FC: ABC's "The Beast" (10 pm Wed) features always-on-camera reporters

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58364-2001Jun12.html
'The Beast': Headline Snooze
2001-06-13 03:15:13

The "beast" is World News Service, a CNN-MSNBC-Fox News Channel-like animal 
that earned its nickname because "it always needs feeding," in the words of 
one of the network's many harried employees. In tonight's premiere, the 
viewer is fed quite a bit, though most of it is hard to swallow. [...]


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20010613/en/ap_on_tv_mrs_landingham_1.html
2001-06-13 07:10:05

Jackson Burns is a media mogul who has built a 24-hour broadcast news 
organization like no other. His unique team of reporters not only cover the 
stories but are covered as well: Cameras in the halls, in their cars and 
behind closed doors document the inner workings of World News Service (WNS) 
- a k a The Beast. [...]


http://www.arizonarepublic.com/smartliving/articles/0613goody13.html
Ferociously true 'Beast' is (groan) false
2001-06-13 05:15:21

A prospective employee of World News Service, a TV news network, asks
why people call the station "the Beast." "Because it's always hungry,"
the woman interviewing her replies. Well, duh. That's about as subtle
as The Beast, ABC's new drama, gets. Disappointed you didn't see
Timothy McVeigh executed? You'll get your chance here to see capital
punishment, albeit fictionally - and not by lethal injection, either.
We're talking electric chair. [...]


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/features/hodges/939163
Fictional newsroom drama stretches viewers' credibility
2001-06-13 05:21:12

The Beast is a new hourlong drama series that sets up a new way of 
satisfying the insatiable appetites of cable news channels. A shark frenzy 
of media madness feeds The Beast's premiere tonight, in this fictional 
newsroom stew created by Kario Salem... Harry, a shadowy Big Brother whose 
Internet cameras eavesdrop on everyone in sight and feed their every 
dilemma live to the World Wide Web. [...]


http://web.thestate.com/content/columbia/2001/06/13/life/13picks.htm
Cameras are everywhere in 'The Beast'
2001-06-13 05:41:40

In "The Beast," Frank Langella plays Jackson Burns, the fanatical media 
mogul who founded the 24-hour WNS (World News Service) and is obsessed with 
allowing the public to know everything no matter what.... Burns' insistence 
on having cameras cover his own reporters in action isn't done for 
sensationalism. He believes journalists long ago lost their objectivity, at 
the expense of honesty and truth. The cameras are there so he can make sure 
his reporters maintain credibility and don't let their personal agendas 
influence a story. [...]




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