Networks offer extended coverage of Trump assassination attempt

U.S. broadcasters scrambled late Saturday night, July 13, 2024, to cover the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Networks continue assassination attempt coverage into Sunday evening

The event, which started around 6 p.m. eastern time, was being carried live by CNN and Fox. 

After it became apparent that something was amiss at the rally, CNN cut away from the live pool feed with anchor Jessica Dean providing coverage in the form of a simple on-camera voiceover.

At about the same time, CNN dropped its banner about Trump’s rally in favor of a simple “Breaking News” label.

The network notably did not air footage of Trump bleeding as he was lead off stage live, though it did, like most networks, show the footage repeatedly later on.

This was likely done out of an abundance of caution to avoid exposing viewers to any sensitive images at a time when it was not clear what was happening at the rally.

Dean brought in Ron Brownstein, a CNN political editor, to add some perspective as the network was working behind the scenes on the developing story.

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Dean, whose voice wavered from time to time, would periodically jump in and interrupt Brownstein with updates being provided to her. 

The network did not cut back to live footage from the rally site until after Trump was rushed off stage and the network felt it was relatively safe to resume showing the life feed of what turned into a deadly event. 

It later brought in Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, among other key talent, to handle coverage.

Fox, meanwhile, did not drop out of the pool feed from the event until much later.

MSNBC ended up simulcasting NBC’s special report.

Most network-affiliated stations in the eastern and central time zones were in the middle of local weekend news at the time of the shooting.

ABC, CBS and NBC cut into programming around 6:20 p.m. eastern time, give or take a few minutes, with special reports.

At the time, the big-three network newsrooms were preparing for their weekend evening newscasts.

ABC News

Whit Johnson handled the report.

CBS News

Adriana Diaz handled the special report.

NBC News

José Díaz-Balart handled the report.

As the evening went on, networks called in other talent as well.

On Sunday, July 14, 2024, the assassination attempt was leading the news cycle.

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CBS News announced it would preempt “CBS News Sunday Morning” for a special report on the shooting.

NBC used the slot normally dedicated to “Sunday Today” for what was labeled as a special edition of “Today” with Savannah Guthrie brought in to co-anchor with Willie Geist.

ABC brought in its entire “Good Morning America” weekday team of George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan to co-anchor a special edition of the show produced from Studio TV3 at the network’s headquarters rather than the show’s normal home in Times Square.

 The Sunday morning political affairs broadcasts offered by ABC, CBS and NBC were all reshaped around the attempt.

‘Meet the Press’

‘Face the Nation’

‘This Week’