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The Middle East was Story of the Day for the third day in a row. All three White House correspondents followed President Barack Obama as he turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, urging the creation of two side-by-side states. Yet the effort seemed rather hollow since none of the networks treated his diplomacy as significant enough to be the lead item for their newscast. CBS, with substitute anchor Bob Schieffer, kicked off with breaking news: Mark Strassmann on the death of a possible fugitive suspect in the killing of the boss of Colorado's prison system. Both NBC and ABC chose to lead with features: Jim Miklaszewski on bureaucratic delays in the VA, Steve Osunsami on a reviving housing market.

In the Holy Land, NBC's Chuck Todd focused on the President's diplomacy with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. CBS' Major Garrett showed us the mixed audience of Israeli and Palestinian students that applauded the President's give-peace-a-chance speech in Jerusalme. On ABC, Jonathan Karl took the same tack as NBC's Richard Engel on Wednesday, showing us just how forbidding is the wall that shuts Jerusalem off from Bethlehem.

NBC also had Martin Fletcher and Andrea Mitchell in Israel: Fletcher contributed to Chuck Todd's report; Mitchell filed a brief stand-up on the situation in Syria. CBS sent Barry Petersen to Damascus where he documented a rare in-person photo-op by Bashar al-Assad. It looked like the embattled leader drives his own car. Previously, the regime had invited ABC's Terry Moran to Damascus last month, and Petersen's colleague Elizabeth Palmer to the capital in December. NBC has not filed from Syria since correspondent Richard Engel was held captive there at the same time as Palmer made her trip.
Andrew Tyndall 3/23/13 4:36:07 pm

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