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The successful filibuster by Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) was Story of the Day. He stayed on his feet for 13 hours to demand an explicit disavowal from the Obama Administration of the use of assassination drones against domestic targets. After he left for a bathroom break, which ended his effort, the letter he requested did indeed arrive from Attorney General Eric Holder. NBC's lead story was the filibuster, filed from the White House by Chuck Todd. ABC too covered Paul from the White House, via Jonathan Karl, although its lead was from Martha Raddatz on North Korea's nuclear threat. CBS had Nancy Cordes cover the drone debate from Capitol Hill while, for its lead, anchor Scott Pelley promoted Sunday's 60 Minutes.

Not only CBS, but NBC too, used their anchors to file preview features of in-depth stories in primetime magazine programing. Pelley's on CBS examined last year's meningitis outbreak, which CBS' evening newscast covered more heavily than its two rivals at the time. Now Pelley has an interview with Joe Connolly, a laboratory technician at New England Compounding, the pharmacy that produced the contaminated steroids shots that infected spinal fluid, ultimately killing 48 patients.

NBC, with the backing of the Ford Foundation, unveiled an occasional series on urban poverty dubbed In Plain Sight, which anchor Brian Williams told us would continue in primetime on Rock Center. He selected Camden NJ, across the river from Philadelphia, a beat the anchor covered when he was a rookie reporter. "In a dream I saw a city invincible," as the poet put it. Camden is the same hardscrabble 'hood that ABC anchor Diane Sawyer selected six years ago for her coverage of urban misery before she moved on to the rural depression of Appalachia. Williams' predecessor at NBC, Tom Brokaw, also chose the suburbs of Philadelphia for his portrait of urban despair a couple of years ago, but Brokaw chose Reading Pa instead.

The most heavily covered location for urban poverty in plain sight is, of course, Detroit. Its mean streets were already a specialty at NBC before Ford Foundation funding came along.
Andrew Tyndall 3/8/13 9:45:27 pm

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