Twin Hostage Crisis in France Dominates U.S. News Coverage

For the third straight day, the U.S. morning news coverage was dominated by the ongoing situation in France, which began Wednesday morning with the shooting at French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

The coverage shifted on Friday morning to two separate hostage situations in Paris and a nearby town of Dammartin-en-Goele. Each of the three broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC pre-empted their regular lineups with special report coverage, with many on the ground in France.

CBS broke into its special coverage at 10:57 a.m. ET, with CBS This Morning cohosts Charlie Rose, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King anchoring in New York. In Paris, CBS has foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reporting outside the kosher market in Porte de Vincennes, and Clarissa Ward reporting from outside the industrial complex in Dammartin-en-Goele. CBS went back on the air with another special report around 3 p.m. ET to cover the latest developments.

ABC began its special report coverage at 11 a.m. ET, with George Stephanopoulos anchoring from New York. ABC has sorrespondent Alexander Marquardt reporting from France (near the hostage situation at CTD Printing) and chief foreign correspondent Terry Moran from Paris. ABC also aired a special report earlier this morning from 6:31-6:35 a.m. ET.

For NBC, Savannah Guthrie is anchoring with Bill Neely in France, with Lester Holt, Richard Engel and Ron Allen also on the ground. NBC has previously aired special reports this morning at 6 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET. The network aired another special report at 4 p.m. ET.

The cable news nets CNN, MSNBC and Fox News have been in coverage since the 6 a.m. hour this morning.

CNN has been in rolling coverage since overnight – the network is usually live overnight with CNN International. Anderson Cooper has been anchoring coverage from France with Chris Cuomo, Hala Gorani, Jim Bittermann (CNN’s Paris-based correspondent), Fred Pleitgen, Atika Shubert and Jim Sciutto on the scene as well.

Fox News has London-based correspondent Amy Kellogg live from the hostage standoff at the kosher supermarket in Paris while senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot is live in Paris covering the other developments.  Additionally, senior correspondent Rick Leventhal in Paris will join them. Also, contributing to the coverage will be chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge and Ed Henry on the White House reaction from Washington D.C. FNC says its primetime lineup on Friday night will air live.

An MSNBC spokesperson said it is sending Ronan Farrow to France on Friday for in-depth interviewing and reporting and Chris Hayes will anchor coverage from 1-3 p.m.

Multiple news outlets are reporting that both hostage situations are over with the hostages freed. The two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo shooting, which were holding hostages at a printing warehouse in Dammartin-en-Goele, have been killed.

More updates as they come…