Pope: Back To Basketball On CBS

By 3:30pm, CBS ended its Pope special report and returned to pre-game basketball programming, after less than half an hour. Viewers never saw CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer. “NCAA is not this important,” an e-mailer says…

>Update: 4:04pm: CBS briefly cut in to air the President’s remarks, then returned to basketball.

> Update: 4:12pm: Want to complain? CBS Newspath affiliates received this message: “PLEASE do NOT give your viewers the Newspath Newsroom telephone number!,” the message says. “We do NOT have control over the network news division coverage nor do we have control over the SPORTS division. Please refer your viewers to this complaint hotline: 212-975-4321.”

> Update: 7:30pm: “CBS should be ashamed,” an e-mailer says. “How dare they insult its viewers by such a reduced presence. That’s yet another reason I’m tuning out.”

> Update: 7:50pm: “CBS just doesn’t know what to do anymore,” another e-mailer says. “They break-in during CSI for Arafat’s death, they get pissed on. They end coverage early for NCAA basketball, they get pissed on. Damn if you and damn if you don’t.”