Read More of the Same Day's Blog

It is a sign of a light news day when no other development can supplant yet more routine coverage of winter weather as Story of the Day. True to form for the month of March, CBS treated the midwestern snowstorm as a non-event, mentioning it only in passing. So far this month, CBS has assigned a correspondent to the winter weather only twice. By contrast, both ABC and NBC led their newscasts with the storm, making them the month's sixth and seventh such package respectively. For its part, CBS led with the advertising blitz in 13 states, funded by New York City's billionaire mayor, to lobby swing-vote senators to pass gun control legislation requiring background checks for all would-be purchasers.

Just as it came as no surprise that CBS should skip coverage of the weather, it was no surprise that ABC should skip the firearms debate. So far this year, ABC reporters have filed only six gun control packages (CBS 27, NBC 14). As for John Miller's report on CBS and Ron Mott's on NBC, kudos goes to NBC's Sunday morning talkshow Meet The Press for setting the news agenda to start the week. It would seem merely self-serving if NBC's Mott were the only correspondent to file an MtP soundbite, but when CBS does so too, and in its lead, no less, then David Gregory's sitdown with Mayor Mike and Wayne LaPierre, his archfoe from the National Rifle Association, surely hit the mark.

As for that snowstorm coverage, NBC, as it often does, relied on its sibling network The Weather Channel: Mike Seidel filed from New Jersey. ABC, too, used a weatherman, Sam Champion from Good Morning America but its lead consisted of a rubbernecking trip, checking the skids and spills round the interstate highways of Indiana, with Gio Benitez of ABC's eXtreme Weather Team (Champion's forecast is at the tail of the Benitez videostream).
Andrew Tyndall 3/26/13 9:38:23 pm

© 2010 Tyndall Report