Anchors Away, Covering Oil Spill, Times Square Attempted Bombing

The big three network anchors left their studios for tonight’s broadcasts. Two had far shorter trips than the third.

The AP’s David Bauder writes about it.

[Brian] Williams anchored NBC’s “Nightly News” from Louisiana, after spending part of his day with the shrimp boat “Storm Watch.” It is the 15th time he has come to the region since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 27th evening news broadcast he has anchored from there.

Williams said he was entering a plane to New Orleans this weekend and a man thanked him for his reporting there.

“I’m enormously proud of that,” he said. “If you have to die and be known for something, having been linked to these folks during that story (would be it).

Meanwhile, ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’s Katie Couric fronted their shows from Times Square site of Saturday night’s attempted car bomb attack.

CBS weighed whether to send Couric to Louisiana on Monday, but kept her home instead. The attempted bombing is “still a story of extensive interest” given Times Square’s symbolic meaning as a crossroads, said Rick Kaplan, the “CBS Evening News” executive producer. “We really thought long and hard about it,” Kaplan said. “It’s not a money issue.”

“For us, as important as the (oil spill) story is for weeks and probably for months to come, the attempted bombing of Times Square seemed to be more urgent,” said Jon Banner, ABC “World News” executive producer.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.