Following up on this morning’s blog entry where I openly questioned the proximity of the Bus accident to CNN’s HQ to the decision to turn that around quickly into a documentary, a CNN spokesperson responded…

This is a really compelling story – which is why every news organization reported it on Friday too. The passengers were college students with their whole lives ahead of them and in addition, this accident potentially has major implications for highway safety. We’ve received a tremendous amount of viewer response on this story from across the country – as this accident has raised broad questions about highway design and HOV lanes. Lots of cities are like Atlanta in that there has been tremendous rapid suburban sprawl and these issues affect almost everyone who drives a car.

Also, from a production perspective, the fact that this accident happened in Atlanta only covers part of this story. CNN Productions sent several crews to Ohio for the moving and compelling personal perspectives that you will see on Saturday evening – but the unit produces specials all the time on news events as they happen. Two examples: the unit sent crews to southwest Oregon to produce a special on the story of James Kim (the father who tried to save his family when his car got lost in a snowstorm) for Paula Zahn Now – and last summer, the unit produced a special on the conflict between Israel and Lebanon as that story was still unfolding. CNN’s ability to respond to news events with in-depth programming is one of the strengths of our news organization.