I'm late to this party, having stayed up all night to watch the coverage. Sorry I missed your early concerns, Dr. Page; I would have concurred with those who suggested your daughter stay where she was, and it turned out that that was her best option.
Channel surfing throughout the night and morning, I found that: (1) CNN simply sucks, for all the reasons previously stated, plus I realize that I can no longer stand Wolf Blitzer. He has an air of false authority, speaking as if he as a clue what he's talking about when he clearly doesn't. After his ass is handed him, I suspect he'll end up on Matt Drudge's site. (2) MSNBC wasn't much better -- too bright and brittle; ok for me for political coverage but for this. (3) I turned to Fox just once to hear the anchor erroneously report that all of Washington Bridge was shut down (it was just the lower level) and that Obama had pledged recovery support to Puerto Rico, without mentioning that he had also ok'd emergency relief to NJ and all other affected states. The snark quotient flew off the charts. Enough of that idiocy. (4) WABC: I agree -- they had the best shots, but the reporting was mediocre. (5) WCBS: turned to it only when other stations went on break, so can't really judge it fairly. (6) WNBC: to me, the best of the lot. Despite Sue's tendency to want to make light of the most serious calamities (she seems forever either drunk or stoned), Chuck held it together. It was a "warmer" broadcast, not prone to hyperbolic sensationalism. Also, I liked how some of the on-the-scene reporters adjusted in their performances: When they were on MSNBC, they evoked formal, serious; but on WNBC, they came across as familiar, friendly. I'm thinking specifically of Ann Thompson and Matt Taibbi. Some of the local reporters were too full of themselves (one was too self-pleased with his "look at this amazing video I -- me! shot" attitude and another who said "rock 'n' roll" one too many times), but on the whole they were ok. The highlight, for me, was Brian Williams' cameo walk-on described earlier; he pretty much ended up doing his stand-up, cracking up much of the staff. And today he filled in solo for an hour at 1 PM. Classy guy. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
