KCRA & the Safeway Meat Scandal (5)
Reflection # 1: KCRA News was not some nickel-dime operation. Ironically, it was to some extent because we had refused to duck our responsibilities when everyone else was doing it that we found ourselves in such a bind on the Safeway story.
Throughout most of our history, we had dominated Sacramento's television news competition. Our stories were uniformly well produced, and we sent a lot of them to the NBC network. At times, we covered events better than the network did. We were used to being called things like "the blockbuster of Northern California news." Sponsors were lined up around the block.
In the old days, it would have been possible to pretty much ignore the effect that thorough reporting might have had on Safeway. Potential sponsors were complaining that they couldn't get time on Channel Three Reports. It probably wouldn't have been too difficult to fill Safeway's spot.
The reason we were in trouble when the Safeway story broke was largely that we'd been too conscientious in fulfilling an FCC requirement.
When an hour of prime time had been turned over to local stations, we'd filled ours with what the FCC had in mind: locally-produced material of local interest. We'd expanded Channel Three Reports to 90 minutes. Our competitors had gone to game shows and syndicated material. As often happens, Pablum proved to have more appeal than meat.
By the time the Safeway story broke, KCRA was reeling like some bewildered Goliath. We were in a last-ditch effort to keep quality programming alive. Another bad ratings period, and we'd apparently have to switch to Pablum.
