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For the second straight day, the status of the federal budget was Story of the Day. All three newscasts outlined those inessential parts of the federal government that would cease operation if Congressional negotiators prove unable to arrive at a formula for funding the remainder of the fiscal year. Calling it a "government shutdown" is a misnomer since only 800K out of a total federal workforce of 4.4m (civilian and military) would be furloughed. NBC led with John Yang from its Chicago bureau, demonstrating that the Postal Service would continue to deliver; CBS, with substitute anchor Harry Smith, chose Nancy Cordes on Capitol Hill. ABC had Jake Tapper at the White House handle the shutdown preview, yet oddly it decided not to lead with major news, choosing a survey of motoring costs instead.

ABC's quixotic decision not to lead its newscast with the major news of the day is not an aberration. On four separate occasions in the last two weeks, ABC has kicked off counterintuitively, with a topic that was not breaking news, and was not considered newsworthy enough even to mention in passing on either of the other two newscasts. Besides Barbara Pinto's automotive package, ABC has led its agenda with Yunji de Nies on an antibiotic-resistant superbug in southern California nursing homes; with Steve Osunsami on unreinforced masonry buildings along Tennessee's New Madrid earthquake fault; and with David Muir on opinion poll results from a babyboomer-targeted Website on the depletion of that generation's nesteggs.

Now Barbara Pinto cites a survey by the AAA that adds all the costs of operating an automobile--gasoline, depreciation, insurance, maintenance, replacement tires--and comes up with an average of 59¢ per mile: motorists are responding by carpooling and telecommuting.

It turns out that ABC handled the federal budget showdown almost as intensively as its two rivals even as it downplayed the story in its pecking order. For ABC's follow-up, Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos grabbed a sitdown with House Speaker John Boehner to ask him about his relations with the Tea Party. CBS used White House correspondent Chip Reid to cover the spin from the White House; while NBC Congressional correspondent Kelly O'Donnell introduced a montage of dueling soundbites from all points on the political spectrum. For political analysis, CBS turned to in-house expert John Dickerson while NBC had political director Chuck Todd run the numbers from his network's latest in-house opinion poll.

Andrew Tyndall 4/8/11 5:31:36 pm

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