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The hearings on Capitol Hill into the arson of the Benghazi Consulate last September was the other main story of the day, attracting coverage by correspondents at all three networks. Testifying was Gregory Hicks, the deputy to the late Ambassador Christopher Stevens at the embassy in Tripoli. ABC's White House correspondent Jonathan Karl hyped the hearings by dramatically claiming that Hicks would likely have been the last American that Stevens talked to, in a telephone call while the consulate was under attack. Almost certainly not: Stevens was with Sean Smith, the embassy's flack, when he died. NBC had Andrea Mitchell cover the testimony and CBS, which has covered Benghazi more heavily than its rivals, assigned Sharyl Attkisson to the hearings and Pentagon man David Martin to the feasibility of a military response. Martin pointed out that intervening at the burning consulate, where the two diplomats died, was never an option. Second-guesses could only apply to the follow-up mortar attack on spies, six hours later.
Behind rebel lines in Syria, NBC's Richard Engel had urine samples tested and photographic evidence examined. He came up with no evidence of a chemical weapons attack by government forces using Sarin. Anyway, rebels told him, conventional massacres in villages such as al-Bayda are more lethal.
Remembering Cartagena, Secret Service agent Gregory Stokes told John Miller of CBS This Morning that he wants his job back, even after have sex with a prostitute. Escort services are legal in Colombia. Miller cross-promoted his morning segment with an excerpt: listen to the mealy-mouthed Stokes unable to spit out the words for what he paid for in plain English. Agents "did what they did and said See Ya Later."
What is one of the most famous things Charles, Prince of Wales, has done while waiting to inherit his mother's crown? According to Keir Simmons' ermine-clad report for NBC, loaded with pomp and circumstance, it was agreeing to a sit-down interview with his anchor Brian Williams.
Hundreds of thousands of men have suffered unnecessarily from impotence and incontinence as a result of treatment for prostate cancer that they should not have had. That is the scandal Robert Bazell reported on NBC. A new genetic test, called Oncotype DX, may help men decide whether their tumors are life-threatening or whether they can be monitored undisturbed. Who is going to pay the $3,800 for each screening?
David Martin, CBS' man at the Pentagon, having already war-gamed Benghazi, returned to close the newscast with one of his signature profiles of men mutilated by war. This time weight training guru Tyler Hobson helps the paralyzed Josh Himan pump iron once more.
Why, I asked myself, does ABC find Venus and Serena a new documentary from Magnolia Pictures on the champion tennis sisters newsworthy? Watch Linsey Davis' bland report and you will be as mystified as me. Then check IMDb.com for the credits of the co-director Michelle Major and all will be revealed. She was a producer at Good Morning America while Diane Sawyer was anchor there, from 2002 through 2009.
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