When A Network Script Should Be Scrapped

By MERVIN BLOCK
May 28, 2008

The anchor of the CBS Sunday Evening News started strong:

“We begin tonight with news of a crisis that leaders say threatens to topple governments and trigger wars around the world.”

“The head of the International Monetary Fund calls the soaring price of food an extremely serious problem and said, ‘The planet must tackle it.’ According to the I-M-F, 37 countries are in dire need….”

The anchor, Russ Mitchell, had no need to say he was beginning; as soon as he began, we knew he had begun. And he had no need to say it was tonight. When he began, at 6 p.m., EDT, on Sunday, April 20, we already knew it was tonight.

Mitchell’s abrupt shift from the present tense calls to the past tense said is jarring.

Just about the only people who use the word planet are astronomers, environmentalists and Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Little Prince. So I would’ve paraphrased that quotation: “The world must tackle it.”

Still, what Mitchell said sounded like the basis for a good story on a slow news day, as Sunday usually is.

But what Mitchell called news was not news. Two and a half days earlier, The Associated Press had reported that story:

“PARIS (AP)–The head of the International Monetary Fund warned Friday [that day] that soaring world food prices can have dire consequences, such as toppling governments and even triggering wars.”

The first sentence in the CBS script made use of the AP’s toppling and triggering. Triggering wars, though, is a cliché. Why not simply say causing wars? The AP article went on:

“Dominique Strauss-Kahn told France’s Europe-1 radio that the price hikes that set off rioting in Haiti, Egypt and elsewhere were an ‘extremely serious’ problem.

“’The planet must tackle it,’ he said.”

The AP article ran on for 136 more words. Although Russ Mitchell spoke of a warning by leaders, he mentioned only one person, the head of the IMF. That’s an important position, but is Strauss-Kahn someone we think of as a leader? About an hour after the AP moved that story, the AP sent it out again, this time inserting a paragraph about one other person, France’s president. But he didn’t do any warning. Which means the CBS script’s use of the plural leaders was wrong—unless a solid source said leaders.

Before Mitchell said he was beginning, he had said, “We’ll show you a village that’s ground zero in the crisis.” So after he delivered the lead story, he introduced a CBS correspondent in Uganda.

Ground zero? Not so. Wikipedia says: “The term has often been associated with nuclear explosions and other large bombs but is also used in relation to earthquakes, epidemics and other disasters to mark the point of the most severe damage or destruction. Damage gradually decreases with distance from this point.” Uganda is not the center of the food shortage, its situation is not the worst. And the correspondent didn’t say it was.

On Friday, April 18, the day the AP transmitted the story, the CBS News website posted an article—“IMF Head: Food Shortages Can Spark War.” It read:

“The head of the International Monetary Fund warned Friday that soaring world food prices can have dire consequences, such as toppling governments and even triggering wars.

“Dominique Strauss-Kahn told France’s Europe-1 radio that the price rises that set off rioting in Haiti, Egypt and elsewhere were an ‘extremely serious’ problem.

“’The planet must tackle it,’ he said.”

Do those three paragraphs seem familiar? They should. The CBS web site had picked up the first three paragraphs of the AP article—verbatim. In AP’s 7:07 a.m. version, price hikes was changed to price rises. The CBS web site posting continued:

“The IMF chief said the problem could also threaten democracies, even in countries where governments have done all they could to help the local population. Asked whether the crisis could lead to wars, Strauss-Kahn responded that it was possible.

“’When the tension goes above and beyond putting democracy into question, there are risks of war,’ he said. ‘History is full of wars that started because of this kind of problem.’”

Those two paragraphs of the CBS posting were also word-for-word transplants from the AP. The long CBS posting also included material not provided in the AP copy. Despite the posting’s dependence on the AP for the first 157 words, the article CBS posted was attributed at the top to “CBS/AP”–not “AP/CBS.”

It was two days later when the CBS Sunday Evening News called the same AP story news, even though the AP had moved its first account at 6 a.m., EDT, Friday, April 18—60 hours earlier.

No matter what, let’s credit the CBS Sunday Evening News of April 20 with this: they didn’t call it breaking news.

© Mervin Block 2008

Mervin offers more writing tips at mervinblock.com. And still more in one of his books, Broadcast Newswriting: The RTNDA Reference Guide. His Writing Broadcast News—Shorter, Sharper, Stronger is temporarily unavailable.

