North Korea Missle Launch thread…
Ok here’s a placeholder for all your comments on the coverage of the North Korea Missle test story. I was totally out of the loop this afternoon. I was making Ice Cream and when I wasn’t working on that I was watching Italy/Germany on ESPN. I got word that there was a launch via the radio and flipped the channels quickly to see who was on it and who wasn’t. Then I went back to Football/Ice Cream.
All three channels were covering it in some form though I noticed MSNBC was carrying the NBC feed with Ann Curry and using NBC graphics. I understand from some of the emails I’ve gotten that Bret Baier was all over it for FNC. CNN was still all over this when I last checked a short time ago with The Situation Room and John King. MSNBC was mostly dark and boy is the MSN MSNBC board pissed about that…
CNN should make a promo “Breaking News never takes a holiday.”
So since I was out doing my July4/World Cup thang, I defer to you to assess the coverage today…
UPDATE: At 8pm ET, both FNC and CNN continued their live coverage. CNN continued for the full hour with a CNN International simulcast. FNC dumped to O’Reilly at some point before the bottom of the hour. MSNBC continues in its taped hybernation…
UPDATE 2: Larry King was live on CNN covering the story. At 10pm On The Record was live with Jamie Colby. MSNBC continues to revel in tape. What a black eye for MSNBC and NBC.
CNN’s coverage was great (and still is as of this moment). MSNBC’s is non-existent. What. An. Embarrassment!!!!
Comment by Goldfish — July 4, 2006 @ 7:14 pm
CNN has owned from the story from the start. They have been all over it from the first moments. FNC started off slow, but once they got going they were good too, but I still think CNN was better. I refuse to even mention the other channel… and I usually am a fan.
Comment by Brent — July 4, 2006 @ 7:22 pm
CNN has killed everyone, yes. FNC jumped on board about 20 minutes after CNN but then scaled things back, when it was clear it did not have the resources to stretch the globe like CNN has. For MSNBC, this is certainly an all-time lowpoint. Everyone on the staff should be humiliated by what has happened (or should I say HASN’T happened) today.
Comment by Jimmy — July 4, 2006 @ 7:24 pm
Seriously, CNN should start calling to check if one of the long-range missiles hit Secaucus, NJ. Because it really appears that the entire MSNBC network has been wiped out.
Comment by Jimmy — July 4, 2006 @ 7:27 pm
That’s a plausible theory, Jimmy. LOL. I am at a loss for figuring out how MSNBC let this happen.
Comment by Goldfish — July 4, 2006 @ 7:40 pm
The coverage MSNBC had was a simulcast of an NBC Special Report with Ann Curry. I believe NBC did two Special reports on was at 5pm EDT. I think MSNBC did one breaking news report at 4:30pm EDT.
Comment by IceMan — July 4, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
Speaking of CNN, Jack Cafferty is kind of scaring me.
Comment by Goldfish — July 4, 2006 @ 8:00 pm
It was absolutely anemic. MSNBC had a total of 15 minutes of coverage between 4 and 8, if that. CNN had four straight hours, was breaking news left and right, and FOX was pretty much wall-to-wall until 7 p.m. This is a major international crisis being reacted to all over the world with new developments by the minute, and MSNBC is airing BTK Killer documentaries. It’s shameful, embarrassing, and proves everyone who’s ever said MSNBC is not a real news network right.
Comment by Jimmy — July 4, 2006 @ 8:01 pm
8:00 p.m:
FNC - North Korea
CNN - North Korea
MSNBC - Crime documentary
Comment by Jimmy — July 4, 2006 @ 8:05 pm
Jimmy (in post #4), your hypothesis is the best! LOL!!!!!!! (I’m not kidding).
Spud had earlier asked whether we thought these “Breaking News” bulletins were warranted, and we all gave varying responses. But apparently they are. No one is criticizing CNN or FNC for their coverage, but MSNBC’s paltry reporting on the subject is reprehensible. While I did not see the earlier NBC feed you guys mentioned, I still can’t believe they are back to the documentaries!
They may as well just shut down their news operations and go with documentaries 24/7. If that’s all they’re going to do, why was it such a big deal to put Dan Abrams in that position? Anyone could just run tape all day long!
