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When big (emphasis on big) news breaks


brianpr3

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I heard a story that when President Nixon was about to resign all 3 of the network news anchors were on vacation HK smith of abc news was at his upstate ny house and made the drive down to DC in 5 hours  Walter Cronkite was sailing off of Nantucket and they had the coast guard get him and John Chancellor had a plane come get him (please correct me if im wrong)

Do the networks have a plan to get their anchor from vacation etc if they absolutely need them for the biggest news events 

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In this age of being connected all the time, I'm sure there's a plan in place to get a hold of the big 3 anchors. I believe in the last decade, NBCs Lester Holt was out of the country on vacation and flew back to NY to cover the story. Unfortunately, I can't recall which "big" story is was. Most network anchors will usually end their vacation and come back to ensure they are the face of the network's coverage.

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I’m sure the anchors would find a way to get back in time for a majority of the coverage but there are much more robust contingency plans for network news these days than the 60s. For instance, George or Whit Johnson are more than capable of holding things together in David’s absence. Savannah or Tom Llamas could hold things down at NBC while Lester was en route. I have no idea who works at CBS.

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11 hours ago, MorningNews said:

I’m sure the anchors would find a way to get back in time for a majority of the coverage but there are much more robust contingency plans for network news these days than the 60s. For instance, George or Whit Johnson are more than capable of holding things together in David’s absence. Savannah or Tom Llamas could hold things down at NBC while Lester was en route. I have no idea who works at CBS.

Usually Major Garrett covers for Norah at CBS.

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Wasn't there a story about Dan Rather being on vacation when the Oklahoma City bombing took place and Connie Chung anchored CBS coverage herself initially (though the implication was when Dan got to Oklahoma City, he started anonymously bad-mouthing her; which set the stage for Connie to get the boot from CBS about a month later)

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1 hour ago, WAVY 10 Fan said:

Wasn't there a story about Dan Rather being on vacation when the Oklahoma City bombing took place and Connie Chung anchored CBS coverage herself initially (though the implication was when Dan got to Oklahoma City, he started anonymously bad-mouthing her; which set the stage for Connie to get the boot from CBS about a month later)

They really scapegoated her if that’s true. 

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