Friday's coverage of the U.S. Open women's semifinals
was pre-empted by CBS News' decision to cover Independent
Counsel Kenneth Starr's report on President Clinton.
NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay reported that the coverage began at
11:00am ET, and after two "brief cut-ins," CBS stayed with
the news from 1:29pm to 3:12pm, "skipping the first two
sets" of the Martina Hingis-Jana Novotna match. CBS later
broke in briefly during the second set of the Lindsay
Davenport-Venus Williams match. Zipay: "CBS sources said if
news coverage had continued much longer, an arrangement
could have been made for the USA ... to pick up the tennis.
There might have been some concern about ad sales if CBS had
relinquished its time to USA, but as it turned out, CBS
Sports will have to provide 'make-goods' to advertisers
anyway" (NEWSDAY, 9/12). The N.Y. TIMES reported that CBS
"never asked" USA to take over the match "because of
uncertainty about the length of the proceedings." USA
Senior VP/Sports Gordon Beck: "They were playing it by ear.
[CBS] needed to make a definitive decision to pre-empt for
us to take it." CBS Sports Dir of Communications LeslieAnne
Wade: "CBS has a responsibility to carry breaking national
news" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/12). U.S. Open Dir Jay Snyder: "We are
very sorry that coverage was interrupted. Unfortunately, we
have no control over national news events." CBS's Wade: "We
understand the disappointment of tennis viewers. We
returned to tournament coverage as soon as possible." The
AP's Hal Brock called Friday's non-coverage "one more bump
for this snakebit Grand Slam tournament" (AP, 9/12). In
Boston, Jim Baker wrote that CBS execs "would not estimate
how much commercial revenue was lost" (BOSTON HERALD, 9/12).
