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Not all the news that fits

Surprisingly, it was the St. Louis television station without any sort of locally-based news commitment - ABC affiliate KDNL - that carried live coverage of the biggest (and only) political news of the day, Hillary Clinton’s speech in which she suspended her campaign and announced her support for rival Barack Obama. The station aired the network’s coverage, interrupting the Power Rangers: Jungle Fury episode that had been running.

How about other local stations? What programming were they running that was so riveting that they could not be interrupted for a mere major political announcement?

PBS member station KETC, whose mission statement says the station provides “quality content because it strengthens civic life,” aired Celtic Thunder, an all-male vocal group/concert special not to be confused with Celtic Woman. Both are staples of the station’s pledge drive programming.

NBC affiliate KSDK, “where the news comes first,” ran a cartoon called 3-2-1 Penguins!

CBS affiliate KMOV, which claims that its news reporting “never stops,” never stopped running an infomercial for a cosmetic procedure called the Lifestyle Lift.

And Fox News affiliate KTVI stuck to its airing of a 1992 episode of Saved by the Bell. For the curious: this would be the episode titled “The Teacher’s Strike,” in which the titular work-stoppage threatens the upcoming Academic Bowl.

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