Bad News at Black Rock: The Sell-Out of CBS News

Black Rock is the nickname of the building that houses the executive suite of the Columbia Broadcasting System in Manhattan. From these offices came the decision to cancel CBS Morning News, where McCabe was a senior producer for almost two years, leaving just before the ax fell. He argues that jumpy minor executives, obsessed with the idea of a quick fix to spur ratings, switched anchors, toyed with various approaches but never showed the patience required for the program to jell. McCabe considers the fate of CBS Morning News to be symptomatic of what he sees as a changed attitude toward news at the network, a deemphasizing of hard news in favor of celebrity interviews and ""moments'' calculated to produce an emotional wallop. TV viewers will agree that he is not wide of the mark. First serial to Playboy; Literary Guild alternate; author tour. (April 20)