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As for guns and schools…
The National Rifle Association sponsored a program called the National School Shield, which proposed installing armed personnel in every schoolyard in order to deter gun violence: NBC's Pete Williams and ABC's Jonathan Karl accorded it publicity.
The state legislature in Connecticut is close to finalizing a law to ban assault weapons and restrict extra-large bullet magazines: CBS' Jim Axelrod paid tribute to the bipartisan compromise crafted by Brendan Sharkey, Democrat, and Larry Cafero, Republican.
CBS has covered the gun control debate most heavily all year, with more correspondent packages than its rivals combined (31 vs NBC 15, ABC 6). True to form, Nancy Cordes followed Axelrod's report with a visit to the Mean Streets of Baltimore, escorted by its pessimistic pro-gun-control Congressman Elijah Cummings.
ABC anchor Diane Sawyer landed a breathtaking one-on-one with first-grade Sandy Hook teacher Kristin Roig on the day of the massacre back in December. It was only right that Roig should now use Sawyer's airtime as a platform to publicize her newly-launched education charity classes4classes. Sawyer labeled the new interview Exclusive as if it were revealing something sensational -- but it could never replicate the intensity of the original.
With its Education Nation features on topics such as charter schools, and its dedicated education correspondent Rehema Ellis, and its commitment to tracking the federal No Child Left Behind program, and its perennial leadership in Education coverage generally, you would think that NBC would be all over the standardized test cheating scandal in Atlanta. No. CBS' Mark Strassmann and ABC's Steve Osunsami covered it. No Ellis on NBC…not even a mention in passing.
Korea was NBC's lead for the third straight weekday: Friday had Ian Williams from Boengnyeong Island; Monday, Richard Engel from Seoul on the military build-up by the Pentagon; now, Engel again on Pyongyang's decision to restart its plutonium processing plant at Yongbyon. Engel's colleague Andrea Mitchell followed up with ridicule for Secretary of State John Kerry's bluster that the United States would never allow a nuclear North Korea -- that horse had already bolted, when Bill Clinton was President!
Meanwhile, ABC's second Exclusive of the day featured Martha Raddatz doing what she does, hang out with military brass. When she reported on Afghanistan, last Friday, it was on the point of view of Gen Joseph Dunford. Now she visits the DMZ in Korea -- and looks at the North Koreans on the other side of the line through the eyes of Gen James Thurman.
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