At 8:00 a.m. NOBODY in the media had any knowledge what was going on. When 8:15 arrived, Mike JARRICK mentioned that we were within a minute of the landing...
At 8:17 a.m. he mentioned that there was no word about the landing yet, and that this was unusual since the Shuttle is NEVER off schedule...8:16 landing means 8:16!
As the minutes went by and no shuttle was landing, Jarrick kept mentioning "Something isn't right here," and "This cannot be good."
DO NOT insinuate that the FOX & Friends crew were making inappropriate comments in jest over a tragedy, for as you said, you were busy watching Animal Planet for 45 minutes while the story was develloping.
I am not insinuating anything. You have misunderstood my meaning. I just thought it an eerie coincidence that the last word I heard from them (sorry about the spelling of Mike's name -- I've never seen it written) was that Texans were to expect a big noise shortly, but not to worry. Then THIS tragedy struck only minutes after they made that comment. I even thought it was odd that they made the comment because I've never heard anyone track the landing and comment about the noise in recent years.
Of course the hosts at Fox & Friends were not making light of the tragedy -- they had no way of knowing what was about to happen. And, as you report, they did not even know about it until a half hour, or more, later.
I am a faithful fan of Fox and Friends and tune away only on Saturday morning to get my doggie "fix".
When my husband rushed in to tell me (he was watching in the other room because he doesn't like Animal Planet as much as I do) I first said, "No, no, no. Mike Jarrick said that there was to be a big boom when the shuttle passed over Texas. It's probably normal." My husband said, "But Houston has lost contact and they can see pieces breaking off."
I couldn't believe it at first because I had been the one who had rushed in to tell him to turn on the TV 17 years ago because the Challenger had exploded. We sat there paralyzed for days watching that explosion over and over. It is too soon for another accident of this magnitude.