WAGA reporter Dale Russell has obtained the first photos of the bomb that exploded Monday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon (above).

The photos aired on the Atlanta Fox O&O’s 6:30 p.m. newscast Tuesday, just hours after it was first reported that the explosions were caused by pressure cooker bombs. The pictures aired across several other Fox O&Os, as well as on Shepard Smith‘s national Fox News Channel program, Tuesday evening.

See the rest of the photos in WAGA’s report after the jump. Read more

Following their respective morning newscasts, local stations in Washington, DC have traded local coverage for national coverage of President Obama’s ceremonial swearing-in ceremony.

Around 11amET Monday, all four DC stations — NBC O&O WRC, ABC affiliate WJLA, Fox O&O WTTG and CBS affiliate WUSA — began airing coverage provided by their respective affiliated networks. Brian Williams is anchoring on NBC, Scott Pelley on CBS, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos on ABC, and Shepard Smith on Fox Broadcast Network. President Obama is expected to deliver his inaugural address at 12pmET.

• Related, TVNewser: Network TV Coverage of 2013 Inauguration

At least one station, WTTG, will go back to local coverage for the parade. Maureen Umeh will anchor, with Brian Bolter, Shawn Yancy and Sue Palka at the Canadian Embassy, Matt Ackland on the Freedom Plaza and Bob Barnard along the parade route.

>Update: WUSA also returned briefly to local programming at 1pmET, turning it back over to CBS at 1:30pm. The station will have expanded newscasts this afternoon and evening.

The family of the man who killed himself live on Fox News Friday afternoon is speaking out, criticizing the network during two local interviews in Phoenix.

Jodon Romero led police on a high-speed car chase in Phoenix for nearly an hour before exiting his vehicle and shooting himself in the head. Fox News, which had been carrying the chase on a delay during “Studio B with Shepard Smith,” accidentally aired the suicide after the control room failed to cut away in time.

“That shouldn’t have been the way that any of us had to learn about my brother’s death,” Nature Romero told Phoenix NBC affiliate KPNX (video above).  Read more

Fox O&O KSAZ was the only local station to cover a high-speed police chase in Phoenix Friday afternoon. The station’s coverage ended at 12:28pmMT, just four minutes before the suspect exited the vehicle and shot himself in the head.

The chase went on for nearly an hour. KSAZ covered it during the noon newscast, which is anchored by Kristin Anderson and Ron Hoon. Coverage included a lower-third graphic that warned, “Live coverage may contain images not suitable for all viewers.”

• Related, TVNewser: Fox News Airs Suicide Following Car Chase. Shep Smith: ‘We really messed up and I am sorry’

Fox News, which was using aerial coverage from KSAZ during “Studio B with Shepard Smith,” aired the suicide, followed by a lengthy apology.

In the latest episode of mediabistroTV’s “My First Big Break,” Fox News anchor Shepard Smith recalls how he got noticed working as a reporter at WCPX (now WKMG) in Orlando. The story involves puppies, explosions, and Mel Gibson.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Susan Roesgen, who was let go by CNN following comments she made on-air while covering a Tea Party event in Chicago, has landed at New Orleans’ WGNO.

In April 2009, Roesgen, then a correspondent for CNN, described the Tea Party event as “anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox.”  The video bounced around the internet, drawing the ire of Shepard Smith, Bill O’Reilly, and others.

Now Roesgen is set to co-anchor a new 6 p.m. program that the ABC-affiliate is calling “News with a Twist.”  The unconventional show will feature Roesgen and  LeBron “LBJ” Joseph, the morning drive-time DJ at New Orleans’ KMEZ-FM, going over the day’s stories in a newly constructed set that evokes a barroom.

The type of on-air commentary that got Roesgen in trouble at CNN will seemingly be encouraged at WGNO, where news director Rick Erbach says the mantra of the new show is “It’s not a newscast.” Read more

Most of those big network TV anchors and correspondents got their start in local TV news. And several of them dropped anchor in Orlando. So the Orlando Sentinel‘s TV critic Hal Boedeker caught up with some of them, including Byron Pitts (now at CBS News), Deborah Roberts (now at ABC News and married to NBC’s Al Roker) and Jessica Yellin (now at CNN.) Trace Gallagher, now at FOX News, then at Channel 6 (then WCPX, now WKMG), talks about his time in Orlando: “Shepard Smith was a huge influence. I got here in August 1993. The overlap was four months. The first time I turned on the TV, he was doing a hurricane prep shot from a Home Depot. I had no idea I was taking that guy’s job.” Here’s Gallagher in all his Orlando glory:

(h/t NewsBlues)