Three masked gunmen shouting “Allahu akbar!” opened fired at the offices of French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo in what French President Francois Hollande calls “a terrorist attack without a doubt.” So how is the tragedy being covered by American TV newsers?
CNN was first among the three major cable news networks, with a breaking news report of “several dead in France shooting” at 6:13 am ET. Less than five minutes later, CNN’s correspondent Jim Bittermann was live in Paris to provide more details. Christiane Amanpour has appeared on air from London.
Fox News Channel was up next, with an alert at 6:24 am ET that “at least one journalist is dead.” FNC’s senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot will be in Paris covering the attack with contributions from Kitty Logan in London and chief Intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge from D.C.
More than 20 minutes after CNN’s report, at 6:39 am ET, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” reported the shooting, reading an AP report that 11 people were shot dead. “Morning Joe” was the first to have White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest and White House reaction at 7:43 am ET.
NBC News had a special report at 6:47 am ET with Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie anchoring from New York. ABC had George Stephanopoulos leading coverage with reporting from chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross and chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl.
Al Jazeera America’s Jacky Rowland has been live in Paris and Dana Lewis will be also be reporting from Paris. Al Jazeera’s Roxana Saberi, who was arrested in Iran in 2009 and was held in its Evin Prison for 101 days under accusations of espionage, is reporting on controversies over past satirical cartoons, including previous demonstrations in Iran over the publication of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad by Charlie Hebdo.