And this from me, a former Dan Abrams fan!!!
Comment by Missy — July 4, 2006 @ 8:10 pm
I have wanted to give MSNBC a break, but this is unbelievable. How can Dan Abrams explain this away?
IMO they have thrown in the towel. Today’s lack of performance just cements the idea that they are on a slippery slope to nowhere.
Comment by cella — July 4, 2006 @ 8:46 pm
I agree with the posts about MSNBC. They could handle a live version of “The Most”, but couldn’t do much at all with the Korean missiles. I keep clicking back and they are still in the taped programming. As others have said, as much of a fan of MSNBC as I am, this is tough to explain or justify. CNN even had off-duty folks working their contacts and getting on the phone. Did MSNBC give everybody the day off with a “no contact” directive?
Comment by dougk54 — July 4, 2006 @ 8:58 pm
Wow. CNN brought Larry King in, on the Fourth of July, no less, to cover the story. MSNBC is MIA, as already noted, and so is Fox. They’ve got on a tape of Sean Hannity interviewing Howard Stern!!!! God help us.
Comment by Missy — July 4, 2006 @ 9:04 pm
CNN was live for a few min at 10pm then went to a documentary on North Korea.
FNC is live with Jamie Colby hosting On The Record.
Comment by IceMan — July 4, 2006 @ 10:09 pm
I don’t get the deal with MSNBC. I don’t think everyone on the staff has to be embarrassed (please) but those who are minding the store really missed the boat here. I am really wondering what Dan Abrams meant when he said MSNBC wasn’t going to become “a crime channel” and then left all of July 4 to taped specials about prisons and serial killers. It seems especially silly given the way they were hyping the “Flood! Flood! Flood! Breaking News! Flood!” last week.
Comment by tanne — July 4, 2006 @ 10:15 pm
Of course everyone on the staff should be embarrassed, Keith. MSNBC was nowhere to be found on the biggest international crisis of the year. How on earth can that be justified? Any journalist would be embarrassed that their network is not doing anything to cover a big story when their competitors are thoroughly covering every aspect. Although today, everyone who’s been saying MSNBC is not a true competitor to CNN and FOX (and even Headline News) has been vindicated. And you know it.
Comment by Jimmy — July 4, 2006 @ 10:47 pm
Let’s just hope the Oddball 2005 Special does not run at 9am.
Comment by IceMan — July 4, 2006 @ 11:44 pm
I sure hope the folks over at MSNBC had a nice 4th because they’re really going to hear it from the (few) viewers regarding their NON-EXISTANT coverage!!
Comment by Anonymous — July 5, 2006 @ 12:35 am
We should also applaud Spud for putting this topic up today. Many other sites, including cable news discussion boards and those at which news stories are posted by the author, still don’t have the story up as I write. Thanks, Spud, for opening the thread and letting us vent.
(I know Spud doesn’t like complements so he’ll probably throw the ice cream he made at my post!)
Comment by Missy — July 5, 2006 @ 1:04 am
wrong spelling used: should be: compliments
Comment by Missy — July 5, 2006 @ 1:05 am
My ice cream ain’t what it ususally is so you don’t deserve it…
Comment by Spud — July 5, 2006 @ 1:07 am
I see a few of you criticizing FNC for not being wall to wall North Korea, while CNN is. Remember recently when AC 360 had two straight hours on the Sears tower? And that was the same week it had Angelina Jolie. I think this time both CNN and FNC are doing great.
CNN has Larry King and the political team coming in on July 4th; then a prerecorded CNN Presents all about North Korea, which it is running in place of AC 360. And I believe CNN is breaking in 5-10 live minutes an hour. Great!
FNC is running it’s planned shows, some of them reruns yes, plus 10-15 minutes an hour - at least 5 minutes every half hour - live on North Korea. That’s great too!
They are both doing good by their viewers. Remember FNC viewers watch longer and the average CNN viewer watches less than 15 minutes a day.
As far as MSNBC is concerned, I think their viewers are all very patriotic, so they’re all out celebrating our nation’s independence. Right??? Dan…
Secaucus, NJ: nuclear wasteland? worse than Katrina? flooded on July 4th? victim of crime or victim of crimetime?
