This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Tues., Nov. 14)
11/15/06 04:02 PM
By ED BARK
Night and day. There were notable differences in how Bob Knight's latest physical outburst played out on 10 p.m. newscasts Tuesday night.
CBS11 and NBC5 paid the least attention on Night 9 of the ongoing November "sweeps" ratings period. But Belo8 and Fox4 made the most of Knight's jab to the chin of player Michael Prince (shown above in an AP photo) during Monday night's Texas Tech-Gardner-Webb game.
Belo8 led this particular league in replays, showing Knight's not-so-greatest hit a total of 13 times. No, that's not a misprint. The ABC station teased it twice at the top of the newscast, showed it three more times during an "Assertive or Assault?" news brief, teased it once again after the Pete Delkus weather segment and then seven more times within sports anchor Dale Hansen's coverage. That's probably some kind of local news record, but there are no official stats kept on these things.
Anchor Gloria Campos primed the pump early in the newscast, asking viewers, "What does Dale Hansen think? Well, use your imagination."
Hansen spared Knight the rod he regularly uses on Terrell Owens, Bill Parcells or Mark Cuban.
"This really isn't in Bobby Knight's top 5," he said. "But it is amazing that a coach who demands some discipline from his players doesn't have any. Not so amazing that as long as you win, it doesn't matter."
Knight contended he had merely "flipped" the player's head up to get his attention. And Tech athletic director Gerald Myers already has said there'll be no disciplinary measures taken.
"I don't think it was that big a deal," Hansen reiterated. But anchor Campos wanted to bat it around some more.
"If you were that kid's dad, how would you react?" she asked him.
Hansen said he'd be "mad" because he doesn't want anyone else touching his kid.
"It hurts me as a mother to see that," Campos told him before Hansen again let his mouth pin him to the mat.
"My son's 35," he said. "And I'm still thinking about beating him up when I get home tonight. He's been trouble lately. But I don't want anyone else to do it."
Everyone laughed it up at that one, including the righteous Campos. Just one big happy family.
Fox4 sports anchor Mike Doocy, whose station played Knight-Prince five times, had a more measured but still pointed response.
"I don't think Knight deserves to be reprimanded for this incident," he said. "But there will be another incident with Knight. There always is. It's a shame that a guy who's done so much good for so many kids cannot keep himself under control."
The station's subsequent "Fan on the Street" audio had a nice bite to it. One woman said Knight "is a God" and should never be disciplined. Another had a polar opposite view: "Bob Knight is a sad excuse for a basketball coach. He needs to be gone."
But Fox4 commendably saved the best for last, from an angry male caller. "His (Prince's) parents say it's not a problem," he said. "But to get ratings, you guys want to throw it out there like it is a problem. Knock it off!"
In a companion web poll, 42 percent said Knight should be disciplined, but 55 percent said he should not. The other three percent still weren't sure.
Over on CBS11 (three replays), sports anchor Babe Laufenberg didn't even mention the matter. He instead handed Knight off to the previous news segment, where the incident was briefly covered in tandem with video of a truly violent altercation at a Corpus Christi Pee Wee League football game.
Laufenberg again focused on the increasing popularity of Cowboys QB Tony Romo. His capper: an inventive bit in which Romo already was being named to the Ring of Honor, enshrined in the NFL's Hall of Fame, pictured on a new $9 bill and chiseled onto Mount Rushmore.
NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs (three replays) likewise wasn't all that interested in Knight. The station's condensed coverage included an interview with the coach's former sports information director at Indiana, who thought Knight was just being Knight.
Tuesday night otherwise brought two standout stories.
CBS11's Robert Riggs took viewers to the Red River Army Depot near Texarkana, where thousands of "battle-scarred" vehicles from the Iraq war have been taken for repair. The pictures were strikingly different in this piece. They underscored the sheer magnitude of the war effort, and the casualties it's claimed.
Belo8's Brett Shipp revisited his previous story on illegal highway gambling joints in Hunt County. Many were busted and their machines confiscated last March. But now the places are back in business, said Shipp, who had the hidden camera pictures to prove it. Patrons of "modest means" looking to strike it rich are easy marks for the often rigged machines, Shipp reported.
In the recycled news bin file, CBS11's J.D. Miles and Fox4's Emily Lopez interviewed an angry David Lyles, who had called 911 three times in a fruitless effort to prevent a recent murder. It took Dallas police more than 20 minutes to respond, by which time it was too late. Belo 8's Rebecca Lopez had the same story on Monday's 10 p.m. newscast. Fox4 and CBS11 did have audio tapes of the 911 calls, which weren't being released at the time that Belo8 broke the story.
And oh yeah, the "Why Guy." Belo8's Mike Castelluci finally got his interview with Emmitt Smith Tuesday night after ABC's performance finale of Dancing with the Stars.
"It's been the best soap opera on TV," he said before telling Smith, "I've never heard any dirt on you. Do you have any dirt for me?"
Rather than stiff-arm him, Smith patiently replied, "No, we don't have any dirt. We don't believe in having dirt. We believe in working hard and trying to make our dancing and our routines the best."
Smith's upbeat wife, Patricia, then commiserated with Castelluci after he told he was "exhausted."
He did kind of look like a wreck on the air. But exhausted? After a ninth night of watching all this stuff. he'll get no sympathy here.