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All three newscasts assigned a correspondent to the $5bn lawsuit against Standard & Poor's for the sketchy AAA ratings it assigned to mortgage-backed investment securities as the storms of the financial crisis of 2008 gathered. NBC and ABC both treated it as a legal story, using Pete Williams and Pierre Thomas, their Justice Department reporters. CBS went to Anthony Mason, emphasizing the financial angle. CBS made the right call.
For a vivid example of the difference between the house styles of ABC and NBC, compare how Tom Costello and Cecilia Vega cover the same research on congested commuter traffic. ABC's Vega sees a personal problem -- traffic raises blood pressure and puts on weight -- and personal solutions: avoid Fridays, wake up earlier, GPS-plot alternate routes. NBC's Costello sees a societal problem -- greenhouse gas pumped into the atmosphere -- and societal solutions: improved infrastructure, more mass transit, bicycle-friendly cities.
Costello positioned himself perfectly for a tableau of Beltway gridlock…then "Murphy's Law!"
For a vivid example of the difference between the house styles of NBC and CBS, compare how Stephanie Gosk and Elaine Quijano deliver the latest update on the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. CBS' Quijano looks into plans to return residential coastal zones to wetlands by offering contrasting, vivid local personalities -- ya gotta love Joe Monte on Staten Island -- while NBC's Gosk showcases people Making a Difference, in this case Gaelic sporting superstars communing with the Irish diaspora of Breezy Point.
Yet CBS and NBC have a couple of Sandy things in common: they have both stuck with the story since the New Year, unlike ABC; and (almost) no males need apply (Seth Doane excepted).
See Todd Love kayak. See him jump out of airplanes. See him scuba-dive. See him drive a Demolition Derby. See him wrestle alligators on Animal Planet. See him surf, standing on one hand. See him play the piano -- also with one hand. Why? Because he lost the other arm, and both legs, in battle. CBS, which has been covering wounded warriors most heavily for a couple of years now, has Chip Reid revisit Love after his profile of 15 months ago. Video courtesy of Team X-T.R.E.M.E.org.
A pair of trivial beats often pounded by ABC resurfaced. For the last couple of years, ABC has been more enraptured with lottery gambling than both of the other two newscasts put together: see Nick Watt's latest entry. And Jim Avila routinely covers the minutiae of the airline industry -- here are 36 stories from just the last 13 months. Laser beams are his latest worry
It's 'flu season -- but Dr Rich runs his Real Answers test on bacteria not on viruses. "Yuck!"
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