CNN WAS FIRST WITH REPORT OF QUAKE

Cable News Network beat the Big Three TV networks by 11 minutes with first word Thursday of the Los Angeles earthquake. CNN’s Atlanta assignment desk was alerted, CNN says, by Los Angeles staffer Lindy Hall saying:

“We have an earthquake, we have an earthquake, our bureau is rolling.”

Anchors Donna Kelly and Brian Nelson, doing CNN’s “Daywatch” newscast in Atlanta, reported at 10:45 a.m. EDT that there had been an earthquake in Los Angeles, but had few details.

At 10:55 a.m. EDT, CNN reporter Anne McDermott, understandably uneasy-looking, went on the air live from CNN’s sixth-floor Sunset Boulevard studio in Hollywood, describing how the quake felt and giving what details were available.

Asked Atlanta anchor Kelly: “Was there any warning?”

No, McDermott said.

Yes, she said, when Kelly asked if the power was still on.

CNN aired the first live pictures of quake damage--broken storefront windows--at 10:57 a.m. At 11:13 a.m., viewers saw reporter McDermott in CNN’s Los Angeles studio uneasily saying:

“Right now we are feeling a bit of an aftershock as I speak. I think I am going to leave the desk right now.” There was a pause, then: “It is calming down. I don’t know if this is visible to you on camera. It is apparently over. That appears to be a fifth aftershock.”

ABC reporter Fred Thompson in Los Angeles had the same on-air experience while reporting for his network. “Oh,” he said, “here comes one right now.”

NBC was the first of the Big Three networks to report the quake, with Bob Jamison doing that from New York at 10:56 a.m. His one-minute pictureless report was followed by another at 11:17 a.m., with Garrick Utley coming in for two more brief reports--these with pictures--at noon and 1 p.m. (The network’s primary anchor, Tom Brokaw, was in Shanghai, China.)

With Lesley Stahl anchoring from Washington, CBS’ first report-- sans pictures--began at 10:57 a.m. and ended in two minutes.

Top anchor Dan Rather checked in from 11:32-11:45 a.m. with an interview of a National Earthquake Center official and correspondent David Dow in Los Angeles. Rather anchored an eight-minute report with pictures at 1:03 p.m. He came back on air at 3 p.m. with pictures and reports by Dow and KCBS-TV (Channel 2) correspondent David Lopez.

ABC’s Jed Duvall read a brief report on the quake at 10:58 a.m., also without pictures, and another at 11:30 a.m. in which Los Angeles reporter Thompson was seen feeling the earth move.

Anchor Peter Jennings went on the air at 12:30 p.m. with a five-minute words-and-pictures report and an on-scene report by Judd Rose in Los Angeles.