I happened to be on MSNBC at the time Cheryl Casone cut in with news that Justice Rehnquist had passed away. Flipped over to CNN and Carol Lin was already talking to Jeffery Toobin about it. Flipped over to FOX and saw tape. Waited. FOX cut in with Carol Iovanna about two minutes later. Iovanna tossed to Greta Van Susteren.

Now what’s going to be the lead story for the cable nets this week? Hurricane or Rehnquist? Or half and half?

UPDATE: A tipster emailed in the break-in times (according to his TiVo clock)

CNN at 11:06:23pm ET
MSNBC at 11:12:20pm ET
FOX at 11:14:10pm ET

- MSNBC’s Casone is struggling. Now she’s on NBC as well. So far there’s been nobody for her to toss to. Ugh…Casone just led in to a Pete Williams canned piece on Rehnquist. Only I recognize the voice and it’s Chris Jansing! Casone acknowledged that at the end of the piece. Now Casone is talking by phone with Williams.

UPDATE: I think it’s safe to say that these guys aren’t thrilled with what’s going on at MSNBC tonight…

- FOX’s Iovanna is now talking with Susan Estrich.
(more…)

From a tipster…

Saturday
10p - 7a Cheryl Casone (update desk)

Sunday
7a - 11a Alex Witt and Bill Fitzgerald
11a - 3p Randy Meier and Alison Stewart
3p - 6p Natalie Allen and Collette Cassidy
6p - 11p Milissa Rehberger (probably on standby during the remote programs from the disaster area)
11pm-Overnight Bill Fitzgerald (update desk)

The tipster noted that the schedule may change. They were tweaking it today. Originally they were going to go live to midnight tonight. Obviously that’s not happening. Does this mean they won’t be live till 1 am tomorrow?

There’s a brief wrap up of the Larry King How You Can Help special still in progress…

MSNBC is running tape of Carlson’s broadcast from two hours ago. Meanwhile CNN and FOX are still live. I know it’s a three day weekend and NBC News is facing budget cuts and this story is hugely expensive for any news network to put on (and MSNBC is never usually live at this point in time anyways). But Larry King is on CNN and Hannity, Colmes, Van Susteren, and Rivera are all on FOX. Is the story really over for the night? Apparently for MSNBC it is. Yet another reason why MSNBC has the reputation it has in some circles. I feel badly for the folks in Secuacus who put so much effort into their work…

UPDATE: An emailer chimes in…

Every month or so MSNBC does something that you just can’t explain. Is Rick Kaplan awake now?

FOX News’ Bill Hemmer…

We are meeting so many people who are literally flying into this city, paying for their own way, to try and help out with this enormous operation here in the capital city of Baton Rouge.

I met a woman on the plane, flying in earlier today, a registered nurse from Boston. Paid her own way to get here. She is reporting directly to an enormous medical team that is now set up across town, on the campus of Louisiana State University. Met a man who flew in from San Antonio on the same flight. He’s going to hook up with a local church group and deliver water, and cots and clothing to whomever may need it here in the city of Baton Rouge.

(more…)

First CNN set up the Victims and Relief Desk. Then DirectTV offered a Katrina channel with a crawl for messages. Now MSNBC.com has set up a search page….

From CNN…

“Due to the scheduled FEMA press conference, which takes place at 10 a.m. daily, CNN will cancel tomorrow’s edition of On The Story. As the state of emergency continues to develop in the Gulf Coast region, we believe it is necessary to carry the FEMA press conference live for our viewers.”

Allison Romano in Broadcasting & Cable…

CNN’s Anderson Cooper, stationed in Mississippi and Louisiana last week, says the devastation surpassed any hurricane he had covered: “It compares to the tsunami in Sri Lanka and some of the things I saw in Sarajevo during the [Balkans] war. It is not a reference point that the U.S. has seen before.”

The images out of New Orleans seemed surreal even to jaded TV news reporters. In New Orleans, gunfire and fights broke out at the Superdome, where thousands of refugees baked in the heat. Looting and random gunfire created a lawless environment. Some news crews traveled with armed guards; others abandoned scenes that got too dangerous.
(more…)

From a tipster…

MSNBC will be live until 1AM on Sunday. Meet the Press is supposed to air at 10PM as well, but who knows what will happen as the day progresses.

On Saturday and Sunday the Concert from last night will air at Noon and 5PM.

Next Week:

“Connected: Coast to Coast” at Noon and 5PM will not air. At Noon, MSNBC Live will continue as normal. At 5PM “Hardball: First Edition” will air. Primetime will be normal with Chris Matthews going Live during his 7PM hour.

