Legacy media networks ABC, CBS, and NBC have spent less than 30 combined minutes covering the Norfolk Southern train derailment that has throttled East Palestine, Ohio, and threatened the health of millions living in the Ohio River Basin.
Local and state authorities evacuated all residents within one mile of the February 3 crash and started a controlled burn of leaked industrial chemicals to decrease the risk of an explosion. Vinyl chloride, a carcinogen used to manufacture PVC, was released from five train cars in the form of massive plumes of dark smoke visible in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Analysts from the Media Research Center examined all broadcast coverage of the incident between February 4 and February 14; the conservative nonprofit concluded that the three major networks “fell just shy of a combined 30 minutes” on the matter. CBS devoted 9 minutes and 53 seconds of total airtime to the scandal, while ABC had 9 minutes and 31 seconds, followed by NBC with 8 minutes and 52 seconds.
They don't even write their own copy anymore -- they just read what's sent down to them by their masters. We'll all seen the videos of fifty news stations reading the same news report in the exact same words.
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