Jacko Verdict: Submit Comments

By Brian 

Send your observations, quotes, and thoughts about Michael Jackson verdict coverage to tvnewser@mediabistro.com, or drop them in the tip box.
> 5:56pm: Lost Remote says sites were swamped in Jacko traffic. I wonder how much worse it could have been, if the announcement was made in the early afternoon…
> 5:38pm: “There’s almost as many supporters as there are reporters, so almost every Jackson supporter has a news crew assigned to them,” an NPR reporter half-joked just now…
> 5:30pm: WHAC says “CNN let the court clerk read the verdicts uninterrupted while FNC’s Shephard Smith from time to time would interject his commententary in the mix.”
> 5:28pm: Defamer’s liveblogging includes the “CNN Doomed Pop-Star Premptive Suicide Analyst” and the “CNN Vehicular Velocity Analyst.”
> 5:13pm: “FOX Network has live coverage even! Martha MacCallum gets this resume-boosting gig,” an e-mailer says.
> 5:12pm: The local affils are interested in this: “WCBS in NY simulcasted KCAL in LA from around 4:30 until around 4:45 when CBS News broke back in,” an e-mailer notes.
> 5pm: CNN has handed the reigns to Wolf Blitzer in DC. On FNC, John Gibson is getting the night off; but I hear Brit Hume will be on at 6pm.
> 4:59pm: The CNN.com home page is very helpful for people (like me) who are away from a TV: They have a chart with green and red dots listing each guilty/not guilty decision.
> 4:58pm: FNC was first with news of a verdict, at 3:33pm. MSNBC followed at 3:34pm, and CNN was ten seconds behind that.
> 4:52pm: “Gosh… CBS/NBC/ABC cut in… and a CBS producer was fired for cutting in when Arafat died!?”
> 4:45pm: CNN/US’s coverage is being simulcasted on CNN/International and N-TV in Germany.
> 4:40pm: Nancy Grace will also anchor live coverage at 10pm on CNN Headline News, an e-mailer says.
> 4:39pm: “FNC has been going non-stop with Shep,” an e-mailer says. “His main go-to person is Trace Gallagher. Lis Wiehl and other Studio B legal contributors are headlining the coverage. Sporadic updates about the crashed small plane are interspersed.”
> 4:30pm: Dateline will air a special report at 8pm, anchored by Stone Phillips.
> 4:29pm: MTV put up a ticker, promising “live coverage from the Courthouse,” an e-mailer says.
> 4:27pm: Nancy Grace is going to be busy. She’s anchoring at 8pm on CNN Headline News, then anchoring at 9pm on Court TV.
> 4:22pm: Great helicopter shots…
> On MSNBC, “Lisa Daniels was mid-live shot when the announcement about the Jackson verdict came down, and the poor girl was a deer caught in the headlights,” an e-mailer says. “There was an awkward moment where they retracted that a verdict had been reached, followed by another awkward moment when Lisa thought she had tossed to Susan Filan, but the camera just stayed on her while she talked with a producer. She handled it fairly well, but it looked bad on-air. MSNBC had it before CNN, but from what I can tell FOX had it first.”

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