Updated 5:50 p.m. ET
Broadcast and cable news outlets scrambled to confirm reports out of Libya Thursday morning that deposed leader Moammar Gadhafi had been
killed near his hometown of Sirte.
After conflicting news of the former dictator's supposed capture, wounding and killing, Al Jazeera English confirmed Gadhafi's death with exclusive photos and video of his dead body. Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril later confirmed he had been killed, saying in a news conference that Gadhafi was found hiding in a sewage pipe and hit in the head by a bullet from the crossfire between revolutionaries and Gadhafi forces.
President Barack Obama gave a statement on Gadhafi's death from the Rose Garden at 2 p.m. Thursday, saying "today we can definiteively say that the Gadhafi regime has come to an end."
All three of the broadcast news networks broke into regular programming to cover the remarks from the President live. Special reports were anchored by George Stephanopoulos on ABC, Bob Schieffer on CBS and Brian Williams on NBC.
Before confirmation from the Libyan government, networks were careful to hedge their early reporting of the news as unconfirmed.
CBS' Erica Hill first broke into