President Obama’s New York Visit

The cable news channels are covering Barack Obama‘s first visit to Ground Zero as president, four days after the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. After a lunch with with members of FDNY Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9, in midtown Manhattan along with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Obama headed to NYPD precinct one. Later he’ll lay a wreath at Ground Zero.

Following the president’s remarks at the firehouse, a few of the firefighters talked about their lunch with the president which was carried live on the cable networks. Fox News correspondent Eric Shawn asked a firefighter what it was like to have the President of the United States eat the Eggplant Parmesan he’d cooked up. “It was a once in a lifetime thing.”

> More: At 1pmET, ABC, CBS and NBC broke in to regular programming as the president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Ground Zero. In New York, WCBS and WABC produced their own coverage rather than taking the Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric specials. WNBC carried the David Gregory-anchored special report.

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