Former ABC News president David Westin writes in The Huffington Post about CNN’s coverage of the Carnival Triumph disaster, and what it says about the state of TV news coverage.

Westin argued that the Triumph was a story worth covering, and doesn’t fault CNN for giving it more airtime than its competition. Rather he argues, “the problem isn’t with what TV news covers, it’s with what it doesn’t cover. Or doesn’t cover nearly enough.”

Specifically, he says there should be more stories from war zones like Syria, and places often cut off from western society like North Korea and the Congo.

What’s more, it’s a story that can be told well on television. Some TV reporters have shown us this, as did my former colleague, Clarissa Ward, who recently received an Alfred I. Dupont Award for her reporting on Syria for CBS News. In fairness, the other national TV news organizations have reported intermittently from and about Syria. But none has shown the kind of enthusiasm and follow-through that we saw when it came to the cruise to nowhere in the Gulf of Mexico.

As it happens Westin’s former employee at ABC, “Nightline” anchor Terry Moran, is currently reporting from inside Syria, with another report from Damascus set to air tonight.

Fox News’s Shepard Smith will soon be on his way to Rome, reporting from the Vatican on the resignation of Benedict XVI and upcoming Conclave and election. Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Greg Palkot will be there tomorrow while Amy Kellogg should be on the ground by this afternoon. Smith, Palkot and Kellogg all covered the death of Pope John Paul II and election of Benedict in 2005.

NBC News correspondent/MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing, who also covered the last Papal transition will be leaving this afternoon for several days of reporting/anchoring and will also cover the election of the next pope. In a Media Beat interview, Jansing told us covering the death of John Paul II and election of Benedict was the most fulfilling assignment of her career: “It was just an extraordinary global event and also had some personal meaning to me.” Jansing will join NBC Rome correspondent Claudio Lavagna already on scene. Richard Engel will also report.

CBS has Allen Pizzey in Rome and London correspondent Mark Phillips will be joining him.

“GMA” Weekend Anchor Dan Harris, along with David Wright, Jeffrey Kofman, and Nick Schifrin will be reporting from the Vatican. Wright covered the 2005 transition. ABC’s Cokie Roberts, whose mother served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, will provide a historical perspective.

CNN’s Rome-based correspondent Ben Wedeman will cover and will be joined by Jim Bitterman, Max Foster and Jose Levy for CNN en Español are all en route.

Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor ABC News’ coverage of the State of the Union from Washington, DC beginning at 9pmET Tuesday. They will be joined by Jonathan Karl from the White House and Martha Raddatz from the Capitol as well as senior national correspondent Jim Avila and special correspondent Matthew Dowd.

Tuesday’s “World News” and Wednesday’s “Good Morning America” will both be live from Washington. Terry Moran will also anchor “Nightline” from the capital after the speech and the Republican response.

More from ABC after the jump. Read more

On its second night in a new timeslot, ABC News “Nightline” improved upon its first night by winning not just Total Viewers but also the key A25-54 news demo. Even more promising, versus ABC’s performance at 12:35am on the same night a year ago, “Nightline” was up by +14% in Total Viewers and up by +4% in Adults 25-54. Still, the audience is less than half of what it was when “Nightline” aired an hour earlier. And for those who’ve been asking, the show is still produced live.

(ABC’s ratings are based on a 30-minute broadcast, while CBS and NBC are based on approximately :50 minutes (prior to the final national commercial break of each program).

• Averages for 12:35am January 10, 2013:
  

Show	Network	Total Viewers	A25-54	A18-49
Nightline	ABC	1.613M	756K	549K
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon	NBC	1.606M	755K	631K
Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson	CBS	1.466M	689K	564K

It’s not very often a number show is moved out of its timeslot by network execs, but that’s what’s happening at ABC as “Nightline” moves from 11:35pm to 12:35am beginning tomorrow night making room for “Jimmey Kimmel Live” after the late local news.

“Nightline” was born out of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The temporary program “America Held Hostage: The Iran Crisis” launched November 8, 1979 — four days after the Americans were taken. Frank Reynolds was the original anchor. Ted Koppel, then ABC’s chief diplomatic correspondent, was a contributing reporter and would take over anchoring duties in March 1980 when the show became known as “Nightline.”

“[Former ABC News president] Roone [Arledge] had decided a long time before that any time a big news story [broke], ABC News was going to do a special broadcast at 11:30 at night,” Koppel told TVNewser in 2009. “And one day, it was his dream that there’d be a story that had such legs to it, that was so enduring, that he would actually be able to seize the time period.”

Koppel would anchor the program for 25 years, until late 2005. After Koppel left, the show began a three-anchor format with Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir, later replaced by Bill Weir, with a much — in Koppel’s words — “frothier” format. Indeed, tonight’s final 11:35 show includes Barbara Walters‘ sitdown with Mariah Carey. Tomorrow’s first show at 12:35 includes McFadden’s sitdown with the stars of Django Unchained.

