Preempted
About 40 minutes of the two-hour 20/20 special on small TV was preempted last night by the Saddam execution. Oh, well. But as Rex Hammock suggests, ABC should put the show — especially the preempted parts — up online. (They had a few segments online as a preview at the 20/20 site.) Better yet, for this show of all shows, they should take each segment and put it up on YouTube: turn the big TV about small tv into small tv.
Tags: smalltv
December 30th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I think that is a great idea. There’s so much stuff our network DOESN’T air -worthwhile, interesting interviews, events of significance- alot of this stuff ends up sitting on shelves because the shows don’t have room for it. I don’t know how much of your interview was used in the spot, but i’d sure be interested in seeing (or at least a transcript of) the whole thing. If you’ve got the transcript, you should post it!
Well, I’m at work now and I’ve got to go down to the WWII memorial to cover President Ford’s funeral motorcade momentarily stopping in tribute. I know you think it’s a waste, but it’s my assignment today.
December 30th, 2006 at 11:50 am
You looked good and sounded smart, Jeff…maybe there’s something to be said for the magic of big tv editing :>
Happy new year.
December 30th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
I’ll bet ABC TV would love to shut down the Internet - you did a great job Jeff.
I wish they could have interviewed a software development blogger because we blog about learning new technologies.
December 30th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
It was an excellent show. Too bad it got pre-empted. ABC loves re-runs, so, maybe they’ll re-run it.
December 30th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Jeff, would love to know your thoughts on the execution itself…? (And also the reluctance, at least at this time, of networks/YouTube/etc to run the actual footage of same.)
December 30th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I watched the program, Jeff. You sounded smart and funny. I’m with Ed on the TV editing.
I especially liked the cut to Stossel’s reaction when you said something like, “People are hurt everyday crossing the street– they still go outside”… he had this look on his face like, huh? They do?
Next step? Prove to MSM that internet video doesn’t = YouTube. It’s like they start understanding one phenomenon and that’s all their brains can digest until further notice. Sorry but it’s true, and it’s sad.
Go get ‘em Jeff!
December 30th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
In further news… Saddam Hussein is still dead
December 30th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Yes, I was watching that very special, and enjoying your “talking head” punditry; no offense but if they had to interrupt-our-regularly-scheduled-programming for anything, that was a reasonable enough choice.
December 31st, 2006 at 5:16 am
Don’t worry, somebody will do it…
It follows the same pattern.
Saddam is but an “accidental” content, the “subject” of the day, of the week, of the month, of the year.
Someday he will end in the “Archives” and one day he will be forgotten.
Coming up once in a while on the post of somebody”like Saddam…” like the ones before him and the ones after him.
He will disappear eaten by the flow of time that will have more new, more important things to report.
There will be another “subject” of the day, of the month, of the year…
December 31st, 2006 at 10:44 am
They should have run with the original programming and passed on the Hussein execution.
This state-sanctioned murder is nothing but a glorified snuff film made in order to support the remaining political aspirations of a lame duck and widely discredited president.
December 31st, 2006 at 3:05 pm
What? Pre-empted by an execution? They come and they go but this one went the same way he lead his life…cursing.
But even though he is gone, the madness continues. The only thing we gave the Iraqi’s in his place is democracy which fueled the explosion of years of suppressed anger. And the only way to assuage this anger is to let it boil up and be dealt with in the only way power struggles are…civil war. We just need to get out of the way and let the natural evolution happen.
January 1st, 2007 at 12:48 pm
All I can say is… thank God for Tivo. It’s one thing to cut in to give us this great ‘news’… but then to go into a diatribe about the history of the war? WTF! What programming genius came up with this one? How stupid did he think we are?
News flash to big media - shut up and let us watch what we want, because you aren’t our source of news any more! When I want to find out something I’ll search for it myself.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Sorry we had to pre-empt some of the video show for the Saddam execution — an execution that inevitably turned up later on shaky cellphone video — but it the rest of the program, unseen in the East, was good. Hope we can run it somehow, somewhere. There was a nifty piece by Martin Bashir on the Borat faux video con, and a look at iconic images by Bob Brown.
By the way, folks on the West Coast saw the 10-11pm show that was pre-empted in the East, so you can ask your Pacific readers to comment.
You helped put it all in perspective, and though I may be biased, as Amanda Congdon and Ed Cone suggest, big TV editing still has its place.
I hope this 2-hr special is just the start of a trend.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I´ve seen the video of the execution right now and it´s really scary and a little bit disgusting, too. His death penalty was allegedly ordered by Iraqi court, but I bet Americans would have done the same to him. In my eyes death penalty is never a solution. Anyway you did a great job, it was shown all over the world. Even here in Germany.