Scott Collins in the LA Times (via The Houston Chronicle and courtesy of WHAC):

The tenor of news media coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina turned sharply confrontational late this week, as many reporters shed their customary stance of studied neutrality and joined numerous commentators in ripping local, state and federal officials for their seemingly slow reaction to the calamity.
(more…)

The special which ICN noted here, is hosted by Larry King. It will air tonight from 8-11 pm EST. Here is a list of scheduled guests…
(more…)

From CNN:

by day breakdown…

Monday, 8/29 - 9 million video plays, 130 million page views
Tuesday, 8/30 - 6.7 million video plays, 105 million page views
Wednes., 8/31 - 6.8 million video plays, 125 million page views
Thursd., 9/01 - 5.4 million video plays, 115 million page views
Friday, 9/02 - 5.3 million video plays, 97 million page views

Totals - 33.2 Million Video Plays, 572 Million Page Views

CNN reporter blogs have gotten over 4.2 million page views this week.

CNN’s correspondents blog….

Elizabeth Cohen:

This helicopter arrived at The Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge with precious cargo — 29 newborn babies rescued from a downtown New Orleans hospital. Most of them were without their mothers though. Jordan was one of the lucky ones. His mother, Tory Abrams, made it onto the same helicopter. She gave birth a week ago at Louisiana State University Hospital in New Orleans. She tried to explain her ordeal to us on camera, but it was too difficult.

She told us the conditions inside the hospital were miserable. There was no electricity, no air conditioning, no working toilets. The nurses warned that soon they would run out of formula for the babies. She was worried for her son. In New Orleans, conditions were so bad, the hospital staff was unable to check out the strange lump behind his ear. Doctors here in Baton Rouge did an ultrasound and then admitted him for more tests. The nurse reassured her, while others did what they could to search for the babies who had arrived alone.

And now Tory and Jordan have a place to go once they leave the hospital. A local church is taking them in, as well as several other mother/baby pairs.
(more…)

Here’s the link to view the list of those who have contacted CNN to report on their status.

To post your status or to post the status of someone you know is ok, email hurricanevictims@cnn.com…

Paul Farhi in the Washinton Post…

At 11:21 a.m., Fox News Channel was the first to carry what may have been the signature image of the day: A convoy of relief vehicles, rumbling and brawny and said to be eight miles long, came streaming off the Crescent City Connection bridge into the swamp of misery that is New Orleans.

Deliverance. Or at least the possibility that the cavalry was finally arriving.

Throughout the day, for the first time all week, other promising pictures emerged from a city described by its mayor on Wednesday night as “hanging by a thread” because of the slow federal response.
….
Fox, with by far the day’s best reporting, showed exclusive footage shot inside the Superdome. The cavernous interior was dark and so befouled with garbage that you could almost smell the stench through the screen. But the pictures were heartening for what they didn’t show. The giant building was empty, no longer a tenuous refuge for thousands. Outside, the exhausted and the bedraggled were rolling away in buses, some to another, far more orderly sports arena, Houston’s Astrodome.
….
At one point, the ever-grumpy CNN commentator Jack Cafferty, expressing national cynicism about the government’s response to the hurricane, asked anchor Wolf Blitzer, “Do you think the arrival of the National Guard and these political photo ops on the Gulf Coast were a coincidence, Wolf?” Blitzer wisely punted.

Aaron Barnhart in the Kansas City Star’s TV Barn looks at some of the coverage of the disaster and trashes The Situation Room and praises Countdown with Keith Olberman….

“The Situation Room” is a travesty. First, there’s the sterility of it: Wolf Blitzer in his hermetic bubble, far from the crisis. Then there’s the display. “Meaningless visual jumble” is exactly right, Scott. Imagine if, instead of writing a column, I copied and pasted four sets of notes and two press releases and called it a column. That’s the “Situation Room” effect — no context, no room to breathe, just a bombardment of images. Is Condi Rice conducting a press conference worthy of a picture the same size as the other five? Then why include her?
….
By contrast, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” (8 ET, MSNBC) has shown it understands the power of pictures. It also understands that sometimes, more is more. I’ve been struck by how long Olbermann lets the tape play out. He must have done 10 minutes on the crisis at the Convention Center, and nine of those minutes were of the NBC cameraman who took the pictures. The night before, same thing — just letting the power of pictures and words overwhelm us. Olbermann has had a sense of urgency and outrage in his newscasts all week. He’s to be commended.