The AP’s David Bauder writes about the television coverage–or lack thereof–following the death of Neil Armstrong. Bauder explains the factors that he thinks were at play:
First, Armstrong died in Cincinnati on a Saturday. Not just any Saturday, when news organizations have a skeletal staff, but a late August weekend. Half the country is at the beach…
His death came as somewhat of a surprise, too. Everyone dies, of course, and most news organizations have prepared material on hand to mark the passing of famous people. In many cases, though, there is advance word that someone is very ill, giving the media a chance to prepare and plan.
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While NBC News originally broke the story, MSNBC went back to its taped prison programming relatively quickly, popping in once an hour for one minute to remind viewers. Fox News made an effort to re-air its Armstrong obituary a few times Saturday afternoon, but in primetime it was back to politics as usual, save for some news break-ins. CNN, embarrassingly, didn’t report the news til nearly 45 minutes after NBC did. When CNN did first report the news, it relied on former CNNer Miles O’Brien to talk about Armstrong’s significance.
O’Brien, of course, was CNN’s talented science and space correspondent, who was laid off when CNN gutted its science and tech unit back in 2008.
That said, once it got around to reporting Armstrong’s death, CNN’s coverage was the most complete, featuring complete obirutaty packages and interviews throughout the afternoon and in primetime.