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Sure enough, all three newscasts assigned a correspondent to update us on the Boston bombings investigation: NBC's Pete Williams and ABC's Pierre Thomas both from their network's DC bureau; CBS' Elaine Quijano from Boston. But each of the reports was a grab-bag of case trivia, hardly a news story at all, more like a series of non sequiturs. In addition, CBS had John Miller, its in-house ex-FBI honcho, offer an overview of the status of the investigation so far, but he was no more coherent.
The annual convention of the National Rifle Association in Houston attracted the attention of reporters from NBC and CBS, Gabe Gutierrez and Anna Werner respectively. ABC assigned Jeff Zeleny to cover it remotely from its DC bureau. Like NBC's Kelly O'Donnell on Wednesday and CBS' Chip Reid on Thursday, Zeleny zeroed in on the hometown opposition to Kelly Ayotte, the Republican senator from New Hampshire, for her vote against an extension of background checks on would-be purchasers of firearms. Werner called that vote in the Senate a "defeat" for gun control even though the bill was actually approved by a majority. Where Ayotte and her allies succeeded was in forming a minority to block the bill instead. Gutierrez' "failed" was the better choice of words than defeat.
There was only a single package on all three newscasts that was filed from a foreign dateline. Ann Curry's cross-promoted her primetime report from Ecuador on the despoliation of the Amazon rainforest by crude oil exploration for NBC's Rock Center. The visuals, as they always are from the Amazon, were sensational. The information less so. Curry did not even identify the multinational oil conglomerates concerned by name.
Also promoting her primetime magazine segment was Deborah Roberts on ABC for 20/20's special True Confessions. She hopped into a convertible with Chris Patterson, a veteran cat burglar, to ride round an unidentified neighborhood, casing homes as tempting targets for theft -- or offering sufficient deterrent. Mr Patterson, apparently is no dog lover. On Thursday, when ABC's Linsey Davis was warning us about our cellphone, we were told that it is the target in one out of every three robberies; now when we are asked to worry about our home, we are told that it is the target in 75% of all robberies. Let's see the Venn diagram.
Or better yet, let's have stolen cellphones as a proportion of all cellphones; burglarized homes as a proportion of all homes. The percentages would plummet astonishingly.
I think the visual appeal of the Solar Impulse aircraft warrants the coverage it is attracting. CBS' John Blackstone thought so last month. NBC's Tom Costello thinks so now -- plus a toilet question.
ABC again settled on celebrity for its Person of the Week profile. This time Cynthia McFadden brings us Cyndi Lauper, Tony-nominated for writing the songs in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots. Lauper joins Persons Neil Diamond and Marie Osmond just in the last six weeks.
And CBS' Steve Hartman goes On The Road to remind us that this is the Season of the Prom. A high school prom story surfaces just about every spring on one newscast or the other -- check out this playlist. This time we go to Texas, to Miller High School in Corpus Christi.
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