By MERVIN BLOCK
May 28, 2008

The anchor of the CBS Sunday Evening News started strong:

“We begin tonight with news of a crisis that leaders say threatens to topple governments and trigger wars around the world.”

“The head of the International Monetary Fund calls the soaring price of food an extremely serious problem and said, ‘The planet must tackle it.’ According to the I-M-F, 37 countries are in dire need….”

The anchor, Russ Mitchell, had no need to say he was beginning; as soon as he began, we knew he had begun. And he had no need to say it was tonight. When he began, at 6 p.m., EDT, on Sunday, April 20, we already knew it was tonight.

Mitchell’s abrupt shift from the present tense calls to the past tense said is jarring.

Just about the only people who use the word planet are astronomers, environmentalists and Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Little Prince. So I would’ve paraphrased that quotation: “The world must tackle it.”

Still, what Mitchell said sounded like the basis for a good story on a slow news day, as Sunday usually is.

But what Mitchell called news was not news. Two and a half days earlier, The Associated Press had reported that story:

“PARIS (AP)–The head of the International Monetary Fund warned Friday [that day] that soaring world food prices can have dire consequences, such as toppling governments and even triggering wars.”

The first sentence in the CBS script made use of the AP’s toppling and triggering. Triggering wars, though, is a cliché. Why not simply say causing wars? The AP article went on:

“Dominique Strauss-Kahn told France’s Europe-1 radio that the price hikes that set off rioting in Haiti, Egypt and elsewhere were an ‘extremely serious’ problem.

“’The planet must tackle it,’ he said.”

The AP article ran on for 136 more words. Although Russ Mitchell spoke of a warning by leaders, he mentioned only one person, the head of the IMF. That’s an important position, but is Strauss-Kahn someone we think of as a leader? About an hour after the AP moved that story, the AP sent it out again, this time inserting a paragraph about one other person, France’s president. But he didn’t do any warning. Which means the CBS script’s use of the plural leaders was wrong—unless a solid source said leaders.

Before Mitchell said he was beginning, he had said, “We’ll show you a village that’s ground zero in the crisis.” So after he delivered the lead story, he introduced a CBS correspondent in Uganda.

Ground zero? Not so. Wikipedia says: “The term has often been associated with nuclear explosions and other large bombs but is also used in relation to earthquakes, epidemics and other disasters to mark the point of the most severe damage or destruction. Damage gradually decreases with distance from this point.” Uganda is not the center of the food shortage, its situation is not the worst. And the correspondent didn’t say it was.

On Friday, April 18, the day the AP transmitted the story, the CBS News website posted an article—“IMF Head: Food Shortages Can Spark War.” It read:

“The head of the International Monetary Fund warned Friday that soaring world food prices can have dire consequences, such as toppling governments and even triggering wars.

“Dominique Strauss-Kahn told France’s Europe-1 radio that the price rises that set off rioting in Haiti, Egypt and elsewhere were an ‘extremely serious’ problem.

“’The planet must tackle it,’ he said.”

Do those three paragraphs seem familiar? They should. The CBS web site had picked up the first three paragraphs of the AP article—verbatim. In AP’s 7:07 a.m. version, price hikes was changed to price rises. The CBS web site posting continued:

“The IMF chief said the problem could also threaten democracies, even in countries where governments have done all they could to help the local population. Asked whether the crisis could lead to wars, Strauss-Kahn responded that it was possible.

“’When the tension goes above and beyond putting democracy into question, there are risks of war,’ he said. ‘History is full of wars that started because of this kind of problem.’”

Those two paragraphs of the CBS posting were also word-for-word transplants from the AP. The long CBS posting also included material not provided in the AP copy. Despite the posting’s dependence on the AP for the first 157 words, the article CBS posted was attributed at the top to “CBS/AP”–not “AP/CBS.”

It was two days later when the CBS Sunday Evening News called the same AP story news, even though the AP had moved its first account at 6 a.m., EDT, Friday, April 18—60 hours earlier.

No matter what, let’s credit the CBS Sunday Evening News of April 20 with this: they didn’t call it breaking news.

© Mervin Block 2008

Mervin offers more writing tips at mervinblock.com. And still more in one of his books, Broadcast Newswriting: The RTNDA Reference Guide. His Writing Broadcast News—Shorter, Sharper, Stronger is temporarily unavailable.