David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. CNN: A step behind
Cable-news network coverage of the single-engine plane crash on New York's Upper-East Side this afternoon seemed to find CNN a bit slow on the uptake. Fox News Channel had been reporting that two people had died in the accident for at least a half an hour while CNN still had the number at one dead; even the New York Times' website reported that New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was one of those who perished before CNN got around to confirming that fact.
Instead, CNN obsessed on the fact that NORAD had dispatched fighter jets over a number of American cities even though officials were insisting the tragedy was not terrorism-related. For a while, there was a little roundelay between CNN anchors, as a female anchor kept correcting her male co-anchor's missteps.
On MSNBC, it was noted that just a month ago, The New York Times had profiled Lidle and his passion for flying. Keith Olbermann noted that Lidle had pitched in the Yankees' final game of the season, in which the Detroit Tigers sent them home, beating them in the American League Division Series on Saturday 8-3. Olbermann was polite enough to neglect mentioning that Lidle gave up 3 runs in 1 1/3 innings of work. Olbermann then pointed out to host Tucker Carlson the eerie echoes of the Yankees' loss of catcher and team captain Thurman Munson in 1979; Carlson later betrayed his lack of sports savvy by referring to Munson as a "player-coach."
While CNN and MSNBC continued to follow the story, despite the presence of little breaking news, Fox News began reporting other news of the day around 3 p.m. PCT.
Comments
Surprisingly, the first video I saw was on your newspaper's website. Then, I watched MSNBC and NBC, who also mentioned the 1979 thing.
CNN was there for the Gulf War; they can't be everywhere for everything. Missteps abound in breaking news.
Posted by: Suzy Q | October 11, 2006 7:09 PM
I was surprised many in the media forgot an ugly exchange in the media between Lidle and a former teammate. Upon being traded to the Yankees along with Bobby Abreu, Lidle took some shots at his former team, the Philadelphia Phillies. That brought a response from Phillies pitcher Arthur Rhodes, who ripped Lidle for only caring about flying and gambling. Rhodes also criticized Lidle for being a "scab" -- for crossing the picket line during the 1994-95 baseball strike.
Posted by: B-Two | October 12, 2006 9:50 AM