News or Not?


August 18, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: Now an update. In May, On the Media - all right it was, it was Brooke - interviewed a representative from the Rocky Mountain Media Watch. That Denver-based organization had just petitioned the FTC to rule that local TV news broadcasts shouldn't be allowed to call themselves news!

The Rocky Media Watch suggested that Mayhem, Fluff, Weather and Sports would be a more suitable title. This week the FTC officially disagreed. The trade commission said there was no evidence that consumers assumed that news necessarily means hard news, and even a consumer did think all news had to be hard, the FTC said they could turn to the Internet, cable or a newspaper.

The FTC has remained mum on the issue of whether reruns of Chips and Mama's Family truly make TBS a super station.