Comment by erljr — July 5, 2006 @ 1:33 am
Colby did not devote the full hour to North Korea.
FNC swithed to crime stories at some point.CNN owned
the story by far.I think they got some sort of tip.
They got people in place pretty quick.Once I saw
the ABC Special Report,I flipped over to CNN.
John KIng did an awsome job and all of the important
people in foreign policy, defense and intelligence
were on CNN all thoughout the night.On stories like
this CNN is tough to beat but you have got to give
FNC credit for trying.MSNBC is in trouble. The decision
went higher than Abrams(he might become the fall guy).
The topdog made that call and now Jeff Zucker has a problem.
Part of the problem for MSNBC,no strong breaking news anchor
and this could spell bad news for NBC as well.
CNN and FNC covered the breaking news with their backups
and pulled things off.MSNBC will have a hard time getting
viewers for breaking news from now on.They will be the last
resort channel.At some point last week, a lot of people
made fun of Jon Klein for a comment he made about news
being the star.I think we all know what he means now.
Comment by future tv mogul — July 5, 2006 @ 1:47 am
Jimmy, please. Your comic act of believing I was Keith Olbermann was funny for about a second, then it stopped being funny. When are you going to accept that I’m not him? And when are you going to accept that it’s absurd to expect the entire staff of MSNBC to feel humiliated because the people in charge can’t get breaking news covered on a holiday? It would be as absurd as feeling ashamed because you graduated from the same high school as Ted Bundy or something. It’s not as if Ted Bundy is your fault or as if your school routinely produces Ted Bundys.
You’re acting as if even the janitors at MSNBC should be hanging their heads in shame over this, which leads me to think that you’re just an MSNBC hater. Which leads me to think that for you, as for many of his other haters, everything that goes wrong with MSNBC can be blamed on Keith Olbermann. There was no breaking news on MSNBC when there should have been? Well by God, let’s put Keith Olbermann up against a wall and shoot him!
Comment by tanne — July 5, 2006 @ 6:48 am
I never made fun of Keith Olbermann, I made fun of you. And nice attempt at a diversion; it won’t work. MSNBC embarrassed itself yesterday and that’s the bottom line.
Comment by jimmy — July 5, 2006 @ 7:08 am
#24 - Dan, is that you?
Comment by Anonymous — July 5, 2006 @ 7:45 am
Jimmy says “I never made fun of Keith Olbermann, I made fun of you.”
Oh, so now all of a sudden I’m not Keith? LOL!
“And nice attempt at a diversion; it won’t work. MSNBC embarrassed itself yesterday and that’s the bottom line.”
Oh, give me a break. They made a stupid mistake. Like YOU don’t embarrass yourself, ever…
Comment by tanne — July 5, 2006 @ 7:36 pm
A stupid mistake is a word spelled wrong in a graphic or a factual problem that needs an on-air correction. Conciously ignoring a major breaking news story for 6 hours is inexcusable incompetence. It’s indefensible.
Comment by Jimmy — July 5, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
Welll then, gosh, Jimmy, I guess the whole network should just close down in shame, rather than try to figure out why what they did was a bad idea and make sure it doesn’t happen again?
MSNBC wasn’t like this in the past. When the Pope was dying they had coverage around the clock with name anchors. Keith Olbermann skipped a planned vacation to go do coverage. Why isn’t that happening now? It’s not because Olbermann or Matthews or anyone else is too lazy and ignorant to care. It’s because the attitude of management, apparently, is that they don’t need to be called in for something like this–not when CRIME DOESN’T TAKE A HOLIDAY will get higher ratings! Well, we will soon see whether it did or not, but in the meantime, the dedication to actually covering the news DID take a holiday…but it isn’t because the MSNBC talent was too lazy to want to cover it. It’s because the management apparently didn’t feel it was necessary to call them up and say “We need you, something’s going on.”
It happens to professionals all the time and they can handle it. God knows it happens to me. I’ve been pulled out of a party at work because someone in Europe needed something by his next work day and only I could provide it. But I wouldn’t have known I was needed if management hadn’t tapped me on the shoulder.
Obviously someone at MSNBC needs to do some shoulder-tapping.
Comment by tanne — July 6, 2006 @ 7:14 am