There hasn't been enough ratings input, Benscheidt says, to draw any conclusions. He says the station's first priority is to provide a newscast that covers the important stories of the day. After allowing time for advertisements, there are approximately 22 minutes in a 30-minute newscast into which the weather, sports, lottery numbers, and international, national, and local news must be squeezed. That doesn't leave much room for longer segments. Still, the station has tiptoed forward.
Many stations seem resistant to the idea of longer features.
Keeshan, who says he has not seen Behind the Crime, says he isn't threatened by this format. But Golden's approach has attracted some attention. Marty Haag, a senior vice-president for news at Belo Corporation, which owns 16 CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox affiliates around the country, sent tapes of Behind the Crime to each Belo station. I did it to make all of the news directors aware of this, to promote the idea that there are ways to cover crime that are certainly more inventive than yellow tape. Haag doesn't expect that the stations will leap to adopt Golden's format, but he wants to stress the importance of covering crime responsibly.