How Did Top News Podcasts Do Covering the D.C. Air Disaster?
Looking for coverage in the top news shows? You'll have to search for it. I listened on Friday so you wouldn't have to.
As a news junkie, I needed to get my fix. The American Airlines tragedy at Reagan National Airport here in my town was so riveting, so heart-breaking. How could this happen? What went wrong? So I headed to Apple Podcasts, went to the News charts, and started hunting for coverage among the top shows.
To my surprise, not everyone talked about the tragedy as of noon Eastern on Friday.
#1) The Daily - The New York Times had extensive coverage. Maybe too much back-and-forth with a reporter.
#2) Megyn Kelly Show - Talked about how she could hear the sirens from her hotel room in downtown Washington. Absolutely devastating and horrific, she said.
#3) Cadence - Hyper-focused on “truly explosive information” about a Taylor Swift investigation.
#4) Up First - NPR had coverage on Thursday morning. Kudos. But Friday’s episode only had a few minutes of coverage. Since NPR is based in Washington, I wanted to hear something special.
#5) Pod Save America - The flagship podcast of The Resistance pushed back on President Trump blaming the air crash on diversity hiring.
#6) Ben Shapiro - My favorite fast-talking conservative had coverage on Thursday, getting into the “shocking” and “horrifying” video. Then on Friday, he covered the diversity hiring angle.
#7) Tucker Carlson - Because he focuses on stories that have not been showcased anywhere else, his words, Tucker interviewed an expert on the JFK assassination.
#8) Rachel Maddow - Still waiting for coverage. Did I miss something? Rachel’s too busy poking fun at Trump’s first days in office.
#9) Dan Bongino Show - The former Secret Service agent covered the tragedy Thursday and then again Friday, relating to his days working in Washington.
#10) Charlie Kirk - He covered the “Disaster Over the Potomac” and relayed what information he had at the time he published. Talked about hearing a loud boom Wednesday night from his hotel room in Washington.
We’re giving an Honorable Mention to ABC’s Start Here. This show ranks much, much lower on the News charts, but it had excellent coverage Thursday and Friday thanks to its transportation producer.
John Wordock served as Executive Editor and SVP for Podcasting at Westwood One from 2019 to 2024, helping build Cumulus Podcast Network into a top ten network and top channel on Apple Podcasts. He now runs his own podcast consulting company, John Wordock Media LLC.