Norah O’Donnell, anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” opened Monday night’s newscast standing in front of burned-down buildings in Kula, Hawaii — a community devastated by wildfires.
Over on NBC, Tom Llamas stood in front of incinerated cars and dusty fields where homes once stood. National correspondent Miguel Almaguer was in Lahaina, Maui County, Hawaii, where the landscape looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie with buildings destroyed and smoke still floating in the air.
And ABC’s “World News Tonight” showed frightening images of residents clinging to sea walls and standing in the ocean while fires raged in the distance. A team of reporters interviewed those who somehow survived the fire and told the stories of some of those who didn’t.
The coverage was powerful and critical — not only to tell the rest of the world what has happened in Hawaii, but also to begin digging into what could have been done to prevent such a tragedy.
Noticeable was major networks sending anchors on location.
To be clear, all three major networks had extensive coverage from the ground in Hawaii. It has been quite common to see evening news anchors such as NBC News’ Lester Holt and ABC News’ David Muir anchor from the site of disasters, such as hurricanes or tornado outbreaks or wars.
This time, it was O’Donnell, Llamas (anchor of NBC’s “Top Story”) and “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil who traveled to Hawaii to report on this story.
So why is it important for anchors to go to the actual scene of stories when they could cover the news from studios back in New York or Washington?
In an email interview, Llamas, who has been reporting from Maui since last Friday, told me, “I think in some cases, especially with major news events, you have to be on the scene. You can interview someone remote, but sitting with someone, looking into their eyes, and feeling their grief, gives you a better understanding of the story. You have to talk to people directly affected, walk the area impacted, and feel what is happening — and we want to show that to viewers. Bringing the broadcast to the location allows you to shine the brightest light possible on those impacted.”
There are also impactful moments that seem to carry more weight when told by an anchor who is reporting. An anchor on the scene tells the viewer: This story matters, this story is important.
“CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil reporting from Hawaii. (Courtesy: CBS News)
That’s why Dokoupil went to Hawaii for the story.
During his reporting, Dokoupil spoke with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, tagged along with Oprah Winfrey as she provided aid to survivors and spoke to those who lived through the nightmare.
Dokoupil told me in an email, “Some stories are too big to pass through the lens of a camera or words on a screen, and disasters like this are often that kind of story. You have to see it with your own eyes and then share it with your own voice. It’s journalism as old as the human voice and as natural as one person telling another what they saw just over the hill.”
More on the Maui wildfires
- Why one firefighter is calling out Maui wildfire conspiracy theories
- How journalists in Hawaii are covering (and coping with) the Maui wildfires
- Why climate experts are criticizing a Hawaii headline from ABC News
- Fact-checking a bizarre claim that government ‘direct energy weapons’ caused the Maui fires
- A shortened video distorts Hawaii governor’s comments about the state buying land in Lahaina
Superb Trump coverage
The district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, went into Monday seeking an indictment against former President Donald Trump and those who supported his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. It was part of a larger effort to overturn the entire election, which was fairly won by President Joe Biden. The grand jury approved dozens of counts, involving 19 people including Trump, in the investigation late Monday night.
Earlier on Monday, both The Washington Post and The New York Times had engrossing and deeply reported stories recounting exactly how Trump and his allies tried to manipulate the Georgia results in their favor.
The Washington Post’s Amy Gardner, Kati Perry and Adriana Usero produced: “How Donald Trump tried to undo his loss in Georgia in 2020.” This is spectacularly good journalism, featuring active graphics, video, audio and, at its heart, solid reporting.
It featured a paragraph that remains chilling to a modern-day democracy: “Those close to Trump prodded state officials to identify fraud that would cast Biden’s victory in doubt. In the process, they personally targeted individual election workers with false claims of cheating, unleashing waves of threats, and amplified conspiracy theories about rigged machines that persist today. In the end, after Trump sought to use every lever of power to overturn the results, top state Republicans stood in his way, refusing to buckle under the pressure.”
The Times story was from Danny Hakim and Richard Fausset: “Two Months in Georgia: How Trump Tried to Overturn the Vote.”
The Times, too, laid out just how disturbing this chapter was (and is), writing, “Perhaps above all, the Georgia case assembled by (Fulton County district attorney Fani T. Willis) offers a vivid reminder of the extraordinary lengths taken by Mr. Trump and his allies to exert pressure on local officials to overturn the election — an up-close portrait of American democracy tested to its limits.”
Both of these stories are stark reminders of just how dangerous and disturbing this moment in time was.
And it feels like it really isn’t over as Trump remains defiant as ever. On his Truth Social Monday morning, he posted, “I understand through illegal leaks to the fake news media that phoney (sic) Fani Willis, the D.A. of Fulton County, Georgia, wants desperately to indict me on the ridiculous grounds of tampering with the 2020 presidential election. No, I didn’t tamper with the election! Those who rigged & stole the election were the ones doing the tampering, & they are the slime that should be prosecuted. I made a perfect phone call of protest. Why wasn’t this fake case brought 2.5 years ago? Election interference!”
For the record, he typed the above in ALL CAPS.
Camera-ready
On Monday, the judge in the case ruled cameras would be allowed in the courtroom. Robert McBurney, a Fulton County superior court judge who is presiding over this week’s grand jury, said earlier in the day, “If a grand jury presents an indictment, that’s usually in the afternoon, and you can film and photograph that.”
The Messenger’s Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon has more details.
CNN overhauls its lineup
CNN’s news weeknight lineup. (Courtesy: CNN)
Now that former network president Chris Licht is gone, CNN is shuffling its lineup. The big move: Abby Phillip will now host the 10 p.m. Eastern slot that has been without a permanent host since Don Lemon was moved to mornings late last year. And Laura Coates, an anchor and chief legal analyst at CNN, will host the 11 p.m. slot.
There’s more.
The morning show finally has a new host. As I said, Lemon was moved to mornings to co-host a newscast with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow. But Lemon was fired earlier this year, and Collins was recently named host of CNN’s 9 p.m. hour. Harlow had been carrying the morning by herself, but now she will be joined by Phil Mattingly for “CNN This Morning,” which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Eastern.
Kasie Hunt, who is coming over to CNN from MSNBC, will host “Early Start,” which runs from 5 to 6 a.m. Eastern.
The rest of the current schedule remains the same.
The big (and deserved) winner is Phillip, who gets a prime-time slot.
And there’s still more.
CNN announced a while ago that it would have a show with co-hosts Gayle King of CBS and Charles Barkley of TNT. CNN announced the show will debut later this fall on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. as a limited series.
In addition, news veterans Chris Wallace and Christiane Amanpour will launch weekly shows that will air on the weekends. Alisyn Camerota, who has occasionally filled in as host at 10 p.m., will now focus on long-form projects.
All the moves will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
CBS News’ new leadership
Wendy McMahon, newly named president and chief executive officer of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. (Courtesy: CBS News)
A day after Neeraj Khemlani stepped down as president of CBS News, the network put a new leadership team in place. Wendy McMahon, who had been a co-head of news with Khemlani, will now take on the new role as the head of CBS News. Her official title is president and chief executive officer of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. In this new role, McMahon will oversee all of CBS News’ broadcast and streaming operations, 27 local television stations in major U.S. markets and 14 local news streaming channels. She now will be the top executive overseeing all of CBS News’ weekday and weekend programming, including shows such as the “CBS Evening News,” “60 Minutes,” “CBS Mornings,” “Face the Nation” and “48 Hours.”
In addition, entertainment shows such as “Jeopardy!”, “Wheel of Fortune,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “Inside Edition” also will be under McMahon’s supervision. She takes over those shows from Steven LoCascio, who is retiring.
Meanwhile, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, a 30-year veteran of CBS News, has been named president of CBS News. CBS announced that, as president, Ciprian-Matthews will “oversee all CBS News programs, bureaus, global newsgathering, streaming and digital editorial, as well as standards and practices, special events, politics, elections and surveys, social, the race and culture unit and CBS News Radio.”
Ciprian-Matthews had been executive vice president in charge of newsgathering.
More to the story?
Claire Atkinson, a well-respected media reporter who is now a contributing editor for The Ankler, reported that CBS brought in an outside law firm — Kauff, McGuire & Margolis — to investigate Khemlani’s behavior after complaints from women. Last month, New York Post reporter Alexandra Steigrad wrote, “Sources said CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani — who has previously clashed with ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor Norah O’Donnell over contract matters — allegedly unleashed a ‘rude,’ ‘disrespectful’ tirade aimed at Chief Financial Officer Stacey Benson and a female executive vice president at the April meeting, which was focused on long-term budget planning. ‘They had a breakdown after the meeting,’ an insider briefed on the incident said of the two women. ‘They were shaken.’”
Atkinson wrote, “It is unclear however if the investigation played any role in Khemlani’s departure from his position at CBS News. The firm is a labor law specialist in the entertainment world. More than 30 women spoke to the law firm involved, one person said.”
Atkinson said a spokesperson for CBS declined comment, but a source told Atkinson, “If he were found to have violated any HR policies he would not be continuing to have an ongoing relationship with CBS.”
Khemlani is going to Simon & Schuster, which is owned by Paramount Global — the same company that owns CBS.
Speaking out
NewsNation anchor Natasha Zouves, on Monday, spoke with Eric Meyer, owner of the Marion County Record in Kansas. That’s the paper that was raided by police, who took the paper’s computers and documents in a story that press freedom advocates find greatly disturbing. (I wrote about this in Monday’s newsletter.) The police also raided Eric Meyer’s home.
Meyer’s 98-year-old mother, Joan (who was a co-owner of the paper) collapsed and died in her home a day after the raid.
Zouves asked Meyer if he felt the raid contributed to his mother’s death.
Meyer said, “Well, it’s not just me, it was also the coroner who visited her house after the death. You know, she’s 98 years old. She’s in fairly good health for a 98-year-old, and police knock at her door. And they stand there for a couple hours. As she said, just watching me. ‘Why are they watching me like I’m some common criminal.’ And they waited for apparently the police chief to show up to search the premises. And she spent the rest of the day being concerned about this as I think anybody would.”
Meyer said after the raid, his mother didn’t eat or sleep well and was very upset. He said he tried to calm her by saying maybe something good would come from it all.
Meyer said, “And she says to me, ‘I’ll be dead by then.’ And sure enough, about 2 o’clock she was trying to … I was asking her if she wanted to eat something and take her pills. And she says, ‘I’m not feeling very well. I don’t know that …’ and died right in the middle of a sentence.”
Meyer said the coroner told him the stress was a “major contributing factor” in his mother’s death.
Speaking of the Kansas raid …
The Society of Professional Journalists put out a statement Monday saying it would offer up to $20,000 to the Marion County Record for legal fees.
SPJ national president Claire Regan said during an emergency board meeting on Sunday, “By all accounts, the raid was an egregious attack on freedom of the press, the First Amendment and all the liberties we hold dear as journalists in this great country. From the moment they learned about the raid, SPJ members have been speaking up and stepping forward to demand justice, hold the responsible accountable and support the Record staff in their recovery.”
ESPN announces expected changes
ESPN made noise earlier this summer by busting up its top NBA announcing crew of play-by-play announcer Mike Breen and analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. Van Gundy and Jackson were let go. I still think it’s a mistake, especially parting with Van Gundy, who is the best (by far) in the business.
On Monday, ESPN announced its new No. 1 broadcasting team and it was what had been rumored for a while. Breen will be joined by analysts Doris Burke and the newly-hired Doc Rivers, the recently dismissed coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.
While Van Gundy and Jackson will be missed, the new team should be good. Burke is superb and while Rivers hasn’t done broadcasting in a while, he showed a real talent for it when he did. The issue, at least initially, will be the new team finding chemistry. The chemistry and banter between Van Gundy and Jackson were terrific.
Meanwhile, ESPN also named its No. 2 team: play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco with analysts JJ Redick and Richard Jefferson. Some believe Redick will eventually be a top-team announcer. He could eventually replace Rivers if Rivers someday goes back to coaching.
One more ESPN-NBA note: Hubie Brown will return for his 20th season at ESPN and his 50th season in the NBA, including many years as a coach. Brown will turn 90 in December and remains a top-notch broadcaster.
Media tidbits
- Alex Mena has been named executive editor of the Miami Herald. Mena, who was born in Nicaragua, becomes the Herald’s first immigrant executive editor. Mena, 50, was a teenager when he started at the Herald, answering phones. He worked his way up, eventually leading the sports and metro news departments. Mena takes over for Monica Richardson, who was named vice president of news for large markets for parent company McClatchy earlier this year. The Herald’s Howard Cohen has more details, including additional responsibilities for Mena.
- NBC News’ Ben Goggin with “A rising Twitter star boosted by Elon Musk has a past littered with broken promises, say ex-colleagues.”
- ESPN’s Michael A. Fletcher with “‘Blind Side’ subject Oher alleges Tuohys made millions off lie.”
- The Daily Beast’s Justin Rohrlich with “NYC Socialite Accused of Unleashing Bonkers Attack on Photographer.”
- Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton with “The New York Times wants to go its own way on AI licensing.”
- The Los Angeles Times’ Yvonne Villarreal with “‘It was about safety’: Why the leaders on ‘Below Deck Down Under’ fired two castmates for misconduct.”
Hot type
- The Washington Post’s Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy with “Revealing the Smithsonian’s ‘Racial Brain Collection.’”
- For The New York Times, David Marchese with “The ‘World’s Happiest Man’ Shares His Three Rules for Life.”
More resources for journalists
- Bring Poynter to Your Newsroom, Classroom or Workplace.
- Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Media (Mar., May & Sept. 2024) — Apply by Sept. 8, 2023.
- Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color (Nov. 15-18) (Seminar) — Apply by Sept. 15.
- Will Work for Impact: Fundamentals of Investigative Journalism (Oct. 2-30) (Online) — Enroll now.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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