Mid-Day

The 11-to-noon hour on cable — designated as the “Live” program on each channel — recapped the overnight news and was poised to bring breaking developments on two of the big stories of the day.

The murder suspect Jerry Hobbs was expected to appear for bond in Zion , Ill. , after which the prosecutor, Mike Waller, would hold a press conference. At the same time, Macaulay Culkin was expected to arrive at the courthouse in the Michael Jackson trial in California . Culkin’s testimony was not to take place for several more hours, but his arrival at the courthouse was treated as news itself.

On Fox in particular, the key line that hour was “expecting.” Unfortunately for its viewers the expected was long in coming. They were assured repeatedly that Fox “would be there live” and that “any moment now we’re expecting news” on the Hobbs bond hearing and on the arrival of Culkin at the Jackson courthouse.

Throughout the hour, the cameras returned seven times to show the empty courthouse pressroom where Waller would be appearing. The only action during the shots was sound guys adjusting a mike or two. Over and over, “Any moment now . . . could be getting some new details . . . Again, much more to come . . .” Fox filled the waiting time with such things as an interview with a forensic scientist. Unfortunately for those on the edge of their seats, the bond hearing was delayed and the press conference didn’t take place until the next hour.

The Jackson courthouse coverage was much the same. “As soon as it happens, we’re on it.” The “it,” however, was merely the arrival of one of the two celebrities at the courthouse. The image shown three times was the security checkpoint at the courthouse entrance, empty but for the guards milling around. At one point, someone walked through. It “might have been him [Culkin] just passing through,” the anchor speculated. We learned a little later it wasn’t. And still later we learned that Culkin would be led into the courthouse through a back entrance. A pool camera did catch a picture of Culkin’s back shortly after 11:30 a.m. Fox showed the image four times in the final 15 minutes of the hour.

Mid-Day Coverage of the Zion Murders

	CNN	FOX	MSNBC
# of empty podium shots	1	9	4
Sound from Mike Waller	1 tape	0	1 tape, 3 live

MSNBC’s live hour with Randy Meier and Amy Robach also promised to bring viewers the “now” of the two stories, but the channel filled in the waiting time with a wider range of other news. As a consequence, MSNBC during the hour cut to the empty podium shot at the Illinois courthouse just four times and cut to the Jackson courthouse just twice. It “just missed” the pool shot of Culkin’s arrival but did show it — just once — after the commercial break. MSNBC also added some humor to the mix — plugging its evening commentator Keith Olbermann’s “Jackson Puppets,” currently being auctioned on eBay. View MSNBC Jackson Puppets Video Clip [1] (Get Quicktime® Plug-in [2])

The show opened with a fairly comprehensive taped package on the Zion murder case. There was no package on the Jackson trial, but there was live talk with the reporter on the scene and an interview with Susan Filan, MSNBC’s legal analyst. As they tried to fill the time waiting for something to happen, the anchors and guests on MSNBC vamped with what might be described as fairly obvious speculation: “Is (Culkin) going to fall victim to the prosecution’s sword or will he carry the day? If he carries the day, it’s going to be devastating for the prosecution.”

The main distinction of MSNBC during this hour was that it aired packages on a wider variety of topics than its rivals, some of them using NBC News personnel, though the topics were mostly the same ones we heard about on the morning network and cable channels. There was a taped piece on the grenade in Georgia and another on the United Airlines pension situation. The most distinctive piece was an exclusive report with the NBC correspondent Lisa Meyers on a Middle Eastern bank whose New York City branch was under criminal investigation.

Mid-Day Coverage of Culkin Testimony

	CNN	FOX	MSNBC
# of court house entrance shots	1	10	2

The anchor Daryn Kagan brought viewers the 11-to-noon news on CNN. Its range of coverage that hour was more in line with MSNBC’s. In addition to the three big stories, CNN offered viewers Congressional news about spending and gang-warfare bills, as well as a report on the nomination of Under Secretary of State John Bolton to be ambassador to the U.N. It also covered some entertainment news — the coming premier of the last “Star Wars” movie, the inspiration behind the reality show “CSI” and an interview with the author of a new book on presidential getaways.

CNN led with the Zion story, a package with clips from prosecutor Waller and members of the community. Then, rather than turning to a live report from the courthouse immediately, Kagan announced, “Once that bond hearing for Jerry Hobbs ends, Chris [ Lawrence ] will have an update for us with a live report.” What viewers got in the meantime was an interview with Dominic Cappello, author of “Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children about Violence.” For the rest of the hour, CNN did not return to the courthouse — so it had just one empty podium shot.

The Jackson trial got even less coverage: one brief live report from the courthouse and one return at the end of the hour for the clip of Culkin’s entrance.

Just after noon , though, CNN’s measured focus on live and breaking news gave way, with the brief evacuation of the White House and the Capitol as a result of the Cessna’s entering restricted Washington airspace. Once the plane incident occurred, CNN viewers got the sense that no other events that day came even close in significance.

From noon through 6 p.m. — from “CNN Live” through “Inside Politics” at 3:30 through “Crossfire” at 4:30 through “Wolf Blitzer Reports” at 5:00 , CNN veered from the plane scare for only a few minutes, once to brief on Culkin’s testimony, and in the second half of “Inside Politics” to report on Congressional proceedings of the day. Then, after a brief departure from the story in the second half of the Lou Dobbs’s business report, Anderson Cooper aired a special edition called “Security Watch: Defending the Skies.” “NewsNight” was also focused almost solely on the story.

The only program on CNN from noon onward not to lead with and devote most or all its time to the plane scare was “Larry King Live.” He had an exclusive interview with Condoleezza Rice, her first extended interview since taking office as secretary of state. But as the night went on, CNN was back to the plane scare.