RIVER CITY JOURNAL: THREE EVENTS, BUT ONLY ONE TELEVISION SET

The remote control was a godsend, but it would have been better if someone had done a less confusing job of scheduling.

There aren't three television sets at the Sullivan household. But if there were, they might all have been going Tuesday night.

Although I didn't expect any startling revelations from the president during Tuesday night's State of the Union Address, I wanted to watch it.

My habit for several years has been to turn on C-SPAN about a half-hour before the State of the Union Address. C-SPAN tends to find interesting folks to comment on the history of the event, some of the protocol and tidbits of background about the major players.

I don't know about you, but I don't care for Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw telling me not what is happening, but what I ought to make of it.

Excuse me, Mr. Network Bigshot. I like to draw my own conclusions.

Once the president starts speaking, I like the way C-SPAN's director keeps the focus on the Big Guy once he starts speaking and on the audience when it is applauding, cheering or booing. I rarely see C-SPAN editorialize by showing sleeping senators or a chief justice of the United States picking his nose.

This was an unusual Tuesday night, however, as you well know by now. The remote control (the world's greatest invention, as you all have heard before) was getting a real workout. CNN Headline News was breathlessly telling me the O.J. Simpson verdict was going to be read "in just a few minutes."

Most of you know that coverage of both the criminal and civil trials in which Simpson has been the centerpiece had been relegated off the front page of the Southeast Missouri. The verdict in the criminal trial was front-page news. And it had already been decided that the outcome of the civil trial likewise would be on the front page.

But on the same night as the State of the Union Address? Who would have guessed?

The third TV set would have been tuned to the MU-KU basketball game. Although there is an MU grad in our house, there are no MU basketball fans in residence. Thanks to four years in Kansas, however, there are a couple of Jayhawk boosters. And I wanted to see the No. 1 team face the Tigers. Of course, that game wasn't available on our cable system. And a lot of folks here were more interested in the Kentucky game anyway. Thank goodness there were frequent score updates and cutaways to the Mizzou game to keep me informed.

A writer for the Post-Dispatch described his night of remote-control apoplexy, expressing an interest not only in the president, the Simpson trial and the KU-MU game, but a couple of St. Louis events as well. I feel for him.

The next morning, when I picked up the Southeast Missourian, everything was there -- plus some more -- in a neat, orderly package. (I have personally congratulated the night editors who assembled Wednesday's paper, but I think they need to be publicly acknowledged too.)

I had this thought: Some folks really do have three or four television sets in their homes. And in most cases they are all on at the same time, but perhaps not tuned in to the same programs. Usually those sets are in different rooms in different parts of the house. I can just see someone running down the hall trying to catch a three-pointer on one set and rushing to another room to see O.J. arrive at the courthouse.

The remote control, of course, lets you stay in the recliner and flip from channel to channel. Heck, you can only watch one at a time anyway.

But here's the best part. On Wednesday morning I could carry the Southeast Missourian into the bathroom with me and read it at my leisure.

Try that with three television sets sometime.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.