Chile Earthquake/Tsunami Coverage: Your Reactions…
Post your reactions to today’s breaking news coverage of the Chilean earthquake and the Tsunami warnings here…
Update 4:50pm: Well the coverage quickly morphed from Chile earthquake coverage to Pacific Tsunami watch with the focus on Hawaii. CNN has been making extensive use of local affilliates KITV and KHON. What’s strange is that MSNBC, as far as I can tell…and I have been doing a lot of channel hopping, has not been tapping into NBC affilliate KHNL, though they have been talking to local reporters on Hawaii. I haven’t seen FNC tap into any local station either, but like I said, I’ve been channel hopping.
CNN has reported a Tsunami hit in New Zealand and MSNBC has reported a Tsunami hit in American Samoa. I worry about Tonga and the resorts on those islands, islands which only rise a few feet off the ground.
Update 5:17pm: MSNBC now showing KHNL coverage.
Update 6:03 pm: Mediaite’s Drew Grant rips CNN’s Rick Sanchez, deservedly so, for talking down and practically berating someone brought on to help explain Tsunami action. I saw this live and my jaw hit the floor. It was physically painful watching Whitfield and Sanchez paired together on the air and long time readers know I don’t usually throw that kind of commentary out regarding talent very often at all. But those two put together were Oil and water and Sanchez’s shtick, perfected over months of anchoring solo for his own show, just didn’t translate well in this breaking news environment.
Update 6:25: Well I guess the Tsunami watch is officially over. FNC airing segment/talking head debate on Reconcilliation Rule for Health Care Reform bill. Never mind that we still haven’t heard what’s exactly happened in Samoa, Tonga, The Cook Islands, and Fiji where the Tsunami has hit.
Update 7pm: MSNBC, CNN, and FNC all still live and attention back to Chile earthquake now the Hawaii Tsunami watch is over…
February 27, 2010 at 10:01 am
CNN is simulcasting CNNI as of 1pm Eastern.
February 27, 2010 at 10:12 am
This is why you don’t shutter those foreign bureaus major news organizations.
February 27, 2010 at 10:37 am
CNNI started coverage at 3am est last night, then went to a Larry King re-air for about 25 minutes, then came back and was still on when I fell asleep at 6.
FNC interrupted Red Eye at 3:15, then went back to it near the end. They came back to live at 4:00, then bailed for the end of Special Report and all of Hannity.
MSNBC ran Olympics coverage as scheduled without interruption until 5:30, then Tina Brown finally started coverage of a massive erathquake that their website had been reporting for 2 and a 1/2 hours.
CNN was masterful, with excellent resources; FNC was spotty; MSNBC was a pathetic sports channel.
February 27, 2010 at 11:17 am
Juliet Huddy and Kelly Wright are doing a solid, professional job on FNC right now, but according to the sked, Ainsley Earhardt will be on with Rick Folbaum from 5-7, so we’ll be tuning out.
We have no idea why they keep putting Ainsley on during breaking news where she’s expected to think on her feet, but keeps falling on her face. Makes it hard for us to take FNC seriously.
As for keeping foreign bureaus open, it doesn’t make sense to keep far-flung stations open just in case something out of the ordinary happens once.
February 27, 2010 at 12:47 pm
I’m still watching CNNI but now on CNN streaming. The difference in the anchors/reporters competency level is striking. Too bad the domestic side hasn’t figured out the bulk of their on air talent is pure crap.
February 27, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Yikes, now CNNI is simulcasting CNN domestic. Fredricka Whitfield is about CNN’s weakest anchor.
February 27, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Looks like FNC is about (in a half hour) to put its weakest anchor up against CNN’s in a battle for the title of Absolute Worst.
February 27, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Also, since Courtney Friel is apparently in Hawaii now, why hasn’t she reported in to FNC about what’s going on there?
February 27, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Courtney is in California. She left Hawaii apparently this morning.
February 27, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Glad she’s fine, but the woman has zero reporting instincts. If she didn’t want to stay and report (while other reporters are flocking into the quake area), she could at least have provided some insight.
