NBC - NETS ABANDON PRIMARY COVERAGE

The major television networks have no plans to interrupt their regular programming to present reports about results in today's (Tuesday) crucial primary election in Pennsylvania. NBC plans to move Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and other correspondents who have been covering the campaign to its cable outlet, MSNBC, for reports on the voting. CBS and ABC, which operate no cable news outlets, are likely to run a "crawl" at the bottom of the screen for updates. Fox, which airs no regular news programming at all, will leave coverage of the primary voting in the hands of its sibling Fox News Channel. Sam Roberts, chairman of the University of Miami's broadcast journalism department and a former CBS producer, told the Miami Herald that political coverage has become "strictly a cable event." Local stations in Pennsylvania are expected to air brief live cut-ins throughout the night, but Corrie Harding, news director of NBC affiliate WPXI-TV, vowed during an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazet te, "We'll really try hard not to mess up people's Law & Order: SVU experience."

22/04/2008