Journalism

While all news media are practicing social distancing and adapting to working outside the office, WBBM Chicago went a step further Tuesday. The CBS-owned station originated its entire 5 p.m. newscast away from its Loop newsroom, studio and control room.

Two of the broadcast evening newscasts, which offer a cogent summary of the day’s developments, had a bigger average audience than any program in primetime last week. They were ABC’s World News Tonight, up 38% in viewers from its season average, and NBC’s Nightly News, up 47%. The CBS Evening News audience was 31% higher than it is typically.

The network newscasts had lost relevance, thanks to cable and digital media. Now, the coronavirus has put tens of millions of viewers back in the 6:30 p.m. habit.

The Hollywood Reporter reviewed more than 1,000 pages of emails between Fox employees and aides at the Departments of Homeland Security, Education and Agriculture. On Nov. 21, 2018, the producer wrote: “Ps remember any question [Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos] doesn’t feel comfortable answering — she can choose to not answer and pivot the topic — and Maria [Bartiromo] is seasoned enough to understand and move on. … So no worries on that front. This will be an easy interview and enjoyable.”

Journalists from a variety of Chicago TV stations explain how they are making doing their jobs by working from their homes.

The coronavirus pandemic threatens to delay the launch of two ambitious new Chicago-based television news operations in the coming months. CBS-owned WBBM had announced plans to roll out CBSN Local, a 24/7 streaming news service, by the end of March. But in light of everything else going on, Officials said Monday they don’t know when the service will start. Questions also surround the launch of a live daily national newscast on WGN America, the Chicago-based cable network owned by Nexstar Media Group.

More than half of all news consumption on Facebook in America is about the virus, according to an internal report.

Layoffs. Canceled print editions. Weekly papers and small dailies across the country face peril as the coronavirus cuts off ads and live events.

A Justice Department lawyer urged a federal appeals court Monday to give President Donald Trump’s White House broad leeway to pull journalists’ press passes for conduct the president or his aides deem unprofessional — even though opinions seem to differ widely about how to define that term in the Trump era.

President Donald Trump and members of his coronavirus task force will headline a two-hour “virtual” Fox News town hall on Tuesday afternoon. The event will be co-anchored by Harris Faulkner and Bill Hemmer, with contributions from Dr. Nicole Saphier, Dr. Marc Siegel and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Faulker anchors Outnumbered Overtime and Hemmer anchors Bill Hemmer Reports.

ABC, CBS and NBC all covered Trump at the beginning of Monday’s briefing, which began about 6:10 p.m. ET. After 20 minutes, they switched to the network evening newscasts, never to return to Trump. The president spoke until shortly after 8 p.m. The cable news networks have given Trump blanket coverage for his briefings, but CNN cut away Monday at around 7:20 p.m. MSNBC followed within five minutes. Only Fox News stuck it out until the end.

Nielsen analyzed viewing data across its Local People Meter markets, which are 25 of the largest local markets. For persons aged 2 and older, local news experienced a 7% viewership lift between early February and the week of March 9. Among persons 25-54, the spike was higher, at more than 10%. Perhaps most interesting however, is that the lift among younger persons aged 2-17 was 20%.

The White House Correspondents’ Association said that a member of the press corps has a suspected case of the coronavirus and is advising journalists and others who were at the White House on a series of dates over the past two weeks to take precautions. “We have been informed that one of our colleagues has a suspected case of COVID-19,” WHCA President Jonathan Karl wrote in an email to members.

As the world adjusts to coronavirus-related changes at a rapid pace, many in the Twin Cities have grappled with this question: When your job is to talk about sports, what do you do when there are suddenly no games?

The group’s second Facebook Watch show, Field Notes, features pandemic stories from Hearst stations in 26 markets cross the U.S.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a seasoned news producer at WTTG, the Fox O&O in Washington, D.C. WTTG’s studio is located in the Friendship Heights neighborhood, just a few miles from Chevy Chase and the Maryland state line.

The 48-year-old Lachlan Murdoch stood by as Fox News hosts played down the danger of the deadly coronavirus to their viewers. Fox failed its viewers and the broader public in ways both revealing and potentially lethal. In particular, Lachlan Murdoch failed to pry its most important voices away from their embrace of the president’s early line: that the virus was not a big threat in the United States.

Coming off a record overall month this January in digital traffic according to Comscore data, Fox News Digital’s VP and editor-in-chief says FoxNews.com’s consistently strongest story is its home page.