-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- from: http://www.freedomforum.org/professional/2000/1/7cbs.aspClick Here: <A HREF="http://www.freedomforum.org/professional/2000/1/7cbs.asp">New technologies add ads into news, talk progra�</A> ----- HOME WHO WE ARE | SEARCH | PUBLICATIONS | THE FORUM New technologies add ads into news, talk programs By Adam Clayton Powell III World Center 1.7.2000 * What do you think? Have your say in The Forum. Broadcasters have turned to new technologies to squeeze more advertising into news, public affairs and talk programs. On television, one network has begun inserting billboards into live shots of Manhattan, while on radio, networks are speeding up the words spoken in live news and talk shows, even while they are still being spoken, to insert up to six more minutes of commercials per hour. On Dec. 30, the �CBS Evening News� became the first U.S. network evening newscast to use video-insertion technology that digitally alters live video to insert virtual billboards into the picture. For two nights, Dan Rather anchored the newscast from Times Square, with billboards appearing behind him that weren't really there � they were inserted electronically over the actual live pictures of Times Square. �Times Square is full of billboards,� said Sandy Genelius, a spokewoman for CBS News, who defended the digital manipulation of the scene behind Rather in an interview with free! CBS News� internal standards prohibit digital manipulation or other faking of news footage, but Genelius said this new technology was not yet covered by the guidelines. �There is nothing specific in CBS News standards,� she explained. �We�re just beginning to use this.� Genelius also drew a distinction between video footage in news reports and the live video behind anchor Dan Rather when he is on location. �In terms of covering the news, we never, ever want to mislead the public in news coverage,� she said. �On all three networks, Dan, Peter (Jennings) and Tom (Brokaw) are on sets. Ours just happened to be high above Times Square.� In an interview with Broadcasting and Cable magazine, �CBS Evening News� director Eric Shapiro said, �My intention is to create some eye-catching �CBS Evening News� Times Square-type billboards in places where there are none.� The same device, called PVI L-VIS Live Video Insertion, was introduced to television football coverage to generate images of the �first-down� lines on the playing field. Once the virtual images are superimposed over the actual live picture, whether of a football game or in a news story, the virtual images appear to viewers at home to be as real as anything at the scene. People who walk in front of landmarks replaced by virtual billboards appear to television viewers to have walked in front of the electronic billboard, making it appear completely real. CBS News became the first national news broadcaster to introduce the new insertion technology last November on its morning news broadcast, �The Early Show,� placing digital billboards on Manhattan landmarks during live shots of New York City. Such landmarks as the Plaza Hotel fountain and Fifth Avenue department stores appear to television viewers as having promotional advertisements on their surfaces. �It is only used in bumpers,� said Genelius, referring to the camera shots used in the seconds immediately preceding each commercial break. CBS News has only used the �billboards� to promote its own programs. And even though the technology has been developed to insert commercial announcements into sports and entertainment events, Genelius said CBS News was using the device only to promote CBS network programs, not to advertise other products or services. �There is no talk of using this for (paid) commercial content,� she said. However, digital manipulation of video in network news broadcasts has attracted criticism in the past. ABC News was widely criticized for including on �World News Tonight� a report on Congress by Cokie Roberts, who was wearing an overcoat in front of what to viewers seemed to be the U.S. Capitol. The entire report was taped � some said faked � in a studio at ABC News, and ABC later apologized for misleading viewers. And most newspapers and magazines have long considered digital manipulation of news photographs to be off-limits. National Geographic was heavily condemned for using computer-controlled manipulators to change a cover photo, moving the position of one of Egypt�s Great Pyramids. The CBS News video inserts have come into use just as another technology has squeezed up to six additional minutes per hour of commercials into a live radio program. This technology uses computers to remove minute pauses between words, even as the anchor or host is speaking, leaving more time for ads and promotions. Even some radio show anchors have expressed surprise that a new technology was being used to compress their words. Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh told The New York Times that he first heard his show was compressed when listeners complained to him about the added commercials. �At first I didn�t know what they were talking about,� Limbaugh told the Times . �I was talking for the same amount of time every day.� There is a similar device, called the Time Machine, that squeezes or expands television programs. Networks and stations use it to force long movies to fit in a two-hour time slot � or to slow down short movies to fill the entire time period. The device used on Limbaugh�s and other radio programs is called Cash. Limbaugh complained about it, profitable or no, saying he wanted none of it. �I think it is the potential doom of the radio industry,� he told the Times. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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