On CBS News, Some of What You See Isn't There

        By ALEX KUCZYNSKI

           If you were watching the "CBS Evening News"
           broadcast live from Times Square on New Year's
        Eve, you might have seen a billboard advertising CBS
        News out in the square behind Dan Rather. You might
        have looked at the well-placed billboard and wondered
        just exactly how it was that CBS was able to place its
        ad so fortuitously.

        The truth is, it didn't. The billboard and the
        advertisement for CBS did not exist. The image was
        digitally imported onto the live CBS broadcast and
        used to obliterate real objects, the NBC Astrovision
        underneath the New Year's ball and a Budweiser ad.

        Inserting digital images has become increasingly
        common in sports and entertainment programming --
        usually to insert advertising and corporate logos and
        first down markers in football -- but has generally been
        considered out of line on news shows, a type of
        programming in which the assumption of reality is
        considered sacrosanct and not informing viewers is
        considered a breach of journalistic guidelines. CBS
        contends such practices do not cross ethical
        boundaries.

        CBS News is using the technology as part of a broad
        agreement the network signed last year with a
        technology company, Princeton Video Image, to
        provide branding services for a variety of CBS
        programs. The technology has been used regularly on
        "The Early Show" and the news magazine "48 Hours"
        and was used on the Evening News on Dec. 30 and 31,
        according to CBS news executives.

        "The Early Show" has been using it almost every day
        since the show's debut on Nov. 1.

        News show logos that appear real are being inserted on
        the sides of structures, like the General Motors
        building, on the back of a horse-drawn carriage in
        Central Park, in the fountain outside the Plaza Hotel
        and, yesterday, in the center of Wollman Rink.

        In some instances, the logo clearly resembles a large
        billboard advertising CBS News.

        "We were looking for some way to brand the
        neighborhood with the CBS logo," said Steve
        Friedman, the executive producer of "The Early Show"
        who is entrusted with bringing the program, in which
        CBS invested at least $30 million, up in the ratings
        from its current No. 3 spot. "It's a great way to do
        things without ruining the neighborhood. Every day we
        have a different way of using it, whether it's logos or
        outlines. And we haven't even scratched the surface of
        its uses yet."

        Mr. Friedman said that the practice did not press the
        boundaries of ethical guidelines for CBS News.

        "It does not distort the content of the news," he said,
        and compared the use of the technology with earlier
        visual innovations.

        "I remember the hue and cry when people started to use
        graphics on news."

        The CBS News deal with Princeton Video Image was
        reported in the Jan. 3 issue of the trade magazine
        Broadcasting & Cable.

        Eric Shapiro, the director of the "CBS Evening News"
        and CBS News Special Events, said he might use the
        technology again on "Evening News" and that the news
        division examines each case individually before putting
        the virtual logos on the air. "The technique, I find,
        works best if you put it someplace where there is
        intended to be something," he said. "If it feels that it is
        not correct to use it, then we obviously won't use it."

        Mr. Rather, he said, knew about the use of the virtual
        technology during the broadcast and did not protest the
        practice.

        "But he did not know in advance," Mr. Shapiro said.
        "These are not things he needs to worry about. He
        spends most of his time worrying about the content of
        the broadcast. But as a production technique he was
        most certainly aware that it was happening around
        him."

        Mr. Rather did not return a phone call seeking comment
        last night. Bryant Gumbel and Jane Clayson, anchors of
        "The Early Show," could not be reached for comment.

        Harry Jessell, the editor of Broadcasting & Cable
        magazine, said the practice alarmed him.

        "I think it does raise some ethical questions for CBS,"
        he said. "You would think that a TV news organization
        would not tamper with video, especially live video.
        Viewers should be able to rely on the fact that what
        they are seeing is actually there."

        Network news has flirted with similar technological
        issues once before. In 1994, the use of a fake backdrop
        caused an outcry in 1994 when the ABC journalist
        Cokie Roberts appeared in front of a picture of Capitol
        Hill. Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor, introduced
        a report from Ms. Roberts, and said that she was
        reporting from Capitol Hill; Ms. Roberts, wearing a
        coat, appeared in front of what looked like the Capitol.
        But without the knowledge of network viewers or even
        Mr. Jennings, Ms. Roberts was actually inside the ABC
        News Washington bureau with a photographic image of
        the Capitol projected behind her. Ms. Roberts and Rick
        Kaplan, then the executive producer of "World News
        Tonight" and now the president of CNN, were both
        reprimanded and the network apologized on the air.

        Spokesmen for NBC, ABC and Fox said their news
        units did not use such digital technology on news
        broadcasts. Christa Robinson, a spokeswoman for
        CNN, said she knew of no instance of the technology's
        use.