Miracle on West 57th: CBS Ties Lee to Gore and Quotes Assessment of Bush as ‘Intelligent’

Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, without Katie Couric, uniquely amongst the broadcast network evening newscasts tied Discovery Channel hostage-taker/bomber James Lee to Al Gore and, even more miraculously, highlighted how Tony Blair, in his new book, describes George W. Bush as “intelligent.” Reporter Wyatt Andrews relayed in his story on the incident in suburban DC:

In an anti-corporate protest two years ago, Lee was arrested while throwing cash outside of Discovery’s offices. He said in court he had been moved to save the planet, partly by Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

Neither ABC nor NBC mentioned Gore’s inspiration. (ABC’s Pierre Thomas on World News: Lee “has protested at the Discovery Channel repeatedly, raising concerns about the environment and over-population.” NBC’s Tom Costello on Nightly News referred to Lee “handing out a rambling leaflet that called on Discovery to devote more programming to global warming and animal extinction.”)

Later in the newscast, fill-in anchor Harry Smith squeezed in a short note about A Journey: My Political Life: “Tony Blair’s long-awaited memoir is out tonight and it includes the former British Prime Minister’s take on some of the famous and powerful. President Bush: ‘Intelligent,’ ‘knew exactly what he wanted’...”

Washington, DC area viewers, however, didn’t learn who Gore inspired or Blair admired since WUSA-TV channel 9, CBS’s Gannett-owned DC affiliate, didn’t carry Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, electing to stay with local coverage of the Silver Spring, Maryland events.