Tuesday, April 17, 2007
VT Shooting: Coverage of the Coverage
From the Washington Post: CNN was the first of the cable news networks to break the story, reporting it to viewers at 10:07 a.m., according to an industry insider. Fox News Channel was next at 10:12, followed by the NBC-owned MSNBC at 10:13. An anonymous troublemaker e-mailed a media blog to say that MSNBC was half an hour late in getting the story on the air, but a network source said that was simply not so.
For Fox, it was a day of proving that the network is more than just a staging ground for shouting matches by firebrands and zealots. Throughout the day, its reporting was solid and enterprising and, gruesome as it sounds, Fox stayed ahead of CNN most of the time on the number of people killed or injured by the gunman, who still hadn't been identified by the time the evening network newscasts went on the air.
CNN got some wobbly video taken by a Virginia Tech student with a cellphone camera. What made it unique and valuable was the soundtrack: Gunshots could be heard coming from one of the buildings. When ABC aired the video on its evening newscast, it was captioned "CNN Exclusive."
For Fox, it was a day of proving that the network is more than just a staging ground for shouting matches by firebrands and zealots. Throughout the day, its reporting was solid and enterprising and, gruesome as it sounds, Fox stayed ahead of CNN most of the time on the number of people killed or injured by the gunman, who still hadn't been identified by the time the evening network newscasts went on the air.
CNN got some wobbly video taken by a Virginia Tech student with a cellphone camera. What made it unique and valuable was the soundtrack: Gunshots could be heard coming from one of the buildings. When ABC aired the video on its evening newscast, it was captioned "CNN Exclusive."
# posted by ATN @ 12:41 AM 
