Read More of the Same Day's Blog

They put on an anti-imperialist parade in Pyongyang and attracted enough attention to make North Korea the Story of the Day. Photo-ops of the young dictator Kim Jong Un, planning missile attacks on South Korea, Guam, Hawaii, and the USNavy's Seventh Fleet, were the lead item on both NBC and CBS. NBC's Andrea Mitchell dubbed Kim "the Man Child with his finger on nuclear weapons." NBC led from the Yellow Sea, with Ian Williams on an island ten miles from the border. CBS, with substitute anchor Anthony Mason, kicked off with Major Garrett from the White House. ABC deviated from the consensus, leading for the second straight day with Dr Scott Harrington, the reputed dirty dentist of Tulsa.

Ian Williams' visuals on NBC of a the barbed-wire fences, minefields, bomb shelters, and bunkers on Baengnyeong Island brought the story to life, as he had from Yeonpyeong Island amid a similar crisis in November 2010. Neither ABC nor CBS had a correspondent in Korea. ABC's Bob Woodruff filed from New York, using input from a think tank called 38North.org, which he did not identify. CBS' Major Garrett filed from the White House, where he reassured us that saber rattling happens every spring. CBS followed up with substitute anchor Anthony Mason's interview with Christopher Hill, a former US Ambassador to South Korea. Hill worried about a "miscalculation" by North Korea's callow leader, eager to portray a tough image. NBC's Andrea Mitchell pointed to the same risk: "miscalculation."

By the way, CBS correspondents have to decide about the videogame Call of Duty. CBS' Garrett referred to it sarcastically, joking that Kim Jung Un's best chance of attacking the Seventh Fleet was in his imagination, playing the game. Thursday, CBS' John Miller identified Call of Duty as a potent tool for training mass murderers in police-style firearms tactics.
Andrew Tyndall 4/1/13 6:31:45 pm

© 2010 Tyndall Report