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The Syria story almost qualified for top spot. Following Thursday's announcement by Secretary Chuck Hagel that his spies had picked up non-dispositive evidence that a small amount of Sarin nerve gas had been used in the civil war there, both NBC and ABC filed a follow-up from the White House. ABC's Jonathan Karl explained that the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad had produced video evidence to bolster their allegation. NBC's Chuck Todd replayed President Barack Obama's soundbite of concern, "with a lot of caveats." On CBS, David Martin from the Pentagon outlined the burden of proof that is required of the evidence and Holly Williams from Istanbul introduced us to Ghassan Hitto, the Texas resident who is now opposition Prime Minister in exile.
NBC's Tom Costello and ABC's David Kerley were both stationed at Reagan National Airport, to signify that what was at stake in the dispute about budget cuts at the Federal Aviation Administration was the disruptions to airline travel. CBS covered the same issue from Capitol Hill with Nancy Cordes, to signify that what was at stake was the indiscriminate cuts leveled by the budget sequester: Cordes cited programs such as Head Start and Meals on Wheels and WIC nutrition that have failed to attract the attention that Congress -- and, let's face it, NBC too -- lavished on the FAA.
Members of Congress and network news correspondents are among the most frequent of flyers.
CBS stuck to economic bread and butter. Not only did Cordes, alone, treat the FAA cuts as a budget story, Anthony Mason, was also alone in being assigned the quarterly macro-economic growth statistics, as recorded by the Gross Domestic Product. So far this year, CBS has covered the federal budget almost as much as NBC and ABC combined; since the start of last year, CBS has covered the recovery from the recession more than NBC and ABC combined.
No network has sent a reporter all week long to Bangladesh to cover the sweatshop factory collapse that has killed 200 apparel workers. ABC at least made a gesture, by having Muhammad Lila in Islamabad narrate some video from the scene.
The explanation by CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook about biotech research into betatrophin, complete with his network's computer animation of how the pancreas works, was eyeopening. The hormone may eventually lead to medication that will end a diabetic's reliance on insulin shots. Dr LaPook told us that Douglas Melton runs the experiment that tests the hormone. Too bad that he could not get around to mentioning where Dr Melton and his laboratory mice can be found.
ABC's substitute anchor David Muir really does seem to have earworms in his brain. He not only assigned himself to string together all those Sweet Caroline singalongs, he also assigned himself to the George Jones obituary. Anchor Scott Pelley handled the same chores on CBS, only his Jones obit is not posted online. NBC's is, via Janet Shamlian.
Check out Anne Thompson standing next to Shell Oil's dumptruck wheels in Alberta on NBC.
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