Crash Puts Fledgling MSNBC to Its First Major Test

Tackling its first major breaking story, the explosion of a TWA jetliner, the 3-day-old MSNBC cable TV channel offered coverage similar to that of veteran Cable News Network.

But at times, MSNBC’s seams showed.

MSNBC began reporting the story at 9:37 p.m. EDT during its regularly scheduled “The News With Brian Williams.”

The hourlong newscast was extended past 1 a.m. today with Williams remaining in the anchor chair.

About 9:45 p.m., CNN broke into “Larry King Live” with a bulletin, then returned to that interview show. Anchors Linden Soles and Kathleen Kennedy picked up the story about 10 p.m. and stayed with it.

MSNBC, a news-and-information joint venture of NBC and Microsoft Corp. that signed on Monday morning, employed the services of NBC-owned New York City station WNBC. That station’s helicopter carried grim pictures of orange flames on black water a few miles off Long Island.

NBC News correspondent Robert Hager, who specializes in aviation, reported from the Olympic Village in Atlanta. From Washington, correspondents Pete Williams and Andrea Mitchell provided government reaction.

“We’ve always been in the 24-hour news business. We just haven’t had an outlet to share it on,” said NBC News President Andrew Lack from MSNBC headquarters in Fort Lee, N.J. He added that NBC’s Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel and Matt Lauer were traveling back to New York from Olympic assignments in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, CNN aired similar chopper video of the disaster from its New York affiliate, Fox station WNYW. The station also provided coverage of a live news conference with TWA Vice President Mike Kelly, which MSNBC missed.

Although capably handling anchor chores, Williams was periodically forced to interrupt himself to give special updates for NBC network stations.