CNN’s Brown plays through shuttle story

Tom Brokaw was snorkeling off the Virgin Islands Saturday morning when he saw the boat’s captain, 40 feet away, frantically waving. Two planes and less than nine hours later, just before 3 p.m. PST, he was on the air anchoring NBC’s Columbia space shuttle coverage from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The lead anchors for ABC and CBS made it on the air too, but not CNN’s Aaron Brown, whose absence until Sunday night was the source of much speculation. Brown, it turns out, was playing golf in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic at La Quinta in Palm Desert, which was televised on CBS midday Saturday after the network ended several hours of shuttle coverage.

CNN sources said Brown, who was promoted as the network’s lead anchor when he was hired away from ABC two years ago, told the network he wasn’t available to come to work. The decision infuriated some executives as well as some on his staff, the CNN sources said.

Brown, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment, but was quoted Sunday in the Palm Springs Desert Sun as saying that it didn’t make sense to go to New York. Going to CNN’s Los Angeles offices, he said, “didn’t make any sense because I didn’t have any clothes.”

Brown also told the Desert Sun, “I felt like I was in two places today and it was difficult .... I felt a profound sadness at what happened. It’s horrible. A golf tournament, even a fun one, it didn’t matter. It took the fun out of it today for me.”

A CNN spokeswoman said the network was happy to be able to rely on Miles O’Brien, CNN’s space correspondent, who coincidentally was anchoring that day anyway. “Executives felt Miles O’Brien was the best person to anchor this coverage because of his expertise in this area; we felt very fortunate to have him,” the spokeswoman said.

Washington, D.C.-based Judy Woodruff also anchored, while “Moneyline” anchor Lou Dobbs, who had been on vacation in Florida, covered the scene at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

CNN’s decision, however it came down, had rivals scratching their heads. “You’ve got to have your marquee people out there on a day like that,” said an NBC News spokeswoman, noting that NBC, until Brokaw got in place, was able to rely on his heir apparent, Brian Williams.

CBS’ Dan Rather was on the air by 7:30 a.m. Pacific time. ABC’s Peter Jennings drove in from a Long Island vacation home, arriving in the studio nearly two hours after Rather. Bill Blakemore, ABC’s reporter on duty for breaking news, filled in until then.

But CNN’s spokeswoman said her network’s tradition “is different from the broadcast networks in that we don’t turn to one person; we have multiple anchors.” Fox News Channel also used multiple anchors throughout the day, including Shepard Smith. MSNBC used its own anchors and at times also carried the NBC network programming.

Nonetheless, CNN’s spokeswoman said Brown “will continue to be a breaking news anchor for CNN,” and noted he was on the air by Sunday night, from Houston, where he will continue to be based much of the week.