Fun_People Archive
12 Jan
On CBS News, Some of What You See Isn't There

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 100 10:47:00 -0800
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Subject: On CBS News, Some of What You See Isn't There

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http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/cbs-digital.html

If you were watching the "CBS Evening News" broadcast live from Times
Square on New Year's Eve, you might have seen a billboard advertising CBS
News out in the square behind Dan Rather. You might have looked at the
well-placed billboard and wondered just exactly how it was that CBS was
able to place its ad so fortuitously.

The truth is, it didn't. The billboard and the advertisement for CBS did
not exist.  The image was digitally imported onto the live CBS broadcast
and used to obliterate real objects, the NBC Astrovision underneath the
New Year's ball and a Budweiser ad.
...
CBS contends such practices do not cross ethical boundaries.
...
"We were looking for some way to brand the neighborhood with the CBS
logo," said Steve Friedman, the executive producer of "The Early Show"
who is entrusted with bringing the program, in which CBS invested at least
$30 million, up in the ratings from its current No. 3 spot. "It's a great
way to do things without ruining the neighborhood.  Every day we have a
different way of using it, whether it's logos or outlines. And we haven't
even scratched the surface of its uses yet."

© 2000 Peter Langston