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Inspire magazine, the English-language periodical published by al-Qaeda, was credited by all three newscasts as an instruction manual for the manufacture of a pressure cooker bomb, the type of device that detonated twice, according to investigators. Pete Williams named the magazine on NBC, Bob Orr on CBS, and Brian Ross on ABC. Still, none of them connected any dots from the magazine to the ideology of the bomber, which remains unknown. ABC's Jim Avila rounded out analysis of the explosions themselves, with a consultation on blast zones from Walter Houston, of Tier-Tech International.
The second component of the investigation will involve analysis of the voluminous video record, from all the cellphones spectating the race. ABC's Dan Harris and NBC's Lester Holt walked us round the cordoned-off 12-block downtown crime scene, where all that video was shot. John Miller, CBS' in-house former FBI honcho, told us about the searchable Orion database system that investigators will use to log the data and Digital Investigation Visualization system they will use for cross-reference. On ABC, Martha Raddatz took the opposite tack: rather than celebrating the FBI's data-handling abilities, she complained that the entire process would be too time-consuming, assuming that the guilty party is intent on making an immediate getaway.
And then there were the sidebars…
Deval Patrick, the Democratic Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, won himself airtime with CBS' Scott Pelley and NBC's Brian Williams. ABC anchor Diane Sawyer, the one who remained in the New York studio, passed on a Patrick q-&-a.
Emergency medical care was celebrated on CBS and ABC. ABC anchor Diane Sawyer interviewed trauma surgeon David King, who happened to be a runner in the marathon. He finished his race and then headed to Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr John Pizzuto told CBS' Elaine Quijano that he was tending to runners' blisters in the tent at the finish line -- when he was converted to trauma triage of a tibia bone, "no skin, no foot, no leg." CBS anchor Scott Pelley was debriefed by a trio of emergency room physicians at Brigham & Women's. They credited that tent and its tourniquets with saving lives.
All three newscasts had a correspondent pay tribute to Martin Richard, one of the three fatalities, an eight-year-old spectator from Dorchester. Katy Tur filed for NBC and Jeff Glor for CBS. Oddly, ABC's Linsey Davis harped on about the heartwarming support offered to the boy's bereaved and mutilated family by his hometown -- yet she never mentioned Dorchester by name.
The nationwide ripple effect of the bombings were covered by thumbsuckers on heightened anti-terrorist security by ABC's Byron Pitts (newly-arrived from CBS) in New York City's Times Square and by NBC's Tom Costello, at the NHL Capitals' sports stadium in Washington DC. Costello also offered a hat-tip to his colleague Andrea Mitchell for a soundbite for her Reports program on MSNBC. Pitts put in a plug for the Boston pub where the TV sitcom Cheers was set.
The Stetson-wearing Carlos Arredondo was lauded by both CBS and NBC for rushing into the carnage to rescue spectators mutilated by shrapnel. CBS' Terrell Brown focused on his back-story of wartime grief and self-immolation. NBC's Anne Thompson folded Arredondo into a sloppy wet kiss for her native beantown as a generous whole.
David Comstock and Susie Eisenberg-Argo were two marathoners from Texas who dodged the bombs. Don Dahler of CBS told us their unremarkable story.
And as for that ricin and that torture, ABC's Pierre Thomas briefly covered the former; NBC anchor Brian Williams mentioned the latter as a read-only in passing.
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