Today the multiple bombings in Jordan caused all three networks to basically adopt the same strategy. CNN, MSNBC, and FNC all had multiple screens up showing various feeds of the coverage. We have seen, since The Situation Room first started doing it, that MSNBC and FNC would occasionally follow CNN’s tactic when covering a breaking news event by cramming as many feeds as they could into the TV screen but never to the degree that we witnessed today. And over at CNN, someone gave Wolf Blitzer a table to put his papers on (it may have been used prior to today I don’t usually get to see the program because I’m at work…however today I’m home ill).

With the three networks basically showing the same footage the same way, the only way to differentiate the coverage came down to the analysts each network used. My illness kept me from paying too close attention to the unfolding spectacle so I’m not going to comment on who had the best analysis.

UPDATE: TVNewser notes the video image “cram-a-thon” yesterday. In MSNBC’s case I only saw a quad screen picture a few times later in the day. For most of the broadcast it was just a single image.

CNN announced today that Susan Roesgen has joined the network as a full time Gulf Coast correspondent….

“My new role with CNN enables me to join the top news organization in the world while remaining based in a city I love: New Orleans,” Roesgen said. “I hope to give viewers a true and broad sense of the recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast in addition to providing the best reports on other news from the region.”
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CNBC announced today that the Suze Orman will air a special on “Identity Theft” on Saturday, Nov 19th at 9 pm EST….

In the special, Suze tackles identity theft, giving viewers everything they need to know to arm themselves against this growing threat and offering strategies to those who have already fallen victim, with a special guest from credit bureau Fair, Isaac & Co.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman tries to make it…

The thing with Olbermann is that he has always been a bit of a misunderstood visionary on television. Part journalist, part comic, equal parts dry, silly, skeptical and angry, there has been no traditional role for him and thus he has either been an outcast or a noble failure or a square talent in a business full of round openings. Until, that is, he started “Countdown” on MSNBC in April 2003.
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The Mobile Register’s Mike Brantley dislikes what CNN did to Aaron Brown…

A boo and a hiss to CNN for not just sidelining a good newsman, but for out and out dumping him.

I am, of course, referring to the “mutual decision” that led CNN and lead anchor Aaron Brown to part ways during the former “NewsNight” anchor’s vacation last week. The journalist and his show were replaced this week with an expanded and later edition of “Anderson Cooper 360.”

Cooper’s star has soared to new heights thanks to his impassioned reporting from the storm-stricken Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina. His earnest, sometimes crusading style of reporting struck a chord with viewers.

But it’s not a chord that’s appropriate every day, every story. Let’s have more of Cooper, sure, but CNN risks overexposing its new star.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Gail Shister does her take. Question for Shister: What “media firestorm”?

He looks suave and debonair, but CNN’s new poster boy sounds like a sports car with a broken clutch.

“I stutter. I talk too fast. I don’t finish sentences,” says Anderson Cooper. “I probably do a million things that aren’t in the TV anchorman’s textbook.”

Almost nothing about Cooper is, but only a relatively small audience knows it. That will change, now that he’s cable’s new “it” boy.
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After a momentary lull yesterday, the wave resumes today. Peter Johnson in USA Today….

Disaster coverage has helped raise his profile, but “to me, nothing good has come out of Katrina or come out of this last year from these stories,” he says. “I just don’t think like that.”

And the whole concept of stardom is something the son of socialite Gloria Vanderbilt says he pays little attention to.

“There’s always somebody whom people say that about — and then there’s somebody else,” he says. “To me, this is a great opportunity to tell more stories and tell them in depth and really focus on what’s going on, to hold people accountable and get answers.”
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