Newser Notes from Haiti

By Chris Ariens 

• Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan, who’s covered wars and other international conflict, was overcome with emotion telling the story of a woman who lost 4 of her children in the quake, and her fifth child at a hospital: “That kind of loss is hoffific in any culture. But when you’re in a culture where …. where you’re alone …. it just makes it all the more difficult.” (VIDEO HERE)

• CNN’s Ivan Watson has been reporting from the scene of a rescue attempt of an 11-year-old girl. “She’s crying, she’s in a lot of pain right now and she’s terribly scared. This little girl – it’s kind of heartbreaking to hear this – because she’s pinned there. The right leg is underneath the concrete – her hands are free and her leg is free and she’s talking to us. They only discovered her today. They’re thinking about trying to cut her leg. They don’t know what to do right now.” (VIDEO HERE)

• CNN’s Anderson Cooper was #1 at 10pm in the A25-54 demo last night. Greta Van Susteren was #1 in Total Viewers.

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• For Total Day coverage, Fox News came out on top averaging 1.5M Total Viewers (426K in A25-54) to CNN’s 942K (337K). MSNBC drew 449K (129K) and HLN drew 320K (137K).

• Reuters TV, which has been providing coverage for international broadcasters including Al Jazeera, Canal Plus, and ITN, was first with video of the devastation — about 4 hours after the quake Tuesday night. The service had the first TV facility set up at the airport – before NBC’s own dish was set up – Brian Williams, Al Roker, Ann Curry rushed to the Reuters dish so they could do a cross-talk on MSNBC. Williams even thanked Reuters at the beginning of “Nightly News” last night.

• B&C’s Marisa Guthrie talks to Williams, ABC’s VP of news Kate O’Brian, and CBS News SVP Paul Friedman about the logistical difficulties of feeding and housing the news crews as well as keeping them safe as they cover the disaster.

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