Using Videophone, CNN Hopes For Closer Live Shots

Quoting Gary Tuchman, reporting on CNN from Fort Pierce, Florida this afternoon: "We want to explain to our viewers, one of the reasons we're using the videophone is it allows us to go into a powerful area where we anticipate the hurricane will hit. And we're able to leave quicker because we have less equipment. So this is an experiment that we're doing. The picture might not be as good. We are able to be in the area we'll be expecting the center of the storm to hit."

GMA Weekend Edition Launches Today

Good Morning America launched its weekend edition this morning. Two of the four anchors were in Florida -- Kate Snow co-anchored from Indialantic and Marysol Castro hosted weather updates and an insider tour of the EOC in Tallahassee. (Bill Weir anchored and Ron Claiborne read the news from New York.)

"We did two and a half shows," an insider says. "We broadcast our first feed at 7a EST. Second at 8a - that is our main feed. Third was an update of the first half of the show for the West coast at 10a...There were several rounds of applause in the control room as the morning progressed... many of the higher level folks from the news division were on hand. All in all very exciting."

How Will Convention Coverage Change In 2008?

The New York Post's Don Kaplan: "It was a seismic shift in the history of convention coverage, and it sent a clear message to network news officials that in 2008, things will have to be different." "I'm not sure what lesson we've learned from this convention," ABC senior VP Paul Slavin tells Kaplan. "But there are a whole host of new technologies coming online now that we will all utilize four years from now in ways that none of us may even suspect right now."

FNC: "Better, More Interesting" -- Not Republican?

Fox News VP of production Bill Shine "dismissed theories about a partisan split" in an interview with the Alanta Journal-Constitution: "He pointed out that Fox beat CNN and even The Weather Channel the day after Hurricane Charley hit. 'When someone can convince me that a hurricane hitting the coast of Florida has a Republican bent, let me know,' he said." Shine said RNC viewers chose Fox because "we have a better, more interesting screen, and better, more interesting, journalists."

Hurricane: More Than 'Oooh, Look At How Hard The Wind Is Blowing Me!'

Cori Dauber compliments Fox's coverage: "Maybe it's because they keep going to locals, and local stations are going to be far more concerned with things like when landfall will occur, how bad it will be, and what people should do -- in other words, hard information -- than with 'oooh, look at how hard the wind is blowing me!,' which is what we get most of the time."

Hurricane: ABC News Now Simulcasts Local Affil.

Props to ABC News Now: "It has been relaying hurricane coverage from Miami's WPLG," DCRTV Dave says. "It's beating the s--t out of The Weather Channel and the major cable nets." Patrick is also watching 'Now:' "It's great to see a local perspective to this story," he writes. "Much better information than what I getting from the other cable networks." One of WPLG's reporters in the Bahamas was injured today when she was hit by flying debris...

Hurricane Frances: Coverage Notes

> 11:45am: "Stephen Frazier, who usually does the evening shift on Headline News, is anchoring. At one point this morning, when going to break, he said, 'stay with Headline News' before correcting himself."
> Lester Holt began anchoring on MSNBC at 1pm. Special hurricane coverage will air in primetime. Countdown will run from 7 to 9, and Scarborough Country will follow until 11pm.
> CNN domestic simulcasted International's World News and World Report early this morning. "It was a nice treat to see something else besides the irritating primetime repeat they do all night long," an e-mailer says. Hurricane coverage was slated to start at midnight...
> Shep Smith is anchoring hurricane coverage (and LAX updates) on FNC. They deserve kudos for airing lots of affiliate coverage...