Explosion at Boston Marathon II

It was...wow, I am getting old. Chiefs were the Dwayne Rudd helmet removal that cost them the game. I remember punching a hole in my wall.

 

NBC News is solid with some very strong reporters like Pete Williams. Lucky for MSNBC that they have the association or they would have zero credibility.

 

If history is any indication, he (they) will get a teaching job at University of Illinois-Chicago and become friends with a future president.

 

Serious question and PLEASE do not turn this into the kind of thing that gets a thread locked...WTF is John Ransom talking about here:

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2013/04/17/torturing-english-to-avoid-saying-saudi-n1569484

Is there something we do not know or is he just throwing a bunch of shit at the wall and seeing if a pretty picture comes into focus? I don't get why this kind of crap gets published.

 

Come on, Tony.

 

domestically, Fox is better at covering the actual event because they have affiliates everywhere. And local Fox stations generally have an hour for the evening news so they have larger news staffs. And helicopters. CNN doesnt have an airforce, Fox does. Once the National anchors start speculating, it's a different game.

 

Honestly, I have not watched network news in years because of the 24-hour news cycle. Don't worry, I still read at least one newspaper every day (and not the web edition).

 

CNN struggled to cover a tornado that hit its building. And yet, if there had been one in Washington or Iraq, they'd have been all over it.

 

If the area where the bombs went off was supposedly a secure VIP area, how did so many people get in there including the bombers?

 

I haven't been hearing anyone ask that question at all. Shouldn't there have been some kind of pass list? Credentials? I have to check my bag to COVER most major sports events...even with credentials and knowing most of the guards on a first-name basis. How could someone just wander in with a backpack or gym bag, twice, and set these things up?

 

Fox may have affiliates but unless I'm mistaken, most of them don't have their own news people -- they piggyback on an established local news division with another station that's either owned by the same company or has a working agreement with. Everywhere I've been, the Fox affiliate's newscasts are staffed by another station's people. So I don't know how much help that provides national Fox in times like this.

 

No, a large percentage have their own news staffs. That's certainly the case in larger markets, where a fairly high percentage are O&Os.

It's not really true to say that CNN lacks the affiliates, though. CNN has a news sharing agree with a staggering percentage of local stations. I'm in a market with 5 local English language stations doing news and all 5 have agreements with CNN. My station is a network affiliate and our reporters probably do more live reports for CNN than for our own network.

FOX probably has better communication and a closer relationship with its local stations than CNN, but it does not have a larger number of affiliates.

One note about MSNBC's numbers -- they're going to be cannibalized by NBC going wall-to-wall in a way FOX and CNN are not. They're not a go-to source for breaking news in the first place, which certainly is a big factor, but NBC's coverage helped kill their rating.