Posted by
Kilroy on Friday, April 27, 2007 9:45:06 AM
NEW YORK – In what industry insiders say was an unprecedented display of cooperation and collaboration between two giant competitors, CBS and NBC announced today sweeping changes to be made to their Stylebooks. Stylebooks are the internal “rules of the road” that publishing, media, and broadcasting companies develop to achieve uniformity throughout their publications and broadcasts. They and also attempt to head-off potential legal issues by regulating terminology. What makes the CBS-NBC partnership so unusual is that Stylebooks typically are unique to an organization and help in creating a “brand identity”.
The surprise announcement, made just weeks after both CBS and NBC fired radio personality Don Imus and producer Bernard McGuirk for on-air comments jokingly referring to the Rutgers girls basketball team as “
some hardcore hos”, appear to be a rapid response to a comment made yesterday by McGuirk on The Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes show. In the Fox interview, McGuirk claimed that the whole controversy could have been avoided but that he “
never got the memo that the word ‘ho’ was no longer allowed or I would have said ‘The H-word’ instead.”
Released copies of the revised CBS-NBC Stylebook state the following new rules:
“Effectively immediately, ONLY the following approved words and phrases may be used by CBS-NBC staff in ANY and ALL broadcast, published, telephone or face-to-face conversation, whether of a personal or professional nature:”
A.) “The A-word”; “Al”
B.) “The B-word”
C.) “The C-word”
D.) “The D-word
E.) “The E-word”
F.) “The F-word”
G.) “The G-word”
H.) “The H-word”
I.) “The I-word”
J.) “The J-word”
K.) “The K-word”
L.) “The L-word”
M.) “The M-word”
N.) “The N-word”
O.) “The O-word”
P.) “The P-word”
Q.) “The Q-word”
R.) “The R-word”
S.) “The S-word”; “Sharpton”; “SHAMCO”; “Sharpton Management, Inc."
T.) “The T-word”
U.) “The U-word”
V.) “The V-word”
W.) “The W-word”
X.) “The X-word”
Y.) “The Y-word”
Z.) “The Z-word”
“Alternatively, the employee may forgo the long version, substituting with alphabetical abbreviations”
In an attempt to clarify the new Stylebook rules, NBC President, Steve Capus released the following statement:
W A NBC C T P A H V O S J A D I T W P, T W D I N T C T H SB I C W CBS. W W T T Al Sharpton F H T W I P C R. S A T B A Al Sharpton I H E, NBC A CBS W D $1,000,000 T Sharpton Management, Inc.
TY,
SC
P NBC
Industry analysts predict that the Stylebook changes may present some challenges to the two networks in their television broadcasts but were optimistic that the newly announced NBC and CBS News Text Message broadcasts may find a market niche with younger audiences.
