Cable news runs on a stream of visuals, and the choices following a major verdict in a criminal case can be limited: A news conference with attorneys and victims, some people milling about the courthouse, maybe a flamboyant protester.
On Thursday afternoon, there was a remedy for this bleakness following the conviction at a Norristown, Pa., courthouse of Bill Cosby on three counts of sexual assault. News video tracked Cosby loading slowly into a black SUV and leaving the premises.
At about 2:46 p.m., footage captured a black SUV carrying Cosby & Co. leaving the courthouse. Then, seconds later, it took a right. Then it slowed to a stop. Then it moved forward slowly. Then it took a right. Then it moved straight through another intersection. Moments later, it stopped at an intersection, and a pedestrian maneuvered around it. And so it went.
Though the Erik Wemple Blog didn’t catch every second of each network’s coverage, all three major cable outfits — MSNBC, CNN and Fox News — tracked the progress of a SUV along some uncrowded roads in Pennsylvania. The setup prompted us to wonder: Do the networks have some insider information about something that will happen on this road trip? Is there a good reason to be following a black SUV taking rights and lefts?
Individuals expressed opinions, with a popular point of reference being Friday, June 17, 1994, when O.J. Simpson led authorities on an unforgettable chase in a white Bronco. TV news covered it live. In the case of Cosby, however, the black SUV was transporting a man who’d been released on bail. “I’m not simply going to lock him up right now,” Montgomery County (Pa.) Judge Steven O’Neill said.
Such Twitter users should have known better than to doubt the omniscient networks. All this live automobile really was working up to something. And that was … Cosby arriving at his home, getting out of the vehicle and stepping inside.
We’ve asked all three networks to send along the rationale for covering the ride on live television. We’ve gotten no on-the-record comments.