Big Three Ignore Case of Utah Mother Accused of Killing Seven Babies; Cover Bear Mauling
ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning newscasts on Monday all omitted the arrest of a Utah woman, after the bodies of seven newborn babies were discovered in her house on Saturday. The Big Three morning shows did understandably devote a significant amount of air time to a white supremacist's shooting rampage at two Jewish community centers near Kansas City.
However, the networks also set aside over two minutes each to a bear mauling in central Florida, and CBS This Morning and NBC's Today also covered the so-called "blood moon" lunar eclipse. CBS's lack of coverage of the murders in Utah is even more puzzling, given how CBS Morning News aired a news brief to the story: [MP3 audio available here; video below]
[UPDATE: The Monday, April 14 CBS Evening News included a short item on the Utah murders.]
ANNE-MARIE GREEN: A Utah mother has been arrested – accused of killing her seven babies. Pleasant Grove Police say Megan Huntsman gave birth to the children between 1996 and 2006, and put their dead bodies in cardboard boxes. Her estranged husband found them Saturday in their garage. He said he didn't know anything about the killings, and officials say he's not a person of interest.
All three Big Three morning shows devoted full segments to the latest on the Oscar Pistorius case. ABC's Good Morning America aired two full reports totaling four minutes and 17 seconds on the South African murder trial. Today aired one segment on the story that lasted three minutes and 51 seconds, while CBS This Morning devoted the least amount of time to the trial – with two segments lasting three minutes and 13 seconds.
CBS and NBC devoted two full reports each to the Kansas City shootings, with four minutes, 42 seconds of coverage on CBS This Morning, and four minutes, 20 seconds on Today. Good Morning America trailed behind their competitors, with only one full report on the story lasting two minutes and 28 seconds, along with a 22-second news brief.
The network newscasts also noticed the case of an unruly passenger on a Southwestern Airlines flight, who attempted to open one of the doors on the plane. NBC's Today set aide a minute and 39 seconds to the story, followed by GMA at a minutes and 11 seconds. CBS This Morning aired a 36-second news brief on the attempted act of sabotage.
— Matthew Balan is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Matthew Balan on Twitter.
