The coverage of a stunt plane crash at an air show in Dayton, Ohio this afternoon has been covered very differntly depending on which news channel you were watching. Jane Wicker, an accomplished wing walker and her pilot Charlie Schwenker were killed while performing at the Vectren Dayton Airshow just before 1pm. The bi-plane, registered to Wicker, crashed in front of hundreds of spectators. Of course, cameras captured it all.
When Fox News reported the incident at the top of the 3pm hour, anchor Gregg Jarrett explained to viewers what to look for, “look underneath what appears to be an individual dangling from her feet. Then you’ll see the plane turn upside-down.” Jarrett included a warning about the graphic nature of the video, then played it in full.
On CNN, anchor Don Lemon reported the story at 5:30pmET telling viewers, “we froze the video because it is our policy not to show you that.” The network did show the fireball that resulted on impact. And showed another angle of the airborne acrobatic move before the crash.
MSNBC had the most coverage of the crash, with several reports this afternoon, including a phone interview from the scene. But unlike FNC and CNN, MSNBC did not have — or chose not to — show video of the impact, just still images from a local website.