This is worth skimming (I saw it on Atrios): Columbia Tape Shows Network Competition.

Here’s the fun part

NEW YORK – During coverage of the space shuttle Columbia’s disintegration, the folks in CNN’s control room thought the picture they saw on rival Fox News Channel looked familiar.

So they tried a little experiment.

The producers superimposed a tiny “CNN” logo on the upper left corner of the network’s screen as it showed the shuttle breaking into pieces. Blip! The same logo appeared on Fox News Channel.

Then they decided to abruptly switch cameras so a picture of correspondent Miles O’Brien appeared. For two seconds — until it was hurriedly replaced with a view of NASA (news – web sites)’s mission control — it looked like O’Brien was working for Fox, too.

I suppose it’s only fair, CNN cribbed Fox’s call of the winner in Florida and thus the nation in November 2000 (around 3:30 a.m. as I recall).

AB