C’mon KCBS…Show A Little Restraint

I am the last person who needs to be lectured on the fact the media is changing, but that doesn’t mean there is a line that still just shouldn’t be crossed.  And KCBS provided the latest in a growing number of local news teases lately that have just come across as downright pathetic.

During CBS’ Two and a Half Men Monday night, a local news tease came on for the 11 p.m. news, and an early image in the tease was beaches.  On literally the hottest day EVER in Los Angeles, the 113-degree temps should have been a lead story.  But the promo wasn’t for the heat wave. It was for some ridiculous story about travel and trends to Hawaii.

Why was that the news tease? Because on later that night on CBS was the network’s much-hyped Hawaii Five-0 remake. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the final clip of the tease was a really, really quick shot of Hawaii Five-0 actress Grace Park.

Listen, I fully understand the importance of corporate synergy, and I’m sure I have strayed across the divide between editorial and promotional in my time running B&C. But that doesn’t make it right.

And KCBS should be called out for this. A Hawaii Five-0 promo doubling as a news tease – and featuring an actress from the show – would have made my Boston University journalism professors sick to their stomachs.  Because I know it made me more than a little queasy.

C’mon everyone, let’s reel it in a little.