There’s been some controversy because of a Bracket hacker, March 13.

CBS was televising the brackets of the NCAA Men’s basketball championship—68 teams—when a hacker released all the information on Twitter before the show was done.

No one condones what I’ll term a Dirty Trick or maybe it’s illegal, too, but I’ve got problems with CBS.

I didn’t see the show, but I’ve seen ones before it through the years, and I understand this had the same M-O: talk, talk, talk, and then near the end of TWO hours, report, “Oh, by the way, Texas plays Northern Iowa. Want more?”

It’s about that bad with the announcers telling us the top four seeds in first segment; then, ONE region each the next four segments. 45 minutes into the broadcast, they got around to the full cast.

CBS and ESPN, I think, before them naturally didn’t want to lose viewers, so they held off on the only part anyone cares about. The ones I used to see were “only” an hour, and the same format was in place.

Disgusting.

I would sit there, in a furious mood hearing all these observations about Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina, and, “How about those ‘Zags?” The Jayhawks, Wildcats, and Tarheels, I was told, are pretty good. Something I really needed to hear.

Drag it out. “Let’s go to the highlights,” and then, “We’ll talk about potential spoilers: Harvard (Yale, this year), Texas Tech, and Michigan.”

15 minutes down, 20 minutes, 28 minutes; the producer in the booth into the ear of the anchorman: “Doing a GREAT job, we’re gettin’ there.”

It was all so obvious and frustrating. I spent a lot of years in television news (local broadcasts) and saw the industry endure plenty of criticism from sportswriters. Some were not warranted, but finger-pointing at these bracket shows is totally understandable.

What’s the answer for CBS or ESPN or whomever? Take it like a man—or woman. Show the tournament pairings when you’re supposed to: right after the host says, “Good afternoon.” Then you’ve got 68 teams to analyze and coaches and teams who are watching to interview.

If people leave their sets early, too bad. You’ve got the most important games of the year to show for three weekends. You’ll make plenty of money on those contests—and oh, feel a lot better about being a part of journalistic integrity.