To be fair, I didn't go that far around the dial for this morning's Shuttle launch. I watched most of it on two networks.
I started on CNN, and really wish I hadn't. Miles O'Brien is apparently incapable of shutting up. He managed to for about a minute before and during launch, otherwise his pointless blandishments filled the airwaves. Had I been giving the TV full attention I'd likely have turned the channel quicker.
When I did turn it was to ABC, who had a fantastic simulator that gave all sorts of information about the launch: speed, altitude, distance down range, and a bunch of fligh-specific data that I don't think I could fully appreciate (though if you're a fan of yaw, this was for you). The data was accompanied by a virtual Shuttle, depicting what we'd be seeing if we could keep a camera on the Shuttle during the entire launch.
Charles Gibson was covering the launch, and he was OK. He at least knew when to let other people talk and when to let in some silence.
I saw scant amounts of coverage for NBC and CBS. Both seemed to enjoy the benefits of the new camera added to the external tank, as for most of the time I was on their networks a shot of the separated tank with the Earth in the background dominated the visuals. It was pretty cool.
So a check-plus for ABC and even less reason to tune in to CNN for breaking events.
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