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We say that ABC sort of led with gun control: former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords granted Exclusive access to anchor Diane Sawyer on the second anniversary of being shot in the head. Giffords, and her husband Mark Kelly, wanted to unveil Americans for Responsible Solutions, their pro-gun-control Political Action Committee. Sawyer, whose previous Gabbexclusive was in November 2011, was looking for emotional human-interest insight into Giffords' frustrating, painful, heroic struggle to regain the use of her brain.
Naturally, Diane prevailed.
The other two newscasts offered straight reporting on gun control itself: NBC's Ron Mott with a round-up on Vice President Joe Biden's taskforce; CBS' Wyatt Andrews with a sitdown with Sarah Brady, who played the 1980s equivalent of Mark Kelly, spouse of Jim Brady, the 1980s version of Gabrielle Giffords.
As for climate change, CBS anchor Scott Pelley led with temperature data. The record revealed that the United States' lower 48 states averaged 55F for the whole of 2012, higher than any year since the government's 118-year-old series began. We say Anna Werner's lead was sort of on global warming, since she focused on symptoms -- the failure of the east Texas rice harvest due to drought -- rather than causes. Werner appears to be a denizen of dried-up Lake Travis.
NBC's Anne Thompson and ABC's Dan Harris were more explicit in tying rising heat to extreme weather to the cost of natural disasters. Both also showed off the new color on the weather maps down under.
Purple!
CBS, like ABC, closed with an animal feature. ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi opted for the cuteness of the black rhinoceros, as she voiced over a promo for Africa, a Discovery Channel nature documentary, shot with night-vision cameras by the BBC. CBS' John Blackstone trekked to Point Reyes to take a serious look at the plight of elephant seals and gray whales.
CBS also got into the cross-promotion game, as Showtime, the pay-cable channel, prepares to launch 60 Minutes Sports. Anchor Scott Pelley helped by previewing his expose of Lance Armstrong, of the disgraced Yellow Jerseys.
Dr Nancy filed but the first of a trio of health stories on NBC. Snyderman's influenza was followed by an abstemious Rehema Ellis, tut-tutting about her gender's tendency to tipple, while Lisa Myers took on the insurance industry, which is zapping patients with swingeing hikes in healthcare premiums, in its last year before Obamacare's regulations kick in. Ellis' solicitude for her sisters is normal: of the last seven reports on the nightly newscasts warning about hooch, six have worried about women specifically.
Food is often on ABC's news menu. It leads in diet coverage and on the fast-food industry and, for the last couple of years, on food safety. Last March, Jim Avila famously earned himself a lawsuit for leading the pink slime story. Now he takes one for his team -- volunteering for a trip to Olive Garden and its rival chains to count calories.
High finance is hard to turn into light fare. Both David Muir and Kevin Tibbles took a swipe. Muir, on ABC, zinged AIG for the hypocrisy of its Thank You, America slogan. Tibbles, on NBC, invoked The Simpsons to make fun of the seignorage solution to the Debt Ceiling. His Justin Bieber punchline was puny -- but then, Tibbles is a Canadian -- Montgomery Burns would have made the better platinum head.
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