Network TV Content, A Day in the Life

From there, the newscasts moved in slightly different directions — CBS to a story about lawsuits against the Catholic Church over sex abuse, NBC to a story on the economic and environmental costs of illegal immigration in U.S. border towns.

ABC and NBC both carried stories about new computer software being used to more accurately imagine what King Tut actually looked like. It was a story ideally suited to TV, since the computer animation can be seen gradually drawing in the face. As its close, CBS ran a feature on parents teaching toddlers sign language before they learn to talk.

In the end, however, the sense one gets form May 11 is that the evening news is not an update of what viewers might have learned in the morning. It is a different newscast, aimed apparently at a different America , concerned with different issues.