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Each newscast offered an excellent background feature. Check out…
Byron Pitts on CBS with Sgt Mitchelene BigMan from the Crow Reservation in Montana;
Cecilia Vega on ABC, introducing Bill Weir's meeting with a pair of veteran Freedom Riders, complete with their 50-years-old mugshots;
Kate Snow on NBC with the parade master of ceremonies Charlie Brotman, an I Like Ike throwback.
It is one of the most transparent tricks in the book. A newscast feels self-conscious about pandering to trivial or prurient interests, so it purports to file a report investigating why audiences are so inappropriately fixated. Thus Diane Sawyer introduces Deborah Roberts as answering the question "why does everyone pay so much attention" to Michelle Obama. In fact, ABC's Roberts, too, directly pays just such attention to the First Lady, replicating rather than investigating. NBC's Kristen Welker indulged in no such hypocrisy as she alternately gushed and gawked at Sasha and Malia.
Oh, by the way, the hostage siege is over in Algeria. NBC did not bother to have it interrupt the inaugural festivities. CBS filed from London with Mark Phillips, ABC from New York with Brian Ross, who splashed an Exclusive on his report, although it was not clear what he was telling us that was so unique.
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