As a news addict, when breaking news happens I have a routine of checking out all of the places where I can find out what, when, where, who and why.
Last weekend when the car bomb in Times Square was discovered, we were safe at home and I got the first alert at about 7.00pm or so and I watched that coverage until 3am – when the Pies game ended. With Times Square being evacuated again and me being stuck downtown at my desk, I tap into the following to follow what is happening –
Love ’em or hate ’em, Fox News has awesome streaming whenever there is breaking news. They have 5 live cameras streaming from different areas at Times Square at the moment and this is how it looks –
CNN is my go to especially when I don’t want to listen to ‘experts’ coming on and ‘speculating’ during a story. I found CNN coverage was poor and sensationalist during the Chile Earthquake – it was terrible coverage.
For email alerts I also subscribe to Fox News Alerts and CNN. Fox are quicker on crime stories and emergencies I find. I don’t have these alerts filtered in one of my folders so I can see them as soon as they come in to my inbox. Then of course, I follow many breaking news outlets on my Twitter account. Also, I get email alerts from Accuweather and the MTA for all subway changes and emergencies and also follow these on Twitter as well.
The main thing that ties all of this together is that I was one of the early adopters to subscribe to Notify NYC. I get a phone call with a recorded voice and also an email whenever there is an emergency happening. It is a fantastic service and well worth utilizing.
If I am at home I find the local NBC and Fox 5 outlet are fantastic and on weekends I think MSNBC is great for breaking news. NY1, while a local station, can be hot and cold – but were good when the helicopters collided in the Hudson near 14th Street, especially considering they were the only ones reporting it for a while. Their coverage of Times Square last week was just ok. For car chases, CNN Headline News is above and beyond the rest and the Fox News live streaming also excels.
Putting all of that together, there is also 1010 WINS – my addiction is fueled with this news station that we have on ALL the time. Between that and WYNC I have all bases covered.