All major networks jumped on the 8.8 magnitude quake which devastated Chile in the early morning hours of Saturday.
Channel flipping on Saturday morning showed that Univision, Telemundo, CNN, Fox and MSNBC had non-stop coverage, although the English-language networks dedicated a good amount of time to the Tsunami alert for Hawaii.
In the Spanish-language front, Univision’s coverage was superior in the morning hours, focusing on Chile itself, showing images of the destruction lifted from Chile’s 24 horas. Telemundo kept showing the same sunny images of Hawaii (in what looked like tourism handout video), while the anchor talked more about the Tsunami alert and kept making reference to Haiti, instead of focusing on Chile. It wasn’t until later that they started showing more images of the destruction. On the other hand, Univision dropped non-stop coverage of the quake in the afternoon, while Telemundo kept on the story.
Today, CNN had Soledad O’Brien already on location. NBC plans to send Ann Curry. Univision has sent Jorge Ramos. No word yet on Telemundo.