But the formula worked. “Nightline” has been the #1 late night show for the last three seasons.

Still, with the move to even later night, “Nightline” producers will be as busy as ever as the network has promised an hour in primetime every week beginning Friday, March 1.

With just a month before its timeslot change, ABC’s “Nightline” remains the No. 1 late night show.

Last Tuesday’s “Nightline,” which featured a Powerball lottery story and an interview with the Pastor behind “Two and a Half Men” star Angus T. Jones‘s moral rebellion, was the show’s most-watched telecast in more than a year – since Nov. 22, 2011.

Season to date, “Nightline” is No. 1 among the late night broadcast programs in Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 — the 3rd straight year that the ABC program is taking the top spot in all 3 measures.

ABC’s ratings are based on a 25-minute broadcast, while CBS and NBC are based on approximately :50 minutes (prior to the final national commercial break of each program).

• Averages for the week of November 26, 2012:
  

Show	Network	Total Viewers	A25-54	A18-49
Nightline	ABC	4.252M	1.441M	1.101M
Tonight Show	NBC	3.648M	1.368M	1.046M
Late Show	CBS	2.895M	1.146M	857K

Diane Sawyer and Chris Cuomo will co-anchor “A Special Edition of 20/20: The Perfect Storm” tonight at 10pmET. Sawyer met up with Cuomo’s brother, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) at Ground Zero this afternoon. That interview will be seen on “World News” and in the primetime special. ABC will also air a special edition of “Nightline” dedicated to covering the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy from 11:35pm-12:00am. Terry Moran will anchor from New Jersey with reporting from his co-anchors Cynthia McFadden in New York and Bill Weir on the front edge of the storm in Ohio.

They won the 2011-2012 season, so it figures “Nightline” would also be the #1 show in late night for the second quarter.

In numbers just released, the ABC News show topped NBC’s “The Tonight Show” by the largest gaps in 17 years: in A25-54 demo (by +180,000 viewers), in the A18-49 demo (by +199,000) and in Total Viewers (by +333,000).

“Nightline” also won the week of June 18. Those numbers after the jump…

ABC’s ratings are based on a 25-minute broadcast, while CBS and NBC are based on approximately :50 minutes (prior to the final national commercial break of each program).

Q2 2012:

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The expediency of TV news is not meeting well with the depth involved in the ruling on the Affordable Care Act of 2010, more commonly known as Obamacare.

“Be cautious with us, we’re trying to do the best we can,” said Bill Hemmer on Fox News, at 10:11am. “We may need to update our lower third, which may not be correct,” added Megyn Kelly, which stated the court had ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional.

At 10:07, CNN’s Kate Bolduan reported the same: “It appears as if the Supreme Court justices have struck down the individual mandate.”

“Wow, that’s a dramatic moment, if in fact the Supreme Court has ruled the individual mandate is in fact unconstitutional,” said Wolf Blitzer.

In fact, they didn’t and it was more complicated than that.

At 10:11am, a breathless NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams got it right in an NBC/MSNBC simulcast, “They have said that it can’t be upheld under the commerce clause, the individual mandate can’t. But [Chief Justice John Roberts] said it can be upheld under the court’s taxing authority. So the bottom line here is the Supreme Court has upheld the health care law. It is a penalty, not a tax.”

That clear enough?

Probably not. Our suggestion: see how the three evening newscasts report it, or read the New York Times.

As for the broadcast networks:  Matt Lauer anchored on NBC until 10:26am, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos on ABC, with Terry Moran at the court also aired their special report until 10:26. On CBS, Scott Pelley was in Washington along with Jan Crawford at the court with their special report running until 10:30. And FNC’s Jon Scott anchored on FOX stations until 10:27

HLN, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg and C-Span, are also giving the decision extensive coverage.

ABC’s Martha Raddatz is presented the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award in New York City

Martha Raddatz has been in worse rooms, in worse countries, on military bases and battlefields.

Today, ABC’s senior foreign affairs correspondent graced the gilded dining room at the 19th century Metropolitan Club on New York’s 5th Avenue and was presented with the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award by Quinnipiac University.

Ruth Friendly, the widow of the legendary CBS newsman for whom the award is named, described Raddatz as “fearless.” The impossibly humble Raddatz said, in fact, she was “filled with fear” as she took the stage.

“The courageous ones are the people I have covered during my career,” said Raddatz accepting the award before a crowd of more than 100 guests, including her ABC News colleagues Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, previous Friendly recipient Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Woodruff, Terry Moran, David Kerley and Jim Avila.

Raddatz talked about the courage of Staff Sgt. Sal Guinta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War. “Sal Guinta does not think he is courageous or a hero. He does not think he did anything that others wouldn’t do in the same situation.”

And the bravery of her own colleagues, “far too many of whom have lost their lives or been badly wounded doing so,” as Raddatz looked toward table four. “And I still can’t be in the same room with

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