Body found on Mt. Hood…
I was out this afternoon and evening and came back to a bunch of email tips on the news that a body had been discovered on Mt. Hood. Here is the rundown as best as I have been able to piece it together…
FNC and CNN had been covering the Mt Hood story since 5pm ET Julie Banderas and Fredricka Whitfield respectively.
At 6pm Carol Lin took over and over on MSNBC Contessa Brewer broke in to cover the story. MSNBC seemed to be relying on the feed from an affilliate because one could hear a male voice speaking from a TV studio several times.
At 6:41 pm Sheriff Pete Hughes said on FNC that a body had been found on Mt. Hood. No immediate reports from CNN or MSNBC.
At 6:49 pm both CNN and MSNBC reported the discovery of the body.
MSNBC went back to tape around 7 pm, though some emails say that MSNBC did break in with updates and the news conferencs. FNC and CNN stayed live on the story throughout.
At around 8 or 8:30, Trace Gallagher tossed to Greta Van Susteren to continue the coverage on FNC.
At 9pm CNN brought Larry King on commercial free for the hour. Greta continued live on FNC. MSNBC stayed mostly in tape.
CNN stayed live at 10 and 11 pm. FNC and MSNBC were running regular programming but FNC’s The Line Up was spending some time on the story still…
It’s moments like this when you really have to question the management at MSNBC. I understand they’re down on funds, and need to use more taped programs to save the dollars… but these are moments when people buy into the brand. Someone who is interested in this story is going to watch, and if they like the coverage, they’ll continue to watch the network (and especially the anchor) in the future.
While this is a relatively small story in terms of world events, it is just another missed opportunity in what is sure to become a serious of missed opportunities by MSNBC.
Comment by ImNotBlue — December 18, 2006 @ 1:50 am
That’s exactly how I feel, I was not expecting MSNBC to be live 6pm-12am like CNN, but I just wonder how many people tuned out of the MSNBC taped programming knowing CNN and FNC were live. MSNBC also did not run ad free during the 6pm hour when they were live. CNN and FNC did not take much if any breaks then.
Comment by IceMan — December 18, 2006 @ 2:09 am
It’s amazing, the national networks kept covering this story like crazy but our regional network up here (NWCN, Northwest Cable News) only did coverage during the main news part (found first cave, then second) and then just went back to their regular programming of continuous news coverage, alike to what Headline News used to be 24-7.
Comment by Chris — December 18, 2006 @ 2:13 am
BECAUSE THIS IS A NON-NEWS EVENT!! COME ON… 3E BOYS LOST IN THE MOUNTAIN? EVERY YEAR DOZENS OF PEOPLE IS GETTIN LOST THERE…
Thanks to Real Superpass I have CNN International, Al Jazeera English an BBC World… and the most important news in the day was happening there. Only CNN International make a report from the mountain… obviously because the extensive coverage of the domestic channel.
Comment by Rodrigo — December 18, 2006 @ 4:30 am
What’s worse, is that when MSNBC WAS airing the story, their coverage seemed to be much better as far as what was being displayed. FNC and CNN seemed to be showing the same video most of the time, but MSNBC (probably NBC, actually) had different video, more up-close, of the equipment on the ground, etc. When they were on the story, I watching them due to the different camera angles.
As others have stated above, a live, breaking story such as this is what cable TV is all about.
Comment by Missy — December 18, 2006 @ 7:18 am
FOX News covered the story non-stop since about 3:00PM. Not 5pm. They went from about 3pm until 7pm without running commercials.
Julie joined Trace at 5PM and went until 7PM all climber news.
At 7PM Trace did the FOX Report that was 50-50 climber/other news. (they started taking commercial breaks again in this hour)
At 8PM Trace continued for part of the hour and then went to Greta. All missing climber news.
At 9PM FOX was live with Greta all missing climber news.
At 10PM The Lineup was on with maybe 25% climber news, 75% other crime news.
Comment by Nobody — December 18, 2006 @ 9:41 am
Imnotblue,
Perfectly said. I would only add that they could have picked a better anchor than the one they selected.
When I saw it was she, I quickly went back to FNC and CNN.
By the way, Rob Marciano was anchoring on CNN. I had never seen him anchor before. Perhaps he has. (I’m not a CNN regular viewer.)
He is hot, but not ready for prime time yet.
He needs grooming, and more experience and IMO will be a great addition to their team.
Comment by cella — December 18, 2006 @ 10:48 am
It was good coverage by CNN and FNC, but I wasn’t glued to it because its one of those stories that gets blown up because nothing else is going on. Still, MSNBC missed the boat, and it was obvious to anyone watching cable news yesterday. I do hope Nobody had time to go into the kitchen for a Kool Aid break.
Comment by Peter — December 18, 2006 @ 11:27 am
its cold
Comment by hmmm — December 18, 2006 @ 11:53 am
#7 Rob Marciano is not a news anchor, he is a weather guy. He was just on helping out because he worked in Portland OR for six years and knew something about the area.
Comment by SweetVaBreeze — December 18, 2006 @ 12:29 pm
Nobody was not drinking koolaid, Peter. It was a rundown, which was very helpful to some of us.
ImNotBlue makes some valid points. MSNBC did miss the boat. This might not be the story of a year, but it is a compelling story that tests the news networks and their anchors. More and more, news viewers surf during commercials; if the story is being covered elsewhere, one network loses that viewer, and the commercial-free network gains a viewer.
Also, both CNN and FNC brought in their big-guns from weekday primetime. I don’t know that MSNBC has anyone who would come in if they were called.
Comment by erljr — December 18, 2006 @ 2:37 pm
Once again… an embarassment for MSNBC. The list has been long this year. I was very disappointed and surprised(though I should not be). I thought after the election they had gotten better but I guess not.
What is their purpose anymore? They might as well just shut down.
Comment by Brent — December 18, 2006 @ 3:13 pm
FOX and CNN had compelling coverage all afternoon and night. I was surprised MSNBC wasn’t covering it but maybe two sources were enough.
Comment by ladyone — December 18, 2006 @ 5:56 pm