NEW YORK -- So far this week, President Clinton's impeachment hearings are basically a cable television phenomenon.
With the exception of PBS, broadcast networks passed on showing live coverage of Clinton's defense during the House Judiciary Committee hearings, leaving extensive coverage to cable.Broadcast executives say the decision is a reflection of a perceived lack of interest in the proceedings, despite their historical importance. Networks and their affiliates also stand to lose millions of dollars in advertising revenue if they cancel daytime programming.
NBC broke into daytime programming three times for brief special reports on the hearings Tuesday. ABC and CBS mentioned the story during regular news updates between daytime programs.
CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Court TV and C-SPAN all stuck with the lengthy proceedings. PBS also had live coverage.
"I have the impression that a limited number of politicians, pundits and cable networks are absorbed with the impeachment of a president," said Marvin Kalb, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press and Politics at Harvard University. "I don't believe that the American people seem to be taking it all that seriously."
Broadcast networks should be sending a signal to Americans that the issue is important and covering the full proceedings, Kalb said.
The ongoing story has made for several tough calls for broadcast executives this year. When President Clinton's grand jury testimony was publicly released in September, ABC, NBC and CBS ran the entire tape after initially signaling that they might not.
The three networks also trained their cameras on Kenneth Starr's testimony before the impeachment committee last month, but didn't stick with him for the full day. One prominent NBC affiliate cut Starr off after 16 minutes.
ABC, CBS and NBC all say they plan live coverage of any vote on impeachment articles by the committee.
The number of cable networks covering Tuesday's hearing was a factor in NBC's decision not to broadcast it, said Bill Wheatley, NBC News vice president. Lost advertising was not discussed, he said.
"I think there's some public interest," he said. "But it's not overwhelming."
Kalb covered House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings on President Nixon for CBS during the 1970s. He said the three chief broadcast networks all covered the opening of the hearings, then quickly set up a rotation system where one would cover the hearing and the other two would maintain normal daytime programming.
If all three networks abandoned daytime programming on Tuesday for the hearings, an estimated $30 million to $40 million in advertising revenue would be lost, said Dick Kurlander of Petry Television, a company that buys ad time for local stations.
Kurlander said he believed the networks made the proper decision given public interest in the case.
"The majority of viewers are not going to sit there and be glued to this," Kurlander said.