From Campaign to Catastrophe

By Chris Ariens 

As voters went to the polls and the news networks were ramping up coverage of the Super Tuesday results, as many as 68 tornadoes were tearing through five states. By the end of the night, after the states were called for McCain or Clinton or Huckabee or Obama, at least 48 people were dead from the storms.

“We’re following two huge stories this morning,” said Meredith Vieira at the open of the Today show. The network led off with NBC’s Tim Russert assessing the race and Ann Curry with exit polls, before bringing in NBC Weekend Nightly News anchor Lester Holt who, after fronting exit poll segments on MSNBC last night, was in place at Union University in Jackson, TN this morning.

The Early Show and Good Morning America led their shows decidedly differently.

Advertisement


• At the top of The Early Show Harry Smith told viewers his co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez would have primary election news from California, while Dave Price in studio would report on the storms. Smith did a quick delegate count then Price broke down the storms while Nancy Cordes reported live from Atkins, AR.

• Set to Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” Diane Sawyer who, after anchoring five hours last night, told viewers, “This morning, the dream lives on.” After a mention of the storms in the show open, GMA spent the next 12 minutes talking politics. First with George Stephanopoulos then with Kate Snow (with Clinton campaign), David Wright (with Obama campaign), and Ron Claiborne (with McCain campaign). Next, Robin Roberts interviewed Mike Huckabee. The last question to Huckabee was about the tornadoes that affected his state and others. Sawyer then brought in Sam Champion who reported live from Atkins, AR.

Advertisement