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It looked as though the weekend would provide an appropriate bookend to the voluminous coverage of the tragedy in Tucson last week. After all, as shooting sprees go, it was relatively well contained, with only six fatalities. It was newsworthy because one of those shot happened to be a congresswoman, but Gabrielle Giffords was wounded not killed. So the networks had the opportunity to start this week afresh. But no, back to Tucson they went as all three newscasts led with an hospital update on Giffords' medical condition. ABC had a self-promoting motive for its decision, having snared an Excusive with Mark Kelly, Giffords' astronaut husband. NBC and CBS had no ulterior motive--and so, also, no excuse. Substitute anchor Harry Smith sat in on CBS.

The Congresswoman & the Astronaut was the title of ABC's 20/20 primetime special brought to us by anchor Diane Sawyer. She kicked off with husband Kelly's tale of his brain-damaged wife rubbing his neck as he sat by her bedside in the intensive care unit. Sawyer also consulted Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos about their network's opinion poll on Tucson: hear what the country thinks of Barack Obama's memorial tribute, Sarah Palin's criticism of blood libel, the conduct of the news media, and the prospects for gun control legislation.

All three networks had their correspondents attend that encouraging medical press conference on Giffords' convalescence: ABC's David Muir, CBS' Ben Tracy and NBC's Kristen Welker. Rep Giffords may leave the hospital to start rehab therapy in weeks, or even days. CBS' Tracy rounded out his report with snippets from Tucson's "still raw" atmosphere. He showed a clip from the Genocide School video that Jared Loughner, the accused killer, made of the community college that suspended him; and he told us about the You're Dead threat that Eric Fuller, one of those injured, hurled at a local organizer of the Tea Party. Fuller is now under psychiatric care, "very remorseful," according to a friend.

Andrew Tyndall 1/19/11 7:05:46 pm

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