Committed.

You can always tell local TV news ratings winners from losers. The losers are juggling their afternoon news schedules.

In Seattle, KOMO-TV recently started a new 4:00PM news hour, when Jane Pauley's new talk show tanked. Been done before, by KIRO-TV, some years ago, and by somebody else some years before that; I don't remember who. Oprah will continue to rule 4 o'clock, no doubt, on KING-TV, the usual winner. Of course, the 4PM lead-in show has always determined the 5PM news winner.

But the most fascinating schedule change of this new year so far is KIRO-TV's 2004 move -- shifting Rather's CBS newscast from 6PM to 5:30, in order to present the only 6:00PM local TV news hour. Yawn. Fascinating, because of the on-air promo I saw for their "new" 5PM half-hour. The spin: all the news you need in a half hour -- we don't waste your time. And, of course, in the flawless logic of the TV promotion department, this change confirms KIRO's "commitment to complete Northwest news coverage."

I laughed out loud...I guess you had to be there.