Friday, September 23, 2005
CNN President On The Fonts Rita Needs
CBS News' Public Eye blog analyzes an e-mail CNN President Jon Klein sent to several staffers concerning the graphics to be used during the coverage of Hurricane Rita. Below is the e-mail:" The term CATEGORY 4=viewership. (Everbody knows the cateogires [sic] after Katrina) We need to put it on the screen all the time (in addition to radar). Before it becomes cat 4. PREDICTION: RITA CATEGORY 4. Could replace the generic "Hurricane Rita" lower-third banner. Or better still we could flash the status top left where we put "New Video" in the same large font. Mike, can your guys design something arresting? Wil and David, pls figure out something for tonight in the meantime."
Public Eye continues with its comments: "The sentence, "The term CATEGORY 4 =viewership" may strike some as on hypish side of programming instructions. But Klein doesn't think so at all and says he was trying to make sure CNN used language that would properly inform his audience that Hurricane Rita was a big, dangerous storm.
"In the wake of Katrina," Klein told me, "the public became highly aware of the distinctions between categories. They know that a Category 4 is an especially strong hurricane." He wanted the CNN audience to have that information clearly and forcefully, and so he told his staff, "let's make sure to use that term and use it constantly." He says using that precise term -- Category 4 -- was the best way, post-Katrina, "to indicate to the viewer that is important."
Klein also said he "sent it from my Blackberry as I was driving" (come on, Jon, safety first) and that he wasn't as precise or complete with his language as he would have been otherwise.
And he noted, "When everyone is covering the same story, it makes a huge difference how you cover it."
What do you think?"
# posted by ATN @ 6:02 PM 
