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.