Serving the Elephant

NBC Correspondent Robert Abernethy led his guest into a topical conversation about classroom teaching. Casual viewers of the Today show might have assumed that some worthy pedagogue was being interviewed. Not at all.

The guest was duly introduced as Actor David Hartman, who plays a teacher on a new NBC entertainment program that the network was touting in September, and Newsman Abernethy was par ticipating in what amounted to a plug for the series.

That kind of disguised commercial is neither unique nor new. NBC Correspondent Jack Perkins recently inter viewed Actress Linda Blair on Today just before the broadcast of her heavily advertised made-for-TV movie. Perkins and Abernethy have taped spots with a number of other NBC stars, some of whom have new shows this fall.

Television journalists have learned to live with such assignments. "I regard it to some extent as an obligation to the company for which I work," says Abernethy. But what about the company's obligation to its news department? TV news has always suffered by seeming to be the serious tail on the circus elephant of entertainment. Using journalists as promo adjuncts can only strengthen that image.

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