For CBS executives, the Ravens vs. Steelers game on Thursday, Sept. 11, was supposed to be an easy victory. There would be a solemn remembrance of a national tragedy followed by a nod to American perseverance, culminating in a rousing early-season matchup between fierce division rivals. The ratings would be huge. The post-game media coverage would be laudatory. Paying $275 million for the rights to produce and broadcast Thursday night football games for the first half of the NFL season would be seen universally as a master stroke for the network. Earlier this year after announcing the deal, CBS boss Leslie Moonves routinely discussed the partnership with the NFL in triumphant terms. He called it a “sure thing.”
But, in an age of league-wide parity, there are no easy victories for NFL teams. And, in an age of growing ambivalence about football’s violence, the same is increasingly true for NFL broadcasters. With the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell now hanging on by a thread amid the growing outrage over his handling of the Ray Rice scandal, CBS finds itself presiding over not just a big football game but also over a much bigger and damaging news story about its business partner.
Awkward, indeed.
As a result, CBS has to pull off a tricky balancing act, simultaneously juggling the competing demands of its sports and news divisions-on live television, in front of an enormous audience, in Baltimore, Ray Rice’s former professional home. What could go wrong?
If CBS chooses to underplay the serious questions surrounding how the NFL is dealing with the Rice scandal, the network risks getting sucked into the the league’s growing PR nightmare, which shows little sign of ebbing. On the other hand, if CBS goes aggressively after the stumbling commissioner, it risks jeopardizing the network’s broadcasting relationship with the league. In recent months, CBS’ Moonves has expressed interest in extending the Thursday night partnership with the NFL, which is set to expire later this season.
Moonves and Sean McManus, the head of CBS sports, are no strangers to the tensions between a network’s newsroom and its corporate decision making. In 2007, Dan Rather, the longtime face of CBS News, sued his former network for $70 million, alleging in part that (in the aftermath of the botched story about President George W. Bush’s military service) CBS executives were more interested in protecting the network’s corporate interests than in setting the record straight. The suit was eventually dismissed. But not before Rather inflicted some serious PR damage.
In the midst of the outcry this week, Goodell chose to give his first on-air interview to CBS News. In the resulting sit-down, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell asked plenty of probing questions. Critics in the media, however, remain on the prowl for any signs of a slackening in the network’s coverage of its business partner.
Now, kickoff approaches. “There is truly nothing like the N.F.L.,” Moonves said back in February. “You want as much as you can get.”
