If you wondered whether declining viewers and corporate belt tightening had a real on-screen resourcing impact on network news coverage, check out Andrew Tyndall on the nets and Gaza:
In the summer of 2006, when the Israel Defense Force headed north to fight with the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon, all three networks found the conflict so newsworthy they dispatched anchors to the region. ABC’s Charles Gibson traveled to Jerusalem; NBC’s Brian Williams to Tel Aviv and Haifa; CBS’ Bob Schieffer in New York shared anchoring chores with Lara Logan in Israel.
Now, as 2009 starts, the IDF is heading south into the Gaza Strip to confront the militiamen of Hamas. The Gaza conflict was Story of the Day for the third straight weekday of the new year–but the networks did not even use it to lead off their newscasts, let alone send their anchors out of New York. The economy, specifically President-elect Barack Obama’s legislative proposal for fiscal stimulus, was their unanimous choice as lead item.
Meanwhile the Palestinian death toll in Gaza at Israeli hands this week neared 550, dozens of them civilian children.
None of the networks had correspondents file from inside the Gaza Strip as the IDF invaded from north and southeast.