Read More of the Same Day's Blog

The Story of the Day was the paralysis that has descended on western Europe as five inches of snow snarled Heathrow Airport in London, backing up continental and transAtlantic traffic during the pre-Christmas travel peak. None of the newscasts led from Heathrow, although CBS kicked off from London on a different British story, the crackdown on a suspected bomb plot. NBC and ABC both led with weather on this continent, the so-called Pineapple Express rainstorm from the Pacific Ocean that is inundating California. ABC had anchor Diane Sawyer file from Washington DC as she checked on the state of homeland security for the holidays.

All three reports on Europe's travel chaos (by NBC's Stephanie Gosk, ABC's Nick Watt, CBS' Mark Phillips) showed us the thousands of delayed airline passengers sleeping in Heathrow's terminals and the hours-long lines at London's St Pancras station to catch trains through the Channel Tunnel. It was CBS' Phillips who landed the soundbite they must all have been searching for: "There is no other way off this lovely island."

NBC's Miguel Almaguer and ABC's Mike von Fremd both picked La Canada in the suburban canyons of Los Angeles to file on the incessant rains that are drenching southern California. La Canada was the site of devastating wildfires last year so its hillsides are denuded, making mudslides more likely. The sight of ABC's von Fremd crawling through a muddy storm basin built to catch the debris hardly made the hillsides look stable.
Andrew Tyndall 12/22/10 4:04:33 pm

© 2010 Tyndall Report