Screen-shot of CNN coverage of Japanese earthquake and tsunami at 2:25 a.m. Eastern
Early this morning I was watching the 12:30 a.m. repeat airing on The BigTenNetwork of IU's loss to Penn State in the Big Ten basketball tourney in Indy at Conseco Fieldhouse, their ninth loss in a row.
Screen-shot of BigTenNetwork at Big Ten basketball tourney
During a second-half commercial break, l flipped over to Fox News Channel and it was then that I first saw the story that is developing as South Florida's news media snoozes -THE largest earthquake in the recorded history of Japan, and the seventh largest ever recorded in the world.
A tsunami warning is now in place for the entire Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada, with six-foot waves expected to hit Hawaii around 9 a.m. Eastern and smaller waves hitting California, Oregon and Washington state at 11 a.m. Eastern.
Evacuation orders for all beach hotels in Hawaii are already in place, with nobody permitted to remain after 8 a.m. Eastern.
Screen-shot of Fox News Channel at 2:15 a.m. Eastern
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel finally posted something about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in northeast Japan at about 3:45 a.m., two hours AFTER other major newspapers started posting information to their websites, usually screen-shots from NHK-TV in Japan.
Watch NHK-TV's LIVE streaming coverage in English at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42025198#42025198
After flipping around to check certain key news websites to see who was asleep and who was awake on this amazing story, the Miami Herald was in its customary state -sound asleep.
At 4 a.m. Eastern there was still NADA on the Herald's website.
Screen-shot of Miami Herald at 2:30 a.m. Eastern
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Screen-shot of The Drudge Report at 2:30 a.m. Eastern
http://www.drudgereport.com/
Screen-shot of The New York Times at 2:18 a.m. Eastern
http://www.nytimes.com/
Screen-shot of The Los Angeles Times at 2:30 a.m. Easternhttp://www.latimes.com/
Screen-shot of Svenska Dagbladet at 2:45 a.m.
http://www.svd.se/
MSNBC even got into the picture for a change on this story, unlike their invisible news coverage early-on last year during the Polish Prime Minister's airplane crash in Russia and the Moscow subway bombing, where they stuck to their curious 'crime-block' programming, featuring repeats of their 'Predator' series or profiles of U.S. prisons, which is still a weird programming choice no matter how many years they run that overnight and on weekends, instead of actual news programming.
They were, however, 'punked' at 4:04 a.m. by someone claiming to be at Narita Airport, outside Tokyo, who ended his personal account with the new maxim of 2011: "Winning!"
That's the lasting power of Charlie Sheen.
Screen-shot of MSNBC's coverageThe unseen male MSNBC anchor seemed a bit stunned but didn't let on that anything unusual had just happened.
Sometime around 4:30 a.m., the Miami Herald finally awoke and posted something. Better late than never I suppose, huh?
Watch NHK's LIVE streaming coverage in English at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42025198#42025198
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1:15 p.m. Friday Update:
If you're looking for some LIVE coverage from Hawaii, try Hawaii News Now at
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/category.asp?C=176904&nav=menu55_1_1
Remember, Hawaii is five hours behind Eastern, the same amount we are behind
GMT, to give you some perspective.
Hawaii gets roughly 4,000 Japanese visitors a day and the latest news that Narita Airport is going to remain closed due to physical damage from the disaster is NOT good news. According to what I heard on Hawaii News Now around Noon Eastern-time, three airports in Japan hope to resume flights soon to Hawaii, including Nagoya.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper website;
http://www.staradvertiser.com/
