President George HW Bush dies

Former President Bush Sr has died, the announcement was made at 5am UK time, 1am EST. Of the little I've been able to see, CNN interrupted a package with the usual Breaking News routine, while Fox News seems to have gone into a more formal obit mode, with the presenter dressed in black and a black version of the logo.

Midnight EST.

What an odd time to announce it,presumably there was a reason they didn't hold out till the US morning.

Not good for news channels especially over this side of the Atlantic who'll have to report the news during the day with limited talking heads available in the US to appear on their programmes. The BBCs correspondent on just now was in LA, where its just gone 9.

Reged Ahmad went open ended on BBC World and has just now handed over to Samantha Simmons.

Obit package played several times so far, voiced by Soapy.

CNNI with Don Lemon. Obit package voiced by Anderson Cooper.

I have to say, Samantha Simmonds is bloody good! Utterly cool, calm and collected.

I was watching The 11th Hour with Brian Williams on MSNBC but Steve Kornacki was filling in for the night. He anchored two NBC News Special reports for the network and continued coverage until about 2AM (when The 11th Hour repeats overnight) when they played out an obituary show. The tape started out with Lester Holt standing in the Nightly News studio 3C before tossing to a report by Brian Williams.

MSNBC has made a lot of biographies / specials of elderly figures the past year. I’m not sure if it’s content is taken from a prior special repackaged with evergreen elements (keeping it neutral but known he passed away) or brand new.

The Announcement might have been embargoed as the Sky News push notification was Timed to 4.59am when the BBC followed at 5.02am.

CNN at 23:50 ET


MSNBC


Fox News (not the original graphics which you can see here)


ABC Special Report


NBC's Special Report as shown on MSNBC


CBS Special Report (notably presented from Los Angeles)


CBSN

The ABC News Special Report graphics are a bit odd, aren't they? Doesn't seem the most tasteful to reveal breaking news in the opening titles...

And what was the set-up with the CBS Special report - CBS2 graphics on the screens behind the presenter and she identified herself as from CBS2 (although perhaps a slip of the tongue) at the end of the bulletin? Presumably CBS2 is the local affiliate in Los Angeles, but if so why did they do the announcement on 'network' as such?

I agree, the ABC News titles announcing the breaking news as part of the titles is a bit strange. Maybe they could use that as the titles into later coverage but not the breaking news.

CBS News look to have been caught out a tad with what looks like a junior presenter stumbling over the announcement

The NBC and CBS graphics also reveal the news before the newscaster has actually announced it, which I can understand on a rolling news channel but for prepared special reports I feel they should hold back until after they’ve told the news.

Presume LA handled the CBS announcement given the time it came out and the time difference - guess they would have been more ready than their colleagues on the east coast?

I know CBSN is not a traditional cable news service, but I assumed they have hosts and reporters available 24/7 for breaking news. I thought CBS would've used them akin to NBC News utilising MSNBC. The local station doing the CBS Special Report did seem to enjoy their moment in the network limelight, I don't think the use of two different CBS2 logos on the screens at the back and the host's "CBS2 News" signoff can all be mistakes.