Va. Tech Shooting: The Nets Mostly Ignore Massacre In Primetime

By Brian 

David in California writes to TVNewser: “The cable news stations have had non-stop coverage of the shootings at Virginia Tech for most of Monday. Is there any particular reason why ABC, CBS, and NBC waited several hours just to do brief special reports, while not opting to do more extensive coverage?”

The WP’s Paul Farhi wants to know: “On the night after the deadliest shooting spree in American history, the nation’s most popular TV networks weren’t covering the grim news during their prime-time hours. Instead, it was escapism as usual: ABC had Dancing With the Stars and The Bachelor, Fox carried 24, CBS stuck with Two and a Half Men, and NBC showed Deal or No Deal.

Which raises a question: Just how big does a story have to be these days to get the broadcast networks to pay attention during their most watched hours?” (NBC had a primetime hour at 10pm.) More…

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