By the time the evening news shows hit the air Tuesday night, the lead from Gaza was the same across the board; a strike on a hospital there had killed hundreds. The secondary headlines were equally similar; Israel and Hamas were blaming each other for the blast.
By the time this is published, we may know what actually happened, but we may not. Certainly, we will have a better idea of the casualty count. President Biden will have met with Netanyahu but probably not King Abdullah. Whether or not those things took place, or some information has become dated is not really the point.
Dozens of stories will have unfolded in Gaza, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv by the time anyone is reading this. Far too many for any one newscast to cover. The information is different because the stories are no longer follows and sidebars to the original event coverage. Pretty soon the initial attack by Hamas falls far in the coverage of the storytellers.
So, on that Tuesday night I watched David Muir first, then peeked in on Norah and Lester. Those were some crowded evening newscasts; it seemed like all the heavy-hitting members of the correspondent staff were over there from a different angle from a different location. I’m sure they were saying a few things on Fox and CNN, too.
A fair question to ask is just how many of these stories can be told in the attention span of the audience and how difficult is it to put some narratives but not others on the chopping block? What goes and what stays in those increasing chapters each night?
We already know so much yet how does a newscast not offer the latest on the hostages or the evacuations, the airstrikes, or the approaching ground offensive? What do the showrunners leave in or take out? And how do they know exactly whose version of the truth about a deeply divided region their show is telling an equally divided nation?
Yes, a lot of questions there and just thinking about that makes my head spin. Like many of us, I’ve been witness and party to the process but no, not at this level. In my eyes, simply facing off against all this information and all the challenges involved is not meant for anyone but the true Pros from Dover, and like or loathe their coverage, an intelligent person has to respect the effort.
Natural disasters, tragic episodes of violence in this country, and ongoing tensions do not make for easy news reporting either but so many of those occurrences are a rush to the scene, a day or two of aftermath and out. I’m referring to the procedure of coverage of course and not the impact on humanity.
But Israel and Hamas this time do not look like that, nobody is going anywhere. There is no exit strategy for the conflict and no obvious withdrawal plan for the news coverage. This one cannot be left to the stringers and freelancers alone, the A and B teams are going to have to plant themselves there until further notice, I believe.
A half dozen stories a day coming out of Gaza.
Meanwhile, a government without a Speaker of the House, a former president and his legal challenges, China playing chicken with U.S. aircraft, and of course what has Taylor Swift done lately?
Anyone else thinking it might be time for the networks to take the evening newscasts to an hour? That’s how Nightline happened.
Bill Zito has devoted most of his work efforts to broadcast news since 1999. He made the career switch after serving a dozen years as a police officer on both coasts. Splitting the time between Radio and TV, he’s worked for ABC News and Fox News, News 12 New York , The Weather Channel and KIRO and KOMO in Seattle. He writes, edits and anchors for Audacy’s WTIC-AM in Hartford and lives in New England. You can find him on Twitter @BillZitoNEWS.
