How can a newscast boost its ratings? Television stations in the West think they have found the answer: hire a high-profile, retired politician.
The trend started last month when sister stations KGO-TV in San Francisco and KABC-TV in Los Angeles hired former California Chief Justice Rose Bird to do twice-weekly commentaries for their evening newscasts. Bird, who was voted off the bench in 1986, made a shaky debut when she delivered a commentary in rhyme on the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. KGO then added former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, out of office just two months, as an...