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Tensions on the Korean peninsula show no signs of abating. NBC's Richard Engel and ABC's Martha Raddatz both kicked off their newscasts from Seoul, with Pyonyang's decision to relocate a non-nuclear medium-range Musudan missile to a launch-pad on the east coast. ABC's Jonathan Karl and CBS' David Martin both consulted former CIA staffers for a profile of Kim Jong Un, the North's twentysomething dictator. NBC went to Jim Miklaszewski at the Pentagon, where plans have been drawn up for an all-out ground war that will kill tens of thousands of civilians. Yet none of these angles attracted enough attention to qualify as Story of the Day. That honor belonged to the late Roger Ebert, movie critic for Chicago's Sun-Times.

NBC's John Yang and ABC's David Muir handled the obituaries (CBS aired a brief remembrance by anchor Scott Pelley). Both remarked on his "trademark" thumb. Indeed, he did coin the phrase Two Thumbs Up with his collaborator and rival Gene Siskel. Unfortunately, ABC's Muir claimed Ebert also had "trademark" eyeglasses, which he did not. Muir also misspoke that "in the end he was still talking" even though the cancer that killed him had silenced him, forcing him to rely on computer-generated speech.

NBC's Yang reminded us that Ebert wrote the screenplay for the 1970 movie Beyond The Valley of the Dolls. Catch the clip with the immortal line: "This is my Happening. And it freaks me out."

As for North Korea, the two ex-spooks who delivered the CIA's assessment of Kim Jong Un were Joseph DeTrani on CBS and Bruce Klingner on ABC. Both came to the conclusion that the young man's ambition is to emulate his revolutionary grandfather Kim Il Sung. Sloppily, ABC's Karl did not bother to mention gramps by name. This looks like house-style at ABC: Raddatz did not bother to name that missile.
Andrew Tyndall 4/5/13 9:14:47 pm

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