Liveblogging: Chief Justice Rehnquist passes away…
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.
- CNN’s Lin is interviewing John Dean.
- NBC dumps at 11:29 with Casone going back to MSNBC only. Chris Mathews is on by phone. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mathews or Russert make appearances on MSNBC tomorrow.
- Iovanna intro’d a Todd Connor package on Rehnquist.
- John King was just on for CNN giving a White House backgrounder on the story. Now Lin tosses to Sanjay Gupta for background on the illness. CNN is dominating the coverage.
- 11:40 MSNBC’s Pete Williams in now reporting from a studio. He sure got there fast.
- 11:46 Casone brings on Kelly O’Donnell via phone. O’Donnell traces John King’s footsteps. FOX has Andrew Napolitano on by phone…
- 11:50 Alan Colmes is on FOX but in another studio. I wonder where Hannity is?
- 11:52 CNN is running a canned Rehnquist retrospective piece. Joe Scarborough is on the phone for MSNBC. BTW, Casone seems to have recovered from her earlier jitters.
- 11:57 FOX is re-running the Connor piece. Carol Lin is interviewing former Attorney General Richard Thornberg. Greta seems to be taking over the coverage from Iovanna…
- 12:00 Casone is talking with Brian Williams via phone. He’s asking Pete Williams questions. Williams takes over the coverage from a phone.
- 12:02 CNN dumps after being on the story for nearly an hour. Larry King’s 3 hour show from earlier in the evening is on.
- 12:02 Sean Hannity appears in FOX’s studio with Alan Colmes in another studio and takes over the coverage. Susan Estrich is still on the phone.
- 12:02 This may be a cable news first. The anchor (Brian Williams) is anchoring by phone and conducting interviews with someone in a TV studio (Pete Williams) and by phone (Kelly O’Donnell, Joe Scarborough). I was going to ask why they can’t get Williams in a studio but he’s in New Orleans I believe. So why can’t they get him on satellite?
- 12:10 Hannity brings in Mark Levin by phone. Lis Whiel and Andrew Napolitano follow.
- 12:15 MSNBC dumps after being on the story for an hour. FOX is the lone network covering the story now. It took them a bit to get up to full speed but they’re charging on the story now.
- 12:23 FOX Supreme Court analyst Tim O’Brien is talking with Hannity by phone. Brian Wilson is brought in from the Washington D.C. Bureau. Oh Hannity, did you have to mention that Wilson dated Rehnquist’s daughter? Wilson, caught off gaurd a bit by that, says he didn’t know Rehnquist that well. He then breaks that the Roberts nomination will go as scheduled on Tuesday.
-12:40 Hannity brings in Tony Morrow; Supreme Court correspondent for American Lawyer. I think FOX is broadcasting for the west coast at this point. It’s only 9:40 out here. There wouldn’t be a lot to gain for stringing this out if it was just for the east coast.
-12:43 Hannity brings in David Asman who is in a studio (but not FOX’s News Corp building apparently because I’m not seeing any FOX logos unlike the one behind Hannity). This is a bit of a surprise. Megyn Kendall via phone follows.
-12:50 Colmes talks to Alan Dershowitz via phone. Dershowitz starts pontificating almost immediately. Rehashes Bush v. Gore and basically calls Rehnquist a hypocrite for it. “The decisions of Justice Rehnquist are not taught in law schools as great decisions. He’ll be primarily remembered for his votes rather than the content or quality of his decisions”? Ugh…he just called him a “Republicn thug”…Colmes cuts him off and Hannity turns to Levin who can’t wait to tear into Dershowitz! “Professor Derschowitz has proven himself to be the disgrace that I always thought he was.” Ouch..
-12:57 FOX dumps after being on the story for over an hour and a half.
-1:oo Waitasec. FOX is back. Is this a re-run?
CNN was the first to break the news. I suspect the biggest story will still be Katrina for the next week.
Comment by Clark Kent — September 3, 2005 @ 11:24 pm
This is also the week that CNN was devoting, starting tuesday, to 9/11 anniversary coverage leading up to and thru Sunday. All major anchors off Labor Day.
Comment by anonymous — September 3, 2005 @ 11:55 pm
Monday it won’t be necessary for A level anchors. It’s Sunday that matters…
Comment by Spud — September 4, 2005 @ 12:00 am
An exhausted and hoarse Brian Williams is anchoring MSNBC via telephone (with Pete Williams in the studio). This should tell you all you need to know about MSNBC.
Comment by Yardley — September 4, 2005 @ 12:13 am
It didn’t sound hoarse to me. He did sound muted though…
Comment by Spud — September 4, 2005 @ 12:36 am
FNC will come out and offer an excuse on why they were late in reporting the story. I just feel it coming on.
Comment by anonymous — September 4, 2005 @ 12:37 am
A) They were kinda busy covering Katrina.
B) They wanted to wait to confirm.
C) It’s Labor Day weekend.
That is quite the time margin, though. But FNC getting left in the dust like this is quite the rarity.
Comment by Charles — September 4, 2005 @ 12:46 am
FNC was third out of the starting gate, but right now they’re the only horse still in the race.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 4, 2005 @ 12:58 am
Yes this is a repeat of the past hour.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 4, 2005 @ 1:08 am
In responding to #7. They were kinda airing taped programming and fnc normally is last when it comes to airing breaking news after the sun goes down. For a channel to claim they are LIVE 24/7 it’s pretty embarrassing.. at least I think it would be.
