ABC and NBC reported the news of Gerald Ford‘s death within seconds of eachother. CBS only aired a crawl.
MSNBC’s Bill Fitzergald anchored a special report from Secaucus; ABC’s Terry Moran interrupted a Nightline package, then hosted a special report nationwide. “Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, has died today,” Moran said.
On the West Coast, ABC interrupted the final minutes of Boston Legal, and this blogger wasn’t happy: “The story may have warranted an interruption, but the bulk of the message could’ve been communicated in a minute or two, which would’ve allowed everyone not in the eastern time zone to finish the program.”
On a repeat of The Late Show with David Letterman, comedians were throwing turkeys off a building when CBS ran a crawl announcing the news around 11:55pm.
> Also: An e-mailer says “there was no audio” for part of NBC’s report: “The net went to black and then came back with audio halfway through the special report.” Was this a local problem?
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