Television Watching:British, Consumed, Expanded, and Moved

For American News the BBC is Best
We have been quite happy with the first week of the BBC’s newest newscast BBC World News America, which airs at 7 p.m. on BBC America, as well as around the world on BBC World. (The half hour BBC newscasts that air on WLIW and NJN at the same time are tape delayed from an hour before.) The newscast is unlike any of the American networks and since it is an hour long unlike the big 3’s nightly broadcasts it has more actual news content, more international reporting, and it is anchored in Washington instead of New York. True PBS’ NewsHour is an hour long, but it is basically headlines at the top with people analyzing the stories of the day, instead of actual on the ground reporting.

The newscast is not flashy and filled with cute graphics. Veteran reporter Matt Frei, who has been on the American beat five years, is behind the anchor desk does a superb job with the hour long broadcast which is a mix of both international and American stories. You’ll feel much more informed about what is really going on in the U.S. and the world than watching the combined 90 minutes of the offerings from CBS, NBC, and ABC or from watching CNN for twelve hours.

NBC Consumes Elsewhere
With the recent firing of WNBC’s long time consumer reporter Asa Aarons thanks to NBC’s the latest in the NBC 2.0 budget cuts we thought we would see if any other NBC owned stations still had consumer reporters with the same sort of on air experience as Aarons.

We found that only three who came close to his almost fifteen years on air. WRC in Washington’s Elizabeth Crenshaw, who has been the stations consumer reporter since 1993, WMAQ in Chicago’s Lisa Parker, who has been on the consumer beat since 1996; and WCAU in Philadelphia’s Tracy Davidson, who has been there since 1996 and currently anchors their hour long (and twice as bad) version of News 4 You.

We found it a bit odd that these lesser market stations should have consumer reporters with similar experience, while the network’s flagship station doesn’t and most of Channel 4’s competition does. Still, we think that this may be a vote of no confidence for WNBC's 5:30 p.m. features based newscast News 4 You, which was the major venue for Aarons reports.