February 27, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Leaving Hawaii for California and arriving this morning means she did a red eye. Those a brutal.
February 27, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Ainsley, Ainsley, Ainsley. That pretty much says it all. She oozes vapidity on the simplest stories.
February 27, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Ainsley is weak, but im a big folbaum fan. He was good with laurie dhue.
February 27, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Spud, sounds like you’re still “home” (Bay Area, from what you’ve told us?). Anyway, glad you’re not on one of your diving trips during this time. That tsunami could make mincemeat out of you and your snorkel!
February 27, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Ah, the Saga of The Snorkel!
We were out for the evening, and are wondering when Ainsley’s first screw up occurred. Anyone time it?
February 27, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Boogie, I saw Ainsley on earlier.
They switched from Hawaii to the Sea World trainer story. Initially, I don’t think she knew the victims name. She just called her a wonderful person then proceeded to use her first name after about a minute or so.
It seems to me like someone working in the cable news biz should have memorized Dawn Brancheau’ name from all the coverage.
Or maybe she was confused on how to pronounce the name and just opted for the first after stalling?
February 27, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I’m pretty sure she knew the victim’s name. She said they were sorority sisters.
February 28, 2010 at 4:47 am
Terance, we sincerely thank you for taking one for the team by watching!
Johnny, in her own inept way, Ainsley may have meant that they both belonged to the same sorority at some point in their lives, and not necessarily at the same college. Brancheau was 40 years old, whereas Earhardt is in her early 30s. Not likely that they were classmates.
February 28, 2010 at 6:26 am
It was clear what she meant. She said that they weren’t in college at the same time. The point is that it’s kind of strange to suggest she didn’t know the victim’s last name when she obviously did, or wouldn’t have known they were in the same sorority.
February 28, 2010 at 6:31 am
And yet they were almost a decade apart in age, so they almost certainly weren’t classmates or contemporaries. Ainsley probably read the sorority thing in a bio of her, and that’s what stuck out in her shallow and self-absorbed mind.
February 28, 2010 at 6:38 am
BW, as I just posted before your msg, she SAID they weren’t in college at the same time. But yes I suppose you’re right: if she couldn’t have been stupid for not knowing the victim’s last name, then she must have been stupid for being in the same sorority.
February 28, 2010 at 7:53 am
Dollar, did you actually watch the part I’m talking about? I don’t suppose you’d like to provide an unedited clip, eh?
February 28, 2010 at 8:12 am
I watched it and I rewatched it. She wasn’t doing a report, she was doing an intro to Orlando Salinas’s report and made an off-the-cuff aside in doing so. The intro certainly didn’t go on for a minute before she mentioned the girl’s name; the entire intro didn’t last a minute, but I’ll say that’s from memory before someone comes along and puts a stopwatch to it!
I think the whole ‘controversy’ about it is silly, and trumped up to advance a meme. But that’s just my opinion; I could be wrong. If Spud wants to post a clip he knows I’ll be happy to provide it.
February 28, 2010 at 8:56 am
Dollar, I don’t have anything against Ainsley.. Just commenting on my observations. Now, if you wanna provide the video and have Spud put up a poll to see what the ‘people’ think.. That’d be fine by me.
February 28, 2010 at 9:26 am
Davis Schuster covering the pending Tsunami in HI
David was running out of things to say so they went to the phone and interviewed a couple in a hotel. I thought this was funny
Paraphrasing a little.
Lady in hotel. “We can see the Water and it looks really strange”
David “can you tell us what you see?
Lady “ well we see something big but I don’t know what it is. Let see …… I guess it looks normal, ….we can’t see the beach”
David “what else do you see”
Lady” there are helicopters all all over the place, Really everywhere”
David “How many helicopters?”
Lady “ Two”
So much for eye witness news!
February 28, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Johnny, do you have any idea just how many women have been in any given sorority over the years, and from so many schools? The odds of her knowing the woman aren’t very high, and it seems (at least from what was reported here and Ainsley’s history of being shallow and self-referential) that she was once again caught trying to think on her feet and blurted out something rather random and useless.