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No matter that the death toll from the tsunami in northeastern Japan will reach five figures. No matter that, so far, the radiation leaking from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex has killed nobody. The frantic efforts to prevent the uranium fuel rods from melting down, to prevent the concrete containment building from leaking, and to prevent the depleted fuel rods from catching fire have captivated ABC's attention. Its Disaster in the Pacific special edition led off with Martha Raddatz from its Washington DC bureau cataloguing Fukushima's impending disaster. Anchor Diane Sawyer was back in New York City after anchoring two newscasts from Japan. NBC's Lester Holt and CBS' Harry Smith both led from Tokyo with a round-up of the day's crisis developments. NBC, too, labeled its newscast a special edition, using the Disaster in Japan logo for the third straight day. With 44 minutes of coverage (74% of the newshole), the crisis was slightly less newsworthy than on the three previous (50 min, 51 and 50) weekdays.
Andrew Tyndall 3/17/11 9:22:16 pm

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