Broadcast organizations are laying out their plans for coverage of Inauguration Day.
NPR News for instance released this summary today.
It will offer six hours of special broadcast and Webcast coverage on Jan. 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, in addition to regular programming.
Inauguration coverage will air on member stations and be streamed from NPR’s site and the sites of various stations. NPR.org will offer blogging, chats, a live video stream of the swearing-in and user-generated content via Twitter and other social media.
The network will have two teams anchoring its special broadcast. Steve Inskeep and Michele Norris will host from the West Front of the Capitol for the first three hours for the ceremony and also be keeping an eye on what is expected to be a very big crowd on the Mall. At 2 p.m. Neal Conan takes over and hosts listener reaction and discussion. Linda Wertheimer will do an hour-long wrapup special at 7 p.m.
NPR will carry uninterrupted coverage of the ceremonies and the inaugural address, plus highlights from the parade along Pennsylvania Avenue.
“NPR is uniquely positioned to hear from dozens of reporters covering the events live, peppered throughout the crowds in D.C. and around the world,” the organization said in its summary of coverage plans.
“Reporters will broadcast from the Capitol Grounds and various points on the Mall, Freedom Plaza, the parade viewing stand, Lafayette Park and D.C.’s historic U Street Corridor, and outside the capital in Harlem, Chicago and Birmingham. With intense global interest in the new administration, NPR will also check in with Baghdad Bureau Chief Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, foreign correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Kabul and East Africa Correspondent Gwen Thompkins at a viewing party in Kenya.”
Other voices to be heard will include its White House, congressional, news and legal correspondents, as well as editors, former presidential speechwriters, civil rights historians and politicians. News and talk show “Tell Me More” will air live from the Canadian Embassy.
