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The swearing-in of the 112th Congress and the ceremonial transfer of a supersized gavel from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to incoming Speaker John Boehner was the Story of the Day. All three newscasts led with news coverage from their Congressional correspondents and a follow-up feature on the House of Representatives under Republican control. The transfer of power was significant enough that each of the three anchors traveled to Washington to cover it in person. ABC's Diane Sawyer anchored from Washington on Tuesday and airs the feature she collected there today. NBC's Brian Williams anchors from Washington today and previews his interview with Speaker Boehner, which airs Thursday. CBS' Katie Couric anchored both days from New York, but fit in a roundtrip to the Capitol for her Congressional Voices profile.

Kelly O'Donnell's coverage on NBC was straightforward and traditional. On ABC, Jonathan Karl concentrated on the new Speaker and his oversized mallet. CBS' Nancy Cordes made the most of the Tea Party influx and looming partisan frictions. For commentary, ABC's George Stephanopoulos contrasted the humble tone of Boehner's ascension with that of Newt Gingrich in 1995. "Gingrich's overreaching helped reelect Bill Clinton," he recalled. "They do not want to reelect Barack Obama" NBC's David Gregory anticipated as many political cross currents occurring within the Republican caucus as between the GOP and the White House.

As for the anchors, ABC's Sawyer hosted an all-Republican roundtable of eight freshman representatives and a couple of senators, "the Beltway version of a motorcycle gang riding in on a wave of taxpayer and Tea Party discontent." CBS' Couric was less partisan, sitting down with a Tea Party Republican, a moderate GOPer from Illinois and one of the few new Democrats, an African-American lawyer from Alabama.

NBC's preview feature was filed by Andrea Mitchell, on Darrel Issa, the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who is on the record telling talkradio's Rusk Limbaugh that Barack Obama is "one of the most corrupt Presidents in modern times." On Issa's agenda: the secrets exposed by WikiLeaks, USAID in Afghanistan, the FannieMae/FreddieMac fiasco, Obama's attempts at Keynesian stimulus, and TARP. Of those five, aid to Afghanistan has been least heavily covered by the network nightly newscasts, which tend to emphasize the military aspect of the United States' counterinsurgency effort.

Overshadowed amid the Capitol Hill ceremonials was coverage of personnel changes at the White House, the exit of press secretary Robert Gibbs and the expected entry of William Daley as the next Chief of Staff. If NBC's primetime drama had not turned the West Wing corridors of power into household words, neither CBS' Chip Reid nor NBC's Chuck Todd would have warranted the airtime to mention such routine musical chairs behind the scenes.

Andrew Tyndall 1/9/11 4:59:41 pm

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