NBC, Today Show Get Boston Marathon Bombing Coverage Right

[DonViejo]

by David Freedlander Apr 20, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

Other outlets may be reporting the latest Twitter rumor, but NBC has been consistently correct. ‘Today’ executive producer Don Nash tells David Freedlander how Savannah Guthrie’s come into her own—and why Matt Lauer was stuck in Texas.

Don Nash had just gotten back from a vacation in the Bahamas when his phone rang at 3 o’clock Friday morning. By 4:30, the executive producer of the Today show was at 30 Rock, and by 6 a.m the show was on the air, broadcasting live reports from the ongoing manhunt in Boston.

Throughout the rest of the morning, NBC provided steady, fact-based coverage of a hyperactive event, cementing a week in which they were as consistently right about events on the ground even as other networks and news outlets seemed to report the latest rumor to pop up on Twitter. The performance could spark a turnaround after what has been a difficult stretch for the Today show and, by extension, NBC.

“This is a story with a lot of moving parts, and in the age of social media there is a lot of reporting coming from a lot of different sources, and I think we are just being extra careful,” Nash said. “If that means we are not going to be first sometimes, that is OK. We would rather be right and last than be first and wrong.”

A large part of the strength of the early morning for the network Friday was Savannah Guthrie, who logged seven hours in the anchor’s chair while co-host Matt Lauer was in Texas reporting on the fertilizer explosion there and while waiting for Brian Williams to begin his afternoon and evening shift. Nash said Friday was the first time that Guthrie had been on the air solo for a breaking news story like this one, and he called it a “turning point” for her.

full article:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/20/nbc-today-show-get-boston-marathon-bombing-coverage-right.html

[MineralMan]

1. During the capture last night,

CBS news was clearly hearing the information from a police scanner, but reported on none of that. Instead, they waited for confirmation before making any announcements. They had the scanner feed, but did not report on it. I was following information from the scanner on DU on my tablet computer while watching the CBS coverage. It was clear that they were deliberately waiting until they had info from official sources to make any announcements at all.

Throughout this entire thing, it seemed to me that the regular networks did a better job than the 24-hour cable networks. Perhaps that's because they don't have to talk continuously through ongoing events. I don't know. I do know that my habit of watching local television news and a network news program every day has given me a clearer picture of things, perhaps later, than if I were watching cable news.

It didn't used to be that way. When my ex-wife was in a train accident on the East Coast and I was in California a very long time ago, CNN provided real-time information very well. No longer, though. Now, they have to have some moron pundit interpreting everything, usually incorrectly. My ex-wife had only minor injuries from the accident, which I found out after calling the information number provided by CNN. Later, she called me. This was pre-cell phone days, in the 1980s.

[mainstreetonce]

2. I watched Savannah Guthrie

And she does need to be commended. She did it all alone for half the day .

I know the Today show has problems, but Savannah went up a notch in my book on Friday.