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The first news of the New Year is normally free of hard content. True to form, this year's newscasts included reviews of 2006 and previews of 2007: New Year's celebrations, college football bowl games and soon-to-be-broken resolutions. ABC decided to pre-empt its newscast altogether to bring us the Rose Bowl from Pasadena. CBS and NBC, however, both led with a bona fide news event: the flag-draped coffin of former President Gerald Ford standing in a pool of light under the Capitol Dome in the Rotunda in Washington DC.

The Capitol was a space where the 13-term Representative had "always felt comfortable," CBS' Capitol Hill correspondent Sharyl Attkisson told us. In 1961 he was designated "the Congressmen's Congressman" by his colleagues. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell focused on the contrast between Ford the public figure and Ford the family patriarch. Even as the President and former Presidents and Cabinet members viewed the casket--so did everyday citizens. "The Ford children made this national event seem neighborly as they stood to greet and thank those who came to honor their dad."

Andrew Tyndall 1/3/07 8:48:17 pm

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