BREAK 16MB KIX) RM I MB Hani Drive 8X CD-ROM Drive MMhps FaxData Modem iD Display Graphics 16-Bit Stereo Sound MPKC- Full Motion Digital Video Telephone Answering MachineVoicemail 1210830 12.1" DSTN SVGA Dolor Display 16MB l-DO RAM Upgradable To 48MB 1.44GB Hard Drive 14X CD-ROM Drive Touchpad Pointing Device Supports 2 Type II Or I Tvpe III PC -Card(s) 23-10513 PRICE BREAK $200c "Sony Tuned" MPEG 1 Digital Video Plnvwlr tT internal document shows, Channel 5 logged 1,467 calls from people who said they did not support Springer and would no longer watch WMAQ news; 56 callers said they did not appreciate his mentioning the Holocaust or attacking Marin; 20 wondered what management was thinking; six said Marin thinks too highly of herself; and 57 said Springer was doing a good job. Fran Preston, program director at WLS, said that kind of public response is extraordinary. Springer's Tuesday commentary was a homily about churchgoing in America and free choice.

His third night, Wednesday, the station withheld the commentary and instead did a news report on allegations that Springer's first commentary exaggerated his authority as Cincinnati mayor to issue a parade permit to the neo-Nazis. Banks said in the piece he was satisfied with Springer's explanationthat what he had said was essentially true and then promised the next night's commentary about the Bulls player most likely to boost ratings. "It was a mistake to have Jerry Springer as a commentator," said Patricia Dean, chair of the broadcast program at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. "And when he made a factual error on the air and then brushed it off as if the factual error didn't matter, it was the overall story and impression he was trying to make that's the difference between entertainment and journalism. In journalism, the facts matter." But despite the Rodman promise, after Wednesday's broadcast Springer told management, 'I don't think it's achieving my intent to have a voice, and I question what it's doing for you And we agreed," Cheatwood said.

Under a "Springer Resigns' banner, the station during the p.m. Thursday newscast offered a surreal, six-minute report on the Springer flap, including almost four minutes of a live, tional studio interview. Also in the report, Banks said in hind" sight he would not hire Springer again. Earlier in the day Cheatwood who said he expects to name a replacement for Marin within about a week said he will not, change the direction of his newsTi cast. He said his efforts include1, tightening it, introducing brighter writing and a bolder look (a new set and graphics are expected perhaps within the month), and attempting to deliver the kind of "special reports" that populate sweeps month newscasts "52 weeks a year." Cheatwood's approach has been labeled "tabloid" during his previous stops with Boston and Miami TV news operations, but it hasj also boosted viewership for thosei stations.

Cheatwood, who started at WMAQ-Ch. 5 in February, pleaded patience, that it may take another six months or a year to work. Hank Price, the general manager at WBBM-Ch. 2, has been perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the controversy. His station hag been deeply mired in third place1 at 10 p.m.

since it tried a hardcore tabloid news approach in and around 1993. "People are sampling" different newscasts now, Price said. "I've seen our numbers go up. I've seen WLS' numbers go up." People can blame WMAQ's woes on Cheatwood being a newcomer to the market, he said, but "Lyle has certainly been in the market awhile. Anybody should be able to go back and look at the mistakes WBBM made a few years ago and look at how hard we've had to work to regain our credibility.

I can't imagine anyone choosing not to have that credibility. "The interesting thing about this is there's not a new lesson to be drawn. The viewers in Chicago cannot be manipulated." WMAQ-Ch. 5 also said Thursday that it would continue with the "Another Point of View" commentary segment that Springer inaugurated. The next one comes Friday, from Corla Wilson-Hawkins, a Chicago public school teacher who has won national honors for her work with gifted inner-city children.

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