When you think of morning "news" shows you usually think of The Today Show (NBC) or Good Morning America (ABC). CBS also has a morning show but it has flowndered in thrid place for a long time. The network recently hired a new producer and a new anchor to relaunch the morning show. However, this investment came with a hidden cost.

CBS asserts that the reason that their morning show, simply called The Early Show, has never been able to compete is because of a long-standing agreement with their affiliates that allowed local stations to insert thier own local news into the morning broadcast, inturrupting the national program. While the other morning news programs long ago abandonand their affiliates (save brief intermissions for local weather), CBS was allowing 43 stations to insert local content in the first hour of the Early Show.

The new producer for The Early Show reportedly had some "frank discussions" with local afiliates and convinced them to "dump" their local morning news. "We can never grow as a show until we get over that hurdle," she argued. "But I think Monday morning there are going to be people in Las Vegas and Baltimore and Nashville who wake up and their favorite local anchor that they see in restraunts and bump into at the dry cleaner, isn't going to be there. And we understand that viewers will go through a period of adjustment. But we hope that we have a strong alternative."

This is a bold example of a Big Media boss looking down at the communities she is supposed to be serving and ignoring what she clearly knows they want - more local news. Indeed, the recognizes that communities want to know the people who provide their news, they want their journalists to be local and accountable. And yet she suggests that this national conglomerate will provide a "strong alternative."

What is this alternative? She believes that she will be able to better atract the kind of big name guests that the other two morning shows get. This amounts to replacing local news and local people with celebrity gossip and political pundits. While The Early Show's new produces calls these people "newsmakers," its not the news that loca people want or the information they need.

Read more over at Broadcasting and Cable: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6517269.html