After news broke around 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday that four narcotics officers were shot while trying to serve a warrant in Houston, over the next 24 hours, the three broadcast networks, CNN and Fox News Channel all gave substantial attenton to the story.
But MSNBC has so far only given the dramatic event a total of 91 seconds in spite of being a 24-hour cable news channel.
The Fox News Channel was the first of the national networks to inform viewers of the story as host Bret Baier read a brief at 6:32 p.m. Eastern on Monday's Special Report show. Briefs were soon also read on the CBS Evening News, ABC's World News Tonight, and the NBC Nightly News.
A couple of hours later and shortly before 9:00 p.m., CNN joined in the reporting as host Anderson Cooper read a brief near the end of AC360. MSNBC first informed viewers of the events early Tuesday morning at 5:11 a.m. on the First Look show in a brief that lasted 46 seconds. A second brief of 45 seconds was run during Morning Joe at 7:50 a.m. Eastern.
By contrast, in the first 24 hours after the story broke, the Fox News Channel gave it more than 33 minutes, covering it on almost every show, and CNN gave it more than 15 minutes, informing viewers that two of the four officers were injured critically.
On Tuesday morning, the broadcast network morning shows all utilized full reports to update viewers, and on Tuesday evening, ABC and CBS gave full reports while NBC ran a brief.
Near the end of December, MSNBC notably ignored the murder of California police officer Ronil Singh by an illegal immigrant as all the other networks gave the story substantial coverage.
