Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412290035
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN CARMODY THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The International News Network and the BBC have formed a joint venture that so far has signed up only a Nebraska cable system with 60,000 cable subscribers. That system is owned by Russ and Les Hilliard, who are partners in the venture with Reese Schonfeld, the president of the TV Food Network and a founder of CNN.
The going could be tough since a big chunk of U.S. cable systems is controlled by TCI, which has a big chunk of rival news service CNN.
Initially the news program will include one primetime hour of information tailored for U.S. audiences in its 24-hour ``wheel'' of news. It hopes to expand to six hours daily by the end of the year.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson found himself in the middle of a dustup with Great Britain's leadership this week after Channel 4, the British commercial network, booked his pre-recorded Christmas Day message attacking British racism against the annual Christmas greeting from Queen Elizabeth on the BBC and ITV.
Jackson said the 3 p.m. scheduling for both messages on the two British networks was ``a matter of marketing'' by Channel 4 over which he had no control . . .
He said he was asked by the commercial network to record the message to the people of Britain and that it certainly ``was not intended to be an insult to the queen.'' Instead, his 10-minute recorded message should be considered ``a challenge to the queen and to the president of the United States'' since ``it's an alternative message regarding our assumptions about the Christmas celebrations - which have become co-opted by Herod's message and the bureaucratic innkeepers,'' Jackson said.
He is appealing to the British ``to stop the intolerance,'' which Jackson blames for the death of five in the the United Kingdom during the past year.
Home Secretary Michael Howard, the Cabinet member responsible for law and order, was quoted by The Sunday Times as saying, ``We have nothing to learn from Mr. Jesse Jackson on these issues.''
And Sir Ivan Lawrence, a member of the Conservative Party, said Jackson's message was better suited to the United States, which has more frequent racial attacks than Britain.
Jackson's message ``will be a broadcast surpassing impertinence by someone who doesn't have the faintest idea what he's talking about.''
Jackson said Wednesday he wants to remind people that ``Mary and Joseph were a homeless couple and there are people in the same condition in Birmingham; Mary, an unwed mother, would have been an outcast.''
The queen's message, which is also broadcast by BBC World Service radio to commonwealth countries, is a Christmas Day ritual.
by CNB