FNC’s coverage now is nothing more than speculation. The question that will be asked a million times is who dubya will suggest for the court.
Comment by anonymous — September 4, 2005 @ 1:47 am
“For a channel to claim they are LIVE 24/7 it’s pretty embarrassing.”
Of course they never claimed that. No channel has.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 4, 2005 @ 2:08 am
JD that’s bull crap..FNC airs a promo saying they are live 24/7, 365 days a year..it’s one of those 15 second bumper promos.
And how funny..fnc is back to tape but with a fox news alert proclaiming rehnquist is dead. fox news alert that’s old news by now.
Comment by anonymous — September 4, 2005 @ 2:12 am
Dollar, number 12 is right, i’ve seen the promo many many times…
Comment by Jordan — September 4, 2005 @ 2:14 am
I’m sorry but you are both mistaken. That is a promo for “Fox News Live”, not for the overall Fox News Channel. It says so right up on the screen. “Fox News Live” is not just the hours of daytime coverage, it is also the updates done every 30 minutes or so throughout the night.
Fox News Channel was the first news channel to have live news updates all through the nighttime hours, 24/7. It’s a promo for “Fox News Live”.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 4, 2005 @ 2:48 am
Heh?
JD — read that back to yourself out loud (post 14).
Still make sense?
Comment by WestCoastBlogger — September 4, 2005 @ 4:10 am
Mmmm… do you think you could try to spell the late Chief Justice’s name correctly? It’s Rehnquist, not “Rhenquist.”
Comment by Bill Parker — September 4, 2005 @ 5:39 am
Some of the repeats allow those of us in different time zones to see their programs…Most of you are asleep by the time I tune in after dinner…
Comment by RR — September 4, 2005 @ 6:32 am
Hmmm, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, ABC. Are they still on the air? If so, that’s too bad. Stick with FNC boys and girls, it’ll be easier on your remotes.
Comment by Gene Smith — September 4, 2005 @ 8:32 am
Dershowitz is a disgrace, How can anyone take this guy serious after his display on the night of Justice Rhenquist’s death.
Comment by Wade Garrett — September 4, 2005 @ 9:20 am
#15: Yep, still makes sense. “Fox News Live” IS live around the clock, 24/7.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 4, 2005 @ 11:18 am
Other commercials just say “FOX News, 24/7″. ;)
Comment by Charles — September 4, 2005 @ 11:36 am
I’m sorry Charles but I believe you are mistaken. The 24/7 “we’re always live” promo always says “Fox News Live”. The one they run currently is a cut-down version of a longer one that actually had a voice-over saying “Fox News Live”. On the shorter one that part of the voice-over is trimmed, but on-screen it still reads “Fox News Live”.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 4, 2005 @ 11:44 am
sorry, had mutiple tabs opened concerning the hurricane and thought i was posting on an appropriate topic
Comment by REALIGNMENT — September 4, 2005 @ 12:33 pm
the promo is mis-leading….just like a politician.
Comment by anonymous — September 4, 2005 @ 1:18 pm
RR (#17): Good observation.
Last night I went out to dinner and returned at 10PM PT and watched the FNC hour discussing the passing of Justice Rehnquist. While it may have been a replay, to me it was still very new and relevant.
Comment by Ira — September 4, 2005 @ 1:31 pm
what’s sad about the reruns on ANY ‘news’ channel is that sometimes the story has changed since it first aired. cnn has a great history of not re-airing programs that are outdated and in which the story has changed. fnc though re-runs the program despite that fact, only changing the graphics on the screen.
Comment by anonymous — September 4, 2005 @ 2:52 pm
I’ll add that if they rerun a live program, and the anchor keeps saying we are live here, or we are going live there, they should put up something on screen like “earlier” or “8:03 pm”. They shouldn’t assume just because the “live” bug is not on screen that people watching it know it is a repeat.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 4, 2005 @ 2:55 pm
Anyone notice that the kid over at tvn stole some pertinent information from this story?
Comment by ThePig — September 4, 2005 @ 3:00 pm
No comment.
Comment by Spud — September 4, 2005 @ 3:30 pm
I highly doubt that FNC claims it’s live 24/7 when O’Reilly tapes early and their entire primetime lineup is repeated throughout the night. They have live updates 3 or 4 times an hour 24/7.
Comment by JH — September 4, 2005 @ 4:15 pm
I highly doubt that FNC claims it’s live 24/7 when O’Reilly tapes early and their entire primetime lineup is repeated throughout the night. They have live updates 3 or 4 times an hour 24/7.
___________________________
The promo says live 24/7, 365..and they only do updates twice an hour. what flavor kool-aid are you fnc watchers drinking?
And it’s very easy for TVN to say an e-mailer sent him the info than give a blog with what kind of stats did he say the other day……oh anyway pitiful stats, credit. he’s a total booozer.
Comment by Anonymous — September 4, 2005 @ 6:40 pm
Can you imagine what might have ensued had they turned to, say, Robert Bork on the evening of Justice Marshall’s death, and he’d said “ah, he was just an NAACP stooge”?
Comment by WitherTheFool — September 4, 2005 @ 8:16 pm
Lis Wheil Rocks!
From danielle london her daughter
Comment by Danielle Lodon — October 9, 2005 @ 2:37 pm
Lis Wiehl is a fool with a bad nose job and an even worse dye job.
Comment by Anon — October 28, 2005 @ 10:46 pm
JUST ASKING
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