Nbc News

On June 17 at 10 p.m., NBC News will air a controversial program titled "The Achille Lauro: A Study in Terror," featuring further excerpts from interviews with Abu Abbas, the man suspected of planning last fall's hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship which led to the murder of an American citizen. According to Variety, the Department of Justice is conducting negotiations with NBC News to have the station surrender outtakes of the interviews with Abbas, which were conducted at an undisclosed location by NBC News correspondent Henry Champ.

JOE PATERNO has contacted a Washington criminal-defense lawyer who once represented President George H.W. Bush in the Iran-Contra affair, according to NBC News. J. Sedgwick Sollers has not met with Paterno and a retainer has not been signed, according to the report. Paterno's son, Scott, denied the report. "To be clear, no lawyer has been retained," he said. "Not sure where that report originated. " A source close to Paterno told NBC that he is concerned about civil lawsuits by the alleged victims and their families, along with the ongoing investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

In an unusual midcourse correction, TV networks have scaled back, or stopped altogether, running the disturbing video made by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui. Bowing to a storm of public censure and the outrage from victims' families, NBC said yesterday that it would severely limit its use of the video on all NBC News broadcasts as well as on MSNBC. The other networks quickly followed suit. CBS said it would use "extreme caution" in airing any materials. CNN said it would run portions "very judiciously.

NBC and Microsoft are joining forces to start a 24-hour, all-news cable channel, plus an online service that will enable computer users to watch the news on their PCs. The network and the world's largest software company announced plans yesterday to start MSNBC Cable, a round-the-clock news channel, and MSNBC Online. Viewers will get headlines and highlights from NBC News, live coverage and more depth on MSNBC Cable, and even more detailed, interactive, personalized news on MSNBC Online, the companies said yesterday.

When CNN reported Deborah Norville's departure as a co-host of NBC's "Today" show, it appropriately chose to make the announcement, on its program "Showbiz Today. " The two - news and showbiz - are now seen by many as one. The next day, CBS dropped a bomb of its own. It announced the layoff of 400 employees, including 120 to 140 in the news division. Operating losses were cited. These moves are the tragic result of a bad marriage between news management and the advertising department that began nearly two decades ago when news was required to make money like the rest of the network.

Who says the documentary form is dead? Tonight, in prime time, viewers can enjoy and enlighten themselves by watching three consecutive excellent hours of nonfiction TV: A two-hour Nova-Frontline special on "Star Wars," and an NBC documentary on Japan. EVENING HIGHLIGHTS MORNINGSTAR/EVENINGSTAR (8 p.m., Ch. 10) - Jeff Corey, a character actor who's fun to watch, shows the lighter side to his usually gruff character tonight when he falls in love with a new resident. Will she stay?

Mary Alice Williams of NBC News told television viewers Wednesday night, "In some cases we will faithfully re-create some events, carefully documenting every important detail and always clearly identifying every re- creation. Scenes and stories not identified as re-creations are real. " Scenes and stories not identified as re-creations are real. A motto for our times. That ringing declaration of independence from fact, recited by Williams on a new show called Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow just about tells it all about the destruction of the three network news departments.

Ronald Reagan provided a little in the way of ratings magic as he offered his farewell address to the Republican convention Monday night in the Superdome. The ratings for the networks on the first night of the Republican assembly were up 6 percent over July 18, when Texas state Treasurer Ann Richards spoke at the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. According to Nielsen figures released by NBC News, that network won a narrow victory over ABC and CBS. NBC collected a 7.1 rating and a 13 share, while ABC got a 6.8 and a 13. CBS News had a 6 rating and a 12 share.

TELEVISION, the medium that first divided us into a nation of red and blue states, last night pulled out every crayon in its box to show that map remade. Holograms, virtual rotundas, game show-style sets that cried out for briefcase-toting models - even a fussy set of "drawers" that opened to yield exit-poll nuggets - all served to mark time in the hours before the polls closed on the West Coast. But for sheer drama, no news division's bells or whistles could compete with the news itself, delivered in the final moments of prime time with none of the ambiguity that marked two previous presidential elections.