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The investigation of the Brothers Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bomb was the lead on all three newscasts, although each network chose a different angle. NBC and CBS both led from their Washington DC bureaus: Pete Williams reported on the screening of Tamerlan Tsarnaev by the FBI on behalf of Russia before his six-month trip to Dagestan in 2012; Bob Orr reported on the building of the pressure-cooker bombs, dropping the hint that they were financed by marijuana trafficking. ABC, whose newscast was co-anchored by David Muir in New York and by Diane Sawyer at the soon-to-open Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, kicked off with Dan Harris on the now-reopened Boylston Street. For the eighth straight weekday, the Boston bombs were Story of the Day.

ABC's Harris picked up on the same angle that CBS' John Miller covered on Tuesday, namely, that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger brother, now hospitalized, was neither armed nor dangerous during the manhunt, despite police insistence to the contrary. Harris saw nothing wrong with such official misinformation. "Justifiable," he called it.

Other angles in the aftermath of the Boston story included…

NBC's Katy Tur at the memorial ceremonies for Sean Collier, the murdered Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer;

CBS' Charlie d'Agata in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, on the scrutiny of Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the suspects' mother;

And a pair of hospital bedside profiles. NBC's Kerry Sanders explained why the man who helped apply the lifesaving tourniquet for student Victoria McGrath had kept a low profile after his heroism. Tyler Dodd told a white lie about his non-existent Afghanistan war wounds to keep her spirits up.

CBS' Don Dahler profiled Adrianne Haslet, the same ballroom dancing teacher, now a one-legged amputee, who was brought to us by ABC's Gio Benitez on Monday. Dahler's report landed the superior soundbite: "I said, 'Mom will you help me? It feels like my foot is falling asleep.' And she said, 'Adrianne, honey, you don't have a foot.'"
Andrew Tyndall 4/26/13 12:42:57 am

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