While competing newscasts on ABC and CBS led tonight with the president's stunning admission at a press briefing that he hasn't formulated a strategy to deal with ISIS yet, NBC placed the story in the third slot in the lineup, after a lead-off report regarding the NFL's "tough new policy" on domestic violence and a story by New York-based correspondent Katy Tur about comedian Joan Rivers's hospitalization.
On top of that, Nightly News substitute anchor Lester Holt completely left out both ISIS and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia from his opening-credit tease. By contrast, both ABC's Amy Robach and CBS's Maurice DuBois led off their opening-credit teases by citing the most quotable nugget from today's presidential presser [LISTEN to MP3 audio here; WATCH video montage below page break]:
ABC | World News Tonight | August 28, 2014
AMY ROBACH: Welcome to World News Tonight. "No strategy." The president tonight with a surprising acknowledgment about the fight against the terror group ISIS.
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CBS | CBS Evening News | August 28, 2014
MAURICE DuBOIS, substitute anchor: Tonight, the president on striking Isis targets in Syria.
President BARACK OBAMA: We don't have a strategy yet.
DuBOIS: He asked the Pentagon for more options and blasted Russia for pouring more troops into Ukraine.
OBAMA: Russia is responsible for the violence in eastern Ukraine.
DuBOIS: Reports from Major Garrett and David Martin.
