Saturday, August 20, 2005
Costas Admitted on Air 'His Misgivings' on BTK Topic
On Wednesday night's edition of Larry King Live Bob Costas wasn't much in favor of the night's topic, the BTK killer. During the program he had this to say:
COSTAS: Larry Hatteberg of KAKE-TB in Wichita, in your view is Dennis Rader enjoying what's going on now? He's a much bigger celebrity. Outside of Wichita he was not as well-known as other notorious types. Now he is extremely well-known. Is he enjoying this?
LARRY HATTEBERG, KAKE-TV: Bob, he absolutely loves it. He loves to see us talking about it tonight and I'm sure if he's watching television, if he has access to a television set tonight that he's absolutely enjoying every piece of publicity he's getting from this because that's really what he lived for. He liked being in the limelight. He liked seeing his name in the paper. He liked hearing us talk about him on television, and that was one of the thrills.
One of -- his thrill was, of course to kill, and to torture, but the other aspect of it was he loved to be in the media limelight and he loved to manipulate it. We've said this many times, he was like a master puppeteer. He manipulated the public, the police and the media.
And we were all being pulled by Dennis Rader, the master puppet puppeteer and he loves this publicity. And a lot of people have said the best thing can happen to Dennis Rader is to put him in a cell and turn the light off and not give him access to any radio or any television and that would be a terrible punishment for Dennis Rader.
COSTAS: Larry, you've been around this for a long time, obviously, especially in Wichita and upon his capture, beyond Wichita. This is a news-worthy item but there's a lot of peripheral coverage. I have serious misgivings about this program right here, righjt now.
HATTEBERG: True.
COSTAS: Do we contribute to an atmosphere which is not so much informative as it is voyeuristic. What's the positive purpose of this?
UPDATE: 4:56pm ET Newshounds is reporting the hosts on Fox and Friends on FNC took some jabs at Costas today.
MORE 5:54pm ET Page Six has adds this: "BOB Costas, who has been covering for Larry King on CNN, balked Thursday night because he didn't want to do the Natalee Holloway story. Chris Pixley hosted instead. The Alabama teen's disappearance in Aruba has been covered ad nauseam. It's possible CNN brass didn't argue with Costas and try to change his mind because his ratings have been so dreadful. "Costas averaged just 222,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic, which is 30 percent lower than what King usually averages," a TV insider tattled to PAGE SIX. CNN said comparisons were skewed because of King's tribute shows to Peter Jennings, which featured news legends such as Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw."
COSTAS: Larry Hatteberg of KAKE-TB in Wichita, in your view is Dennis Rader enjoying what's going on now? He's a much bigger celebrity. Outside of Wichita he was not as well-known as other notorious types. Now he is extremely well-known. Is he enjoying this?
LARRY HATTEBERG, KAKE-TV: Bob, he absolutely loves it. He loves to see us talking about it tonight and I'm sure if he's watching television, if he has access to a television set tonight that he's absolutely enjoying every piece of publicity he's getting from this because that's really what he lived for. He liked being in the limelight. He liked seeing his name in the paper. He liked hearing us talk about him on television, and that was one of the thrills.
One of -- his thrill was, of course to kill, and to torture, but the other aspect of it was he loved to be in the media limelight and he loved to manipulate it. We've said this many times, he was like a master puppeteer. He manipulated the public, the police and the media.
And we were all being pulled by Dennis Rader, the master puppet puppeteer and he loves this publicity. And a lot of people have said the best thing can happen to Dennis Rader is to put him in a cell and turn the light off and not give him access to any radio or any television and that would be a terrible punishment for Dennis Rader.
COSTAS: Larry, you've been around this for a long time, obviously, especially in Wichita and upon his capture, beyond Wichita. This is a news-worthy item but there's a lot of peripheral coverage. I have serious misgivings about this program right here, righjt now.
HATTEBERG: True.
COSTAS: Do we contribute to an atmosphere which is not so much informative as it is voyeuristic. What's the positive purpose of this?
UPDATE: 4:56pm ET Newshounds is reporting the hosts on Fox and Friends on FNC took some jabs at Costas today.
MORE 5:54pm ET Page Six has adds this: "BOB Costas, who has been covering for Larry King on CNN, balked Thursday night because he didn't want to do the Natalee Holloway story. Chris Pixley hosted instead. The Alabama teen's disappearance in Aruba has been covered ad nauseam. It's possible CNN brass didn't argue with Costas and try to change his mind because his ratings have been so dreadful. "Costas averaged just 222,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic, which is 30 percent lower than what King usually averages," a TV insider tattled to PAGE SIX. CNN said comparisons were skewed because of King's tribute shows to Peter Jennings, which featured news legends such as Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw."
# posted by ATN @ 3:05 PM 
