ABC 6:30 News

I just watched the 6:30 Sunday night news on ABC. The first, (and main) story that was reported was the Swine Flu outbreak that is going on. Out of a 30 minute time slot, this news coverage took up 20 minutes of the total time. The segment began by explaining the facts of the outbreak and where they are found to be taking place (which are noted in my last blog post). The reporters noted that the largest cluster of cases is in New York City, where 8 school children in Queens have been diagnosed with the disease, and mayor Bloomberg has decided to close the school until further notice. It was also noted that a few students from the school traveled to Cancun, Mexico over Spring Break, which is where the disease probably came from. This segment also offered advice to viewers incase they are feeling symptoms of the flu, and also spent some time focused on an ABC correspondent who was stationed in Mexico City, reporting on the atmosphere in the city.

The second story, which lasted approximately only a minute or two, was about a professor from the University of Georgia who is suspected of committing triple homicide and killing his wife and two others at a movie theater.

The third story that was reported lasted roughly 7-8 minutes and focused on a conflict taking place in Pakistan. An ABC news reporter was stationed in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, and discussed the problem of Taliban members roaming the country’s streets freely, and fully armed. The Taliban have been walking the streets while carrying various weapons, which greatly frightens Pakistan’s citizens. They are fearful of the Taliban and many have not been coming out of their homes, which in turn is hurting the country’s economy. Pakistan’s government tried to negotiate with the Taliban by promising to incorporate some of their wishes into law, in return for them to lay down their weapons; however, the Taliban did not follow through with their side of the bargain. Security and government officials are trying harder and harder to handle the situation.

The next story, which was probably reported in less than a minute, was on pirate attacks of an Italian cruise ship called “The Melody”, however the report lasted only a few seconds long so I’m unsure of the exact details of the situation.

The final story that took up the remaining few moments of the show was about suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s dogs. It has been two years since Michael Vick was found to be running an illegal dog fighting circle, and now several of his dogs are doing much better. Usually when this type of situation occurs, the abused dogs are put down, however animal organizations pushed to rehabilitate Vick’s dogs. Now, many of them are being adopted into new homes.

I feel that these stories were correctly ordered according to importance. Of course the majority of the time went to informing the public about the new Swine Flu outbreak, which is very important for the health and safety of our nation. The next main story that took up more than just a few minutes was the Taliban conflict taking place in Pakistan. I believe this order is appropriate because although this problem of Pakistan’s is indeed very important, it is not the most directly pressing issue for American citizens at this very moment. The other small stories seemed to just be time fillers, and therefore it is appropriate that the majority of them were put towards the end of the news segment.