Read More of the Same Day's Blog

All three networks sent their anchors off to Washington for the State of the Union speech -- and then breaking news interrupted from California. The six-day manhunt for Christopher Dorner -- with the Los Angeles Police Department accusing one of its own former officers of triple murder -- seemed to be coming to a climax in the San Bernardino Mountains. ABC and NBC both led with correspondents in Los Angeles: Cecilia Vega and Miguel Almaguer respectively. CBS kicked off with the crackle of gunfire over a telephone line from Carter Evans, its reporter on the scene at the ski resort itself. The manhunt edged out the speech (16 min v 12) as Story of the Day.

Following up on their leads on the Dorner story, NBC went to Chuck Henry (no link), anchor of KNBC-TV, its Los Angeles affiliate, reporting from Big Bear. ABC used its Justice Department correspondent, Pierre Thomas (at the tail of the Vega videostream), in its DC bureau. CBS consulted its own John Miller, formerly a senior officer of the LAPD. NBC rounded out its coverage with anchor Brian Williams' illogical interview with William Bratton, the former Chief of Police of Los Angeles, who had his picture taken with Dorner when they were both on the force. Bratton likened the panic in southern California to the siege mentality inside-the-Beltway during the sniper murders of the fall of 2002, before contradicting himself by characterizing the current case as "historic and unprecedented."
Andrew Tyndall 2/13/13 8:46:54 pm

© 2010 Tyndall Report