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Regarding Addendum 2
Sports events are generally live, involving ads that are more costly.
There is sort of a precedent. In a key December football game, when Monday Night Football was THE top show on TV, viewers were informed of John Lennon's death. True, they didn't cut away, but the memory for people of where they were when they heard has become so seminal that it wouldn't have been an issue if they did.
I don't think it's a case of a brotherhood or mainstream media clique. These decisions are made at a micro level. The ABC East Coast affiliate I'm closest to thought it sufficient to run a crawl along the top saying Jennings died and there'd be an update on GMA instead of pre-empting an ancient, low-rated sydnicated program. THAT was the wrong way to handle it.
Sometimes the news is the news.
Regarding Addendum 2
Sports events are generally live, involving ads that are more costly.
There is sort of a precedent. In a key December football game, when Monday Night Football was THE top show on TV, viewers were informed of John Lennon's death. True, they didn't cut away, but the memory for people of where they were when they heard has become so seminal that it wouldn't have been an issue if they did.
I don't think it's a case of a brotherhood or mainstream media clique. These decisions are made at a micro level. The ABC East Coast affiliate I'm closest to thought it sufficient to run a crawl along the top saying Jennings died and there'd be an update on GMA instead of pre-empting an ancient, low-rated sydnicated program. THAT was the wrong way to handle it.
Sometimes the news is the news.
Obviously few of you spent any time actually watching Mr. Jennings. He wasn't an apologist for terrorists, though he sympathized with both Palestinians and Israelis. He spent 19 years in the Middle East, a vantage point few of us will ever reach. He loved America and Americans, probably much more than we deserved, and could get choked up about jury duty or the Constitution even before he became a citizen. Moreover, he was courageous (and spoke truth to power), intelligent (and self-educated), kind (especially in explaining tragedies to children), and completely unideological in a time when the rest of us take the mindless if-you-ain't-with-us-you're-agin-us stance on absolutely everything. He had opinions, but didn't filter them through a hardened political attitude; he sought truth, and didn't care where he found it. He was head and shoulders above everyone else in the business (even the BBC said he was probably the best in the world), but because he made it look easy we took it for granted. The night they announced his death I grieved, to my own surprise, like I never had before. I am no idolizer of public figures and didn't know how much my casual trust of him extended to outright love until he was gone forever. You can yammer on cynically about whatever your set idea of truth is, but none of us is here for long, and it's unlikely any of us will do as much for the country as he did no matter what age we reach. You know know not whereof you speak.
Obviously few of you spent any time actually watching Mr. Jennings. He wasn't an apologist for terrorists, though he sympathized with both Palestinians and Israelis. He spent 19 years in the Middle East, a vantage point few of us will ever reach. He loved America and Americans, probably much more than we deserved, and could get choked up about jury duty or the Constitution even before he became a citizen. Moreover, he was courageous (and spoke truth to power), intelligent (and self-educated), kind (especially in explaining tragedies to children), and completely unideological in a time when the rest of us take the mindless if-you-ain't-with-us-you're-agin-us stance on absolutely everything. He had opinions, but didn't filter them through a hardened political attitude; he sought truth, and didn't care where he found it. He was head and shoulders above everyone else in the business (even the BBC said he was probably the best in the world), but because he made it look easy we took it for granted. The night they announced his death I grieved, to my own surprise, like I never had before. I am no idolizer of public figures and didn't know how much my casual trust of him extended to outright love until he was gone forever. You can yammer on cynically about whatever your set idea of truth is, but none of us is here for long, and it's unlikely any of us will do as much for the country as he did no matter what age we reach. You know know not whereof you speak.
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