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2015 State of the Union Coverage


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I didn't really want to start a new thread but I couldn't find an existing one to discuss political coverage by the networks...

 

NBC has announced that Brian Williams will anchor its live coverage of the State of the Union on Jan 20th: http://press.nbcnews.com/2015/01/16/brian-williams-to-anchor-nbc-news-coverage-of-president-obamas-state-of-the-union-address-and-the-republican-response/

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I really fail to understand why this needed an official "announcement."

 

It's been pretty SOP for literally decades that the evening news anchor intros the SOTU. All it really amounts to is filling the time, talking to a correspondent or analyst, before the house sergeant at arms announces the President's arrival...then filling the time after until what ever break point they turn it back to the affiliates.

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I really fail to understand why this needed an official "announcement."

 

It's been pretty SOP for literally decades that the evening news anchor intros the SOTU. All it really amounts to is filling the time, talking to a correspondent or analyst, before the house sergeant at arms announces the President's arrival...then filling the time after until what ever break point they turn it back to the affiliates.

 

I would assume the other parties response may or may not be a factor in turning it back over to the stations.
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I would not be shocked at all if, while George handles ABC's duties, David plays some role in the coverage. There's also the possibility of Norah O'Donnell co-anchoring with Scott Pelley on CBS, as has happened on previous occasions.

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ABC's announcement: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2015/01/abc-news-announces-coverage-of-the-2015-state-of-the-union-led-by-chief-anchor-george-stephanopoulos/

 

highlights:

  • ABC News will broadcast President Barack Obama‘s State of the Union address with coverage led by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos live from Washington, D.C. Following the address, ABC will carry the Republican response
  • World News Tonight Anchor David Muir will broadcast the evening news program from Capitol Hill and report throughout the night on major topics before and after the State of the Union address and Republican response.
  • An ABCNews.com pre-show will begin at 8:45 p.m., ET, anchored by Nightline‘s Byron Pitts. Following ABC News television coverage, a fifteen-minute post-show roundtable hosted by Raddatz and Karl will stream online.
  • Additionally, ABC News has partnered with Facebook to display on screen exclusive, real-time information about what’s trending on the platform during the president’s speech across various demographics.

 

I am cautiously optimistic that ABC will tone it down on the SOTU graphics because last year's screen was horribly cluttered.

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CBS announcement: https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-news/releases/view?id=41706

 

highlights:

  • CBS EVENING NEWS Anchor and Managing Editor Scott Pelley leads the coverage beginning at 9:00 PM, ET
  • Pelley anchors the CBS EVENING NEWS (6:30-7:00 PM, ET) live from Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 20 andWednesday, Jan. 21.
  • Pelley conducts the first joint interview with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) since the new session of Congress convened earlier this month. An excerpt of that interview will be broadcast Thursday, Jan. 22 on the CBS EVENING NEWS.
  • CBSN coverage begins at 8:00 PM, ET; will stream the Network’s special coverage live at 9:00 PM, ET and provide live, anchored coverage following the simulcast; and will repeat the primetime broadcast at 11:00 PM, ET.

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I would assume the other parties response may or may not be a factor in turning it back over to the stations.

Didn't mean to leave out the republican response precisely. But afterwards, the anchors well vamp for time until they reach what ever terminal break point was decided upon.

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ABC's announcement: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2015/01/abc-news-announces-coverage-of-the-2015-state-of-the-union-led-by-chief-anchor-george-stephanopoulos/

 

highlights:

  • ABC News will broadcast President Barack Obama‘s State of the Union address with coverage led by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos live from Washington, D.C. Following the address, ABC will carry the Republican response
  • World News Tonight Anchor David Muir will broadcast the evening news program from Capitol Hill and report throughout the night on major topics before and after the State of the Union address and Republican response.
  • An ABCNews.com pre-show will begin at 8:45 p.m., ET, anchored by Nightline‘s Byron Pitts. Following ABC News television coverage, a fifteen-minute post-show roundtable hosted by Raddatz and Karl will stream online.
  • Additionally, ABC News has partnered with Facebook to display on screen exclusive, real-time information about what’s trending on the platform during the president’s speech across various demographics.

 

I am cautiously optimistic that ABC will tone it down on the SOTU graphics because last year's screen was horribly cluttered.

 

I've been wondering what ever happened to Susan Saulny. Buried at the bottom of that announcement is notice that she and Karen Travers will file reports for NewsOne throughout the night. When Saulny and Jeff Zeleny were hired by ABC from the New York Times as full correspondents, they were lauded as being major steals for ABC that would bolster news coverage, yet I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen Saulny on air. Not to derail the thread, but anyone know what the deal with her is?
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According to a mention on their ticker, CNN will be hosting State of the Union Bingo tonight. Fill in the card for a win, be the first to tweet it out with #CNNSOTU, and you'll win a prize.

 

I've heard worse ideas, honestly.

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According to a mention on their ticker, CNN will be hosting State of the Union Bingo tonight. Fill in the card for a win, be the first to tweet it out with #CNNSOTU, and you'll win a prize.

 

I've heard worse ideas, honestly.

 

When you really think about it, the idea serves a dual purpose, even if it was unintentional on CNN's part... on one hand, you have the obvious interaction and promo stunt for CNN, but on the other hand, you have something that makes people actually pay attention to something ... how many people care enough to fill this out is the real question

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ABC's opens are always very long. I'm not saying it's a bad thing but it was probably 3 or 4x as long as CBS and NBC's.

 

----

Also unrelated, being able to communicate with anchors and reporters on social media is a great thing. However, sometimes journalists need to remember that their job is to report the news, not their opinion. Some reporters in particular are very vocal and now they are supposed to go on TV and report the news to me? Yeah right. Unbiased reporting is out the door. I'm not talking about any particular network or cable channel, I'm talking about all of them. I don't care if I agree their opinions or not.

 

Sorry, just had to vent that.

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ABC's opens are always very long. I'm not saying it's a bad thing but it was probably 3 or 4x as long as CBS and NBC's.

 

----

Also unrelated, being able to communicate with anchors and reporters on social media is a great thing. However, sometimes journalists need to remember that their job is to report the news, not their opinion. Some reporters in particular are very vocal and now they are supposed to go on TV and report the news to me? Yeah right. Unbiased reporting is out the door. I'm not talking about any particular network or cable channel, I'm talking about all of them. I don't care if I agree their opinions or not.

 

Sorry, just had to vent that.

Most reporters do have explicitly stated in their Twitter bios that what they share online is solely their belief, and that what is posted or reposted doesn't represent the beliefs of the organization- you can't expect a reporter to stand there like a wall and just spit information out at you- that's what the full text of the State of the Union online could do. They're putting their own takes on it, and some people agree, some disagree- and that makes for interesting and, in theoretical situations, productive debate.

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I know people bash msnbc but they had this neat thing with Bing Pulse tie in that gauged the viewers reaction to Obamas speech in real time. Everybody was asked every five seconds "Do you agree what President Obama's is saying?" and it was broken down by democrats, republicans and independents. I was surprised to see that the majority (80% +) of republicans agreed with almost all of the presidents statements and very rarely it was below 80% but no lower than 70%. As would be expected democrats agreed on average of 85-95% of the time but there were a few occasions where republicans agreed more than democrats. People who identified as independents were all over the charts.

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Most reporters do have explicitly stated in their Twitter bios that what they share online is solely their belief, and that what is posted or reposted doesn't represent the beliefs of the organization- you can't expect a reporter to stand there like a wall and just spit information out at you- that's what the full text of the State of the Union online could do. They're putting their own takes on it, and some people agree, some disagree- and that makes for interesting and, in theoretical situations, productive debate.

 

Right, and I'm not disputing that the organization part. I just think that some reporters need to tone it down. I can deal with a little opinions but some just go over the top.

 

And reporters putting their takes on it and analyzing it is good, in fact, I am not talking about anything said on the air. I'm talking about social media specifically. Some reporters literally sat there either bashing the President or bashing the GOP. And that is taking it too far.

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I know people bash msnbc but they had this neat thing with Bing Pulse tie in that gauged the viewers reaction to Obamas speech in real time. Everybody was asked every five seconds "Do you agree what President Obama's is saying?" and it was broken down by democrats, republicans and independents. I was surprised to see that the majority (80% +) of republicans agreed with almost all of the presidents statements and very rarely it was below 80% but no lower than 70%. As would be expected democrats agreed on average of 85-95% of the time but there were a few occasions where republicans agreed more than democrats. People who identified as independents were all over the charts.

 

Bear in mind that these are self-identified republicans who are watching MSNBC (i.e. the fact that they are watching MSNBC to begin with suggests they're probably not hard-core republicans). I'm sure those who identify as republicans who were watching Fox News would not have registered the same level of positive reaction.
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