Weiner story lets new CBS anchor carve path

Andrew Tyndall, a consultant whose ADT Research logs the content of news broadcasts each night, noted that Pelley had “kept to the hard news high ground’’ in choices on the Weiner story. From the on-set recreation of a map that used to hang behind Walter Cronkite to resurrection of theme music that played when Dan Rather was anchor, Pelley’s first broadcasts have sent welcoming messages to old-time news traditionalists.

Weiner’s June 6 admission that he lied when first denying that he had sent lewd photographs to Twitter followers coincided with Pelley’s first night as replacement for Katie Couric. The Weiner story led NBC’s top-rated “Nightly News’’ that evening, yet Pelley did not get to it until after the first commercial break and reports about Afghanistan and Iraq.

The next night, ABC’s Jonathan Karl had a “World News’’ report exceeding three minutes that talked about Republican calls for Weiner’s resignation and addressed the question of what happens when private behavior becomes a public issue. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell also reported on “Nightly News’’ about Republicans on the attack. CBS did not mention the story.

A Claire Shipman report on “World News’’ on Wednesday stretched over two minutes, focusing on the pregnancy of Weiner’s wife. O’Donnell talked primarily about the pregnancy in her “Nightly News’’ report.

Again, Pelley steered clear of the story.

Last week, NBC’s “Nightly News’’ spent a total of 8 minutes, 54 seconds on the Weiner story, according to the Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism. ABC devoted 8:16 to Weiner, while CBS spent 2:33 on the story, Pew researchers found.

“The message of last week could be reclaiming CBS as a more serious-minded news organization,’’ said Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the Pew center’s journalism project. He cautioned, though, that it could be risky to draw conclusions from such a short period. Experts like Tyndall have contended that CBS had a strong hard news focus even before Couric left.