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Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Pandemic Changing How Journalists Work



Six people at CBS News have tested positive for coronavirus, including a correspondent stationed in Italy, as media organizations fought Monday against the same epidemic they’re charged with describing.

Five employees with the virus work in CBS’ New York offices, where most of its journalists were ordered to stay away as a result, reports The Associated Press.

“Everyone works remotely unless specifically requested to come in,” CBS News President Susan Zirinsky said in a memo to her staff.

ABC News said Monday that a journalist who worked on the network’s coverage team of the outbreak in Seattle had tested positive for coronavirus. The person, who works in ABC’s Los Angeles bureau, has been isolated since last week and has suffered only mild symptoms.

The network said it has told its entire Seattle coverage team to stay home and has closed its Los Angeles bureau for a thorough cleaning.
The white couch on Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered,” typically crowded with four women and one man, held only Harris Faulkner and Melissa Francis on Monday. The other guests, Dr. Nicole Saphier, David Webb and Jessica Tarlov, were stationed in different studios.

With society shutting down and many Americans house-bound for an undetermined length of time, there are preliminary signs that it might boost television audiences, particularly for news.

For the past two weeks, Fox News has averaged 3.57 million viewers in prime time, up 40% from the same two-week period a year ago. MSNBC had 2.44 million, up 13%, and CNN had 1.63 million, up 72%, the Nielsen company said.

An estimated 10.83 million people watched Sunday night’s debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders on CNN, Nielsen said.

A New York Times staffer based out of the newspaper’s Manhattan headquarters has tested positive for coronavirus, the company announced Monday.

The unidentified worker, who has not been at the office since March 5, is on the mend while self-quarantining at home, publisher A.G. Sulzberger and executive editor Dean Baquet notified staffers in a memo.

Any employees who may have come into contact with the patient have been notified and asked to also isolate themselves, the message said.

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