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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 15, 2013
If you were looking for any information on any news story anywhere else in the world, apart from the double explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, then tuning in to any of the three network nightly newscasts would have been useless. It was all Boston Marathon all the time on all three networks. For consistency's sake Tyndall Report monitored only the regular half-hour timeslot for each newscast -- but they all offered extended hourlong coverage. NBC and ABC both called their coverage a Special Report: Terror in Boston on NBC; Terror at the Boston Marathon on ABC.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR APRIL 15, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
MARATHON COVERAGE OF THE MARATHON BOMBS If you were looking for any information on any news story anywhere else in the world, apart from the double explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, then tuning in to any of the three network nightly newscasts would have been useless. It was all Boston Marathon all the time on all three networks. For consistency's sake Tyndall Report monitored only the regular half-hour timeslot for each newscast -- but they all offered extended hourlong coverage. NBC and ABC both called their coverage a Special Report: Terror in Boston on NBC; Terror at the Boston Marathon on ABC.
Strictly speaking, with only two dead, the Boston story was overcovered…
…yet, the contrast between the exhausted inspiration of the athletes, completing their 26-mile ordeal, and the sudden and unexplained mutilation of the spectators was riveting;
…yet, the presence of an entire gaggle of sports reporters on the scene plus the ubiquity of cellphone video by everyday eyewitnesses meant that the carnage was fully documented;
…yet, the timing of the violent horror, on the annual celebration of the Patriots Day holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, delivered added poignancy;
…and yet, let's face it, for all the talk of gun control over the last week or so, killing and maiming by a bomb blast is always more eyecatching and more newsworthy than firearms fatalities ever are…
so for all these reasons, to recycle the video of the two bombs exploding, over and over again, filling up the entire newshole, was neither surprising nor inexcusable.
This is how the networks decided to divide up their coverage:
For an overview of the headlines of the day, NBC used Anne Thompson's narration from New York, ABC went to Jim Avila in Washington DC, while CBS happened to have a network correspondent in Boston: Terrell Brown.
For local color and detail, CBS used a couple of on-the-ball correspondents from its local affiliate WBZ-TV, Jonathan Elias and Kate Merrill; ABC used Sean Kelly from WCVB-TV; NBC sent Katy Tur from New York to Back Bay.
For eyewitness reports, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer relied on telephone interviews with Allison Raite, a marathoner, and Alan Painter, an emergency physician; NBC anchor Brian Williams talked to Serdar Ozturk, a guest at the Fairmont Hotel in Copley Square, which overlooks the finish line; CBS anchor Scott Pelley landed Steve Silva, a sports producer for boston.com, who had his own eyewitness video, and quite compelling it was, too.
From the White House, all three correspondents -- NBC's Chuck Todd, CBS' Major Garrett, ABC's Jonathan Karl -- noted that President Barack Obama did not use the word "terrorism" to characterize the killings. It is technically correct that they could turn out to be non-political, run-of-the-mill violent crimes like (the much deadlier) Newtown or Aurora or Tucson. If so, Obama seemed to be the only individual leaving that possibility open. Just look at the labels that NBC and ABC slapped on their newscasts.
As for the forensic investigation so far, all three newscasts delivered slim pickings via their DC-based justice correspondents: CBS' Bob Orr, NBC's Pete Williams, and ABC's Pierre Thomas.
On the counterterrorism beat, NBC used its in-house analyst Michael Leiter, formerly of George W Bush's White House, while CBS used John Miller, formerly of the FBI, and then had anchor Scott Pelley file an uninformative q-&-a with Commissioner Ray Kelly of the NYPD.
Under deadline pressure, there was hardly time to prepare packages to provide context. Only two such features were filed. ABC sent David Kerley to talk to Tom Ridge, onetime Secretary of the Homeland, about the anxiety of gathering in crowds. NBC assigned Tom Costello to report on the general difficulty of making crowded sporting events secure.
Given that back in 1996, NBC's then-anchor Tom Brokaw suffered the shameful embarrassment of falsely fingering a security guard for the Atlanta Centennial Park bomb, it is for the best that the day-one coverage should limit itself to the visually riveting event itself, and keep the speculation skimpy on who was responsible and with what motive. Let's hope that such restraint continues.
Strictly speaking, with only two dead, the Boston story was overcovered…
…yet, the contrast between the exhausted inspiration of the athletes, completing their 26-mile ordeal, and the sudden and unexplained mutilation of the spectators was riveting;
…yet, the presence of an entire gaggle of sports reporters on the scene plus the ubiquity of cellphone video by everyday eyewitnesses meant that the carnage was fully documented;
…yet, the timing of the violent horror, on the annual celebration of the Patriots Day holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, delivered added poignancy;
…and yet, let's face it, for all the talk of gun control over the last week or so, killing and maiming by a bomb blast is always more eyecatching and more newsworthy than firearms fatalities ever are…
so for all these reasons, to recycle the video of the two bombs exploding, over and over again, filling up the entire newshole, was neither surprising nor inexcusable.
This is how the networks decided to divide up their coverage:
For an overview of the headlines of the day, NBC used Anne Thompson's narration from New York, ABC went to Jim Avila in Washington DC, while CBS happened to have a network correspondent in Boston: Terrell Brown.
For local color and detail, CBS used a couple of on-the-ball correspondents from its local affiliate WBZ-TV, Jonathan Elias and Kate Merrill; ABC used Sean Kelly from WCVB-TV; NBC sent Katy Tur from New York to Back Bay.
For eyewitness reports, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer relied on telephone interviews with Allison Raite, a marathoner, and Alan Painter, an emergency physician; NBC anchor Brian Williams talked to Serdar Ozturk, a guest at the Fairmont Hotel in Copley Square, which overlooks the finish line; CBS anchor Scott Pelley landed Steve Silva, a sports producer for boston.com, who had his own eyewitness video, and quite compelling it was, too.
From the White House, all three correspondents -- NBC's Chuck Todd, CBS' Major Garrett, ABC's Jonathan Karl -- noted that President Barack Obama did not use the word "terrorism" to characterize the killings. It is technically correct that they could turn out to be non-political, run-of-the-mill violent crimes like (the much deadlier) Newtown or Aurora or Tucson. If so, Obama seemed to be the only individual leaving that possibility open. Just look at the labels that NBC and ABC slapped on their newscasts.
As for the forensic investigation so far, all three newscasts delivered slim pickings via their DC-based justice correspondents: CBS' Bob Orr, NBC's Pete Williams, and ABC's Pierre Thomas.
On the counterterrorism beat, NBC used its in-house analyst Michael Leiter, formerly of George W Bush's White House, while CBS used John Miller, formerly of the FBI, and then had anchor Scott Pelley file an uninformative q-&-a with Commissioner Ray Kelly of the NYPD.
Under deadline pressure, there was hardly time to prepare packages to provide context. Only two such features were filed. ABC sent David Kerley to talk to Tom Ridge, onetime Secretary of the Homeland, about the anxiety of gathering in crowds. NBC assigned Tom Costello to report on the general difficulty of making crowded sporting events secure.
Given that back in 1996, NBC's then-anchor Tom Brokaw suffered the shameful embarrassment of falsely fingering a security guard for the Atlanta Centennial Park bomb, it is for the best that the day-one coverage should limit itself to the visually riveting event itself, and keep the speculation skimpy on who was responsible and with what motive. Let's hope that such restraint continues.
