October 9, 2023

As war in Israel rages, U.S. networks offer extended coverage

The ongoing attacks from the 2023 Israel-Hamas War are being covered extensively on both broadcast and cable networks, along with the all-too-familiar images of city skylines being illuminated by explosions and reporters in protective vests labeled with “press.”

NBC News and MSNBC are using the “War in Israel” banner for their coverage. A white and red logotype with a rough texture is typically accompanied by dark blue backgrounds with a collage of elements, including a map of the Middle East with Israel highlighted and a partial ring of hash marks.

View on Giphy

The logotype can be placed inside a rectangle space formed by four intersecting lines that, along with the bold sans serif font, ring of marks, grid lines and faint circular accents blend to create an image that’s decidedly military-inspired.

The graphics also uses bright blue and red accents in animated sequences, which use a blocky glitch-style look.

Coordinating video wall backgrounds have also appeared up on air, typically with more of the sandy color in the map showing as opposed to the bluer look.

One video wall graphic neatly placed the spotlighted shape of Israel camera left of a single anchor shot with the logotype over the right shoulder.

Scan lines and small white squares bring in some of the feel of the bluer fullscreens, while a curved line of hash marks on the far right serve to, along with the outline of Israel, neatly frame out the shot.

A different version of the background was also available for anchor two-shots and was used on “NBC News Daily.” It was designed to place Israel between the anchors and the “War in Israel” logotype next to the camera right anchor.

At least one shot, however, wasn’t quite framed correctly and resulted in an anchor’s head covering part of the logotype so it appeared to read “Var in Srael.” The framing was fixed later in te broadcast.

This layout also featured boxed photos far camera left and right, a look that’s similar to the “jigsaw” of LED panels installed camera right of the anchor area in the space designated as Studio 3AW, where “Daily” originates from.

During select hours of “MSNBC Reports,” the camera framed the anchor more to the left side of the screen to allow the logo to be displayed more prominently.

At other times, the graphic was partially cut off.

Similar graphics were also shown during “Today.”

“NBC Nightly News” also used the look Oct. 9, 2023, including as a sidebar-style graphic that would likely have been depicted using video walls and panels if Lester Holt had not been anchoring from Tel Aviv.