# Breaking news that preempts all the networks. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 20, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332 "2011-03-20T05:22:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/41 "2011-03-21T20:31:02Z")
> [@Pai325](#): > > I remember when President Kennedy died and all the coverage. And back then, you didn’t have cable channels to turn to if you were tired of the coverage, although I think we were all so shocked (at least in my family) that we would not have turned anything else on even if we could have. In particular, the coverage lasted from Friday afternoon when he was shot nonstop to Monday and the funeral. It was the first long term breaking story I remember, though there were plenty of all-network announcements. BTW, though it was before my time, I believe the radio networks had similar coverage when FDR died. I’ve heard the coverage of the funeral itself, and my mother had a paperback book with a transcript of the coverage. Instabooks are not a recent invention. ---
**Author:** ![Sakuma\_Drops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sakuma\_Drops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sakuma_Drops)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/42 "2011-03-21T20:41:59Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > The Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes were on all three networks for the first few hours. The Loma Prieta earthquake had the dubious distinction of occurring live on camera during the '89 World Series…[at least until the cameras cut off](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ExMR0c0aM&feature=related) (fast forward to about 4:30 in the video). All the major national/world news events I can think of have been listed already, but I can recall a couple of occasions when severe weather has hit my area (North Carolina) during either the ACC or NCAA basketball tournaments, and sports coverage was pre-empted by tornado warnings and such. People always used to get super-pissed when that happened :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/43 "2011-03-21T20:50:56Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > I know the **aftermath** of Challenger was on all the networks, but I don’t know how many had been broadcasting the launch. A recent story I read about the anniversary mentioned that CNN was the only network carrying it live. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/44 "2011-03-21T21:03:58Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The guilty verdict in the OJ Simpson trial happened during then President Clinton’s state of the union address. The networks stayed with Clinton and ran a guilty blurb on the bottom. Let’s not forget the most bizarre mesh ever. [Howard Cosell announcing John Lennon’s death on Monday Night Football.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n73GFvAyIjs) ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/45 "2011-03-21T21:38:39Z")
OJ’s jury verdict was so big, that not only were all the networks presumably carrying it, but my high school actually held an assembly in the gym to watch it. I kept thinking “what does this have to do with learning?” but the other half of me thought “woo, I get to miss geometry!” The only other time I can remember there being a school assembly to watch something on live TV was when the space shuttle full of teachers and students took off, in 1st grade. I remember there being lots of cool explosions and stuff, and then we had to spend the rest of week learning all about death. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/46 "2011-03-22T00:04:42Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > This is slightly off-topic, but this makes me recall the incident from George Bush Senior’s term in the oval office. While in Japan, he upchucked on the Premiere, but somehow CNN got the report wrong and thought he’d dropped dead. They were literally seconds away from reporting it on air, before someone rushed into the set. > > Announcer: We have a breaking story. We have news in from Japan that President Bush is– > > Offscreen voice: NO!!! STOP!!! > > Cut to commercial. I was just remembering this for some reason last week, and went hunting for a clip of it online (unsuccessfully). I was watching CNN Headline News over breakfast that morning and they had reported that the president had gotten sick earlier. Then if my memory is correct, they came back to the anchor mid-commercial and he had a somber look and he started to make that report and got cut off by the offscreen voice. I remember staying glued to the TV for about an hour after thinking that they were just waiting for a confirmation, and flipping through various channels to see if anybody else was reporting anything. And having a mild panic attack at the thought of “President Quayle”… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/47 "2011-03-22T01:26:27Z")
> [@zoog](#): > > I was just remembering this for some reason last week, and went hunting for a clip of it online (unsuccessfully). I was watching CNN Headline News over breakfast that morning and they had reported that the president had gotten sick earlier. Then if my memory is correct, they came back to the anchor mid-commercial and he had a somber look and he started to make that report and got cut off by the offscreen voice. I remember staying glued to the TV for about an hour after thinking that they were just waiting for a confirmation, and flipping through various channels to see if anybody else was reporting anything. And having a mild panic attack at the thought of “President Quayle”… No clip, but [here’s the story](http://articles.latimes.com/1992-01-10/entertainment/ca-1610_1_cnn-s-headline-news). ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332/48 "2011-03-22T14:11:04Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > OJ’s jury verdict was so big, that not only were all the networks presumably carrying it, but my high school actually held an assembly in the gym to watch it. I kept thinking “what does this have to do with learning?” but the other half of me thought “woo, I get to miss geometry!” > > The only other time I can remember there being a school assembly to watch something on live TV was when the space shuttle full of teachers and students took off, in 1st grade. I remember there being lots of cool explosions and stuff, and then we had to spend the rest of week learning all about death. The verdict was announced about lunchtime in the Central Time Zone, and at our school we had the TVs turned out in the cafeteria. You could hear a pin drop in there and when they finally said “not-guilty” the place just erupted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-that-preempts-all-the-networks/575332.md?page=2)