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The overcovered Oklahoma tornado was Story of the Day yet again, although not on the basis of any actual news being broken in Moore. The aftermath of the twister did not warrant the lead spot on any of the three newscasts. Instead, ABC, with substitute anchor Dan Harris, chose to the slain off-duty soldier in London, as it did on Wednesday. CBS kicked off with President Barack Obama's speech declaring a beginning of the end to the Global War on Terrorism. NBC also had a substitute anchor: Ann Curry selected the weakest lead of the three, Pete Williams on the vote by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay boys to become members, but to continue to ban gay men from becoming leaders.

How exaggerated had the coverage of Moore been earlier in the week? NBC's Janet Shamlian downgraded the count of the number of homes damaged by the tornado by more than an order of magnitude -- from 13,000 to 1,200.

In Moore, NBC's Janet Shamlian and ABC's Byron Pitts attended the end-of-year reunion at the town's now-devastated Plaza Towers Elementary School. CBS had a pair of correspondents go hospital visiting: Vinita Nair caught up with Jennifer Doan, the injured schoolteacher she first met on Tuesday; Elaine Quijano attended Shayla Taylor, a mother who was in labor as the storm tore open the wall of the hospital's operating theater. And Ron Mott closed NBC's newscast by reinforcing those Bible Belt stereotypes about Oklahoma. Mott got all Christian on us, talking about folks loving their neighbors and God being with them, as volunteers broke bread over a pulled pork barbecue.

The best soundbite was gathered by CBS' Quijano from Mrs Taylor recalling the simultaneous arrival of the tornado and the baby Braeden Immanuel: "Oh crap."
Andrew Tyndall 5/24/13 9:37:23 pm

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