So who did the best job of covering the Manhattan airplane crash story? Who had the most reporters and anchors live on the scene, and had the best angles?
Hands down, it was Fox. We all know the critics' rap on Fox News--that it's a right-wing stooge of the Bush Administration--but those critics should watch Fox more.
The plane-crash death of Cory Lidle, complete with all the scary echoes of 9-11, is a case in point. As this sensitively written news story in The Philadelphia Inquirer notes, Lidle's father, living in California, was actually watching the breaking news on Fox News. In other words, at a time of tragedy, the elder Lidle chose Fox to get the news.
Also, the famous author Carol Higgins Clark is a resident of the building the plane crashed into. And who had the interview with her? Greta Van Susteren. Greta lives in Washington, but she came up to NYC to anchor her 10 pm show, live, in the pouring rain. She details her day here on her blog, which is a must-read for cable gamers.
By contrast, CNN's Anderson Cooper did his show from a comfortable warm studio. Wasn't he supposed to be a legend for his daring on-the-scene coverage? Yeah, maybe. But maybe now his contract got renewed, and Jon Klein has turned his attention to Katie Couric's legs (see preceding post, below).
And what of MSNBC you might ask? I confess that I didn't notice what they did.
