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The grilling of Chuck Hagel by his former colleagues was the Story of the Day. The nominee for Secretary of Defense appeared before the Senate Armed Service Committee. He was asked to explain his opposition to reinforcements during the military occupation of Iraq -- the so-called surge -- and his criticism of the pro-Israel lobby for bullying tactics and his imprecision about Iran's nuclear policy. All three newscasts covered his unimpressive responses: NBC's Kelly O'Donnell from Capitol Hill; CBS' Wyatt Andrews from his network's DC bureau; ABC's Jonathan Karl from the White House. None of the newscasts decided to lead with Hagel, however.

NBC led with Kevin Tibbles on the belated response by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago to his city's gun violence. Emanuel's order to extend police deployments was covered by all three newscasts -- also by Dean Reynolds on CBS and Alex Perez on ABC. All three also showed us clips from Think Smart!!!, the activist anti-gang video made by the schoolgirl Hadiya Pendleton, now shot dead in a city park at age 15.

CBS went out on a limb with its lead, a local crime in Kaufman County, south of Dallas. Anna Werner told us about Mark Hasse, an assistant district attorney assassinated outside his courthouse. Neither of the other newscasts deemed the killing of the prosecutor worthy of a correspondent's attention.

ABC decided to lead with Ginger Zee on the winter weather. That is the sixth time in the last eight weekdays that cold-and-snow have attracted the attention of an ABC correspondent. In those eight weekdays, NBC has filed four such reports; CBS just one.
Andrew Tyndall 2/1/13 7:26:52 pm

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