NYT: NY1 ‘a comforting town square’ During Hurricane Sandy

By Merrill Knox 

Local stations in New York City have been in continuing coverage since Hurricane Sandy stormed ashore on Monday. The New York Times’ Jon Caramanica reflects on NY1’s coverage, calling it “a prime-time anchor in the tumult of the storm”:

Over the course of the night, its broadcast became a comforting town square, the coverage not as improvisational as you might expect. The plan seemed to be to find someone — a correspondent, a spokesman, a politician — with something to say, and stick with that person until someone else wanted to speak. One by one, they took their turn, everyone from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to Joseph J. Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to representatives of Con Edison and various local elected officials, speaking at length, and often in detail, and often until cut short by a dial tone or a burst of silence when the connection was lost.

The stars, though, were the reporters in the field and the anchors steering the coverage, Lewis Dodley and Elizabeth Kaledin. The meteorologist John Davitt, in an ocean blue shirt, faced the camera squarely, not in front of a hyperactive map, explaining things serenely through the night.

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