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Chrysler plans to lay off thousands of autoworkers--reporters called it the St Valentine's Day massacre. Special forces from Fort Bragg away at war sent Valentines messages home to their sweethearts. Lonely sheep farmers in Wales are looking for love. A massive blizzard caused lovers to be unreunited because of flight delays and flowers undelivered because of snowed-in roads. The Story of the Day was the weather, leading all three newscasts. The theme of the day was clearly Cupid.

Snowfalls were as deep as two feet from Ohio to New England and 12 deaths were reported. ABC chose Albany NY as its representative snow town: "For east coast florists all of this comes on the worst day possible," Nancy Cordes commented. CBS chose Suffern NY for Kelly Wallace's report including electricity blackouts that "guarantee candlelight dinners tonight for hundreds of thousands" and a mass outdoor white wedding in St Louis for 100 couples. NBC took a survey approach with Rehema Ellis--"Mother Nature is not showing much love on this Valentine's Day"--in Springfield Mass throwing to Kevin Tibbles in Cleveland--"those who made it City Hall found their trip to the altar postponed"--throwing to Mike Taibbi who found a florist in Scranton Pa with "bouquets he was determined to deliver."

CBS skipped a separate story on how airline travel was disrupted while both ABC's Lisa Stark (subscription required) and NBC's Tom Costello ended up at Reagan National Airport. Costello received a call from MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough, who was stuck in a plane in New York for "nine very long hours" on a runway.

Andrew Tyndall 2/15/07 5:28:00 pm

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