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Even though, technically speaking, continuing coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan was Story of the Day for the sixth straight weekday (22 min), there was no doubt that Libya (19 min) was the day's headlinegrabber. All three newscasts led with President Barack Obama's response to the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing military force to protect opposition civilians against violence from the forces of Moammar Khadafy's regime. CBS, anchored by substitute Harry Smith, led from the Pentagon; ABC from the White House; NBC from the State Department.

No surprise, in the absence of any Congressional debate or any coverage from the United Nations, there was no unanimity across the three newscasts about whether a war had just been started. CBS' David Martin saw the developments as most unilateral and most bellicose, portraying President Obama as having made a commitment to use force of arms to replace Khadafy as Libya's ruler. ABC's Jake Tapper, by contrast, emphasized the regional coalition of Mediterranean Europeans and Arab powers and Obama's insistence on a ceasefire rather than regime change. On NBC, Andrea Mitchell steered a middle course.

CBS has covered the Libyan story most heavily over the last four weeks (98 min v NBC 88, ABC 58) and continued that commitment: Mandy Clark filed her 13th report on the opposition, filing from Benghazi; her colleague Mark Phillips has arrived more recently to cover the government from Tripoli. "Confounding…confusing…confrontational," was how he described Khadafy's decision to declare a ceasefire while, apparently, breaching it. NBC had Jim Maceda file a brief stand-up from Tripoli. ABC relied on a debriefing by This Week anchor Christiane Amanpour in the New York studio.

Andrew Tyndall 3/21/11 5:41:12 pm

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