Tornadoes Top Story on Morning Shows

By Alex Weprin 

The network morning shows are all in London to cover the Royal Wedding tomorrow, but breaking news back home was the top story.

All three programs led with the tornadoes and storms tearing through the south.

On NBC’s “Today,” Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer opened the program, then threw to Lester Holt in New York, who spent the next 11 minutes talking about the storms. That was followed by a discussion about President Obama releasing his birth certificate, before throwing back to Vieira and Lauer for wedding coverage at 7:16 AM.

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ABC’s “Good Morning America” spent the first 11 minutes covering the tornadoes as well, with George Stephanopoulos anchoring from New York.

The CBS “Early Show” spent the first 10 minutes talking about the storms, before leading to a brief segment about Obama’s birth certificate, followed by the Royal Wedding.

A tipster notes that the death toll from the tornadoes is now higher than the death toll from the Oklahoma City Bombing, which drew more than 11 minutes of coverage at the top of the shows when it happened in 1995.

On the evening news program yesterday, ABC led with the tornadoes, while NBC and CBS led with the birth certificate.

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