No, it wasn’t just my imagination:
As critic Tim Cuprisin says, CNN has “seemed ready to give Smith her own show.” And now they are: Thursday night at 10pm, NewsNight will be preempted for “Ashley Smith: A Hero’s Journey.” It’s a special edition of People in the News. (Last night, NewsNight became “26 Hours: Inside the Manhunt.”)
I stopped watching stuff about this, but someone was keeping track. Mind you, this was a few days after the incident
> 7pm: Anderson Cooper 360: “What did Ashley Smith do that may have saved her life?,” CNN.com asked. (Anderson is in Beirut.)
> 8pm: Paula Zahn Now: The show examined “the possible reasons behind Atlanta’s killing spree.”
> 9pm: Larry King Live: “Brian Nichols’ brother speaks out in an exclusive prime-time interview,” the teaser said.
> 10pm: NewsNight: Aaron Brown’s first block was devoted to the shooting aftermath.
We had a few good comments below on why this story has received so much attention. I get some, but not all of the reasons. More on that later.
This may sound simplistic, but I believe it’s a major reason CNN has covered the Nichols story so heavily: CNN is in Atlanta. It doesn’t matter that they’re supposed to cover world news – if a story of this magnitudes breaks in their backyard, they’re going to play it up more. True for any network, I think. They have easier access to the story, to witnesses, to the crime scene(s). Because of this they can run with the story from just about any angle. I’m not saying they should, but they do.
Yes, that would explain increased coverage while the incident was unfolding. But this was after-the-fact, with those shows being broadcast from . . . New York.
Maybe so. But the Powers That Be who decide what CNN should cover are based in Atlanta. They have to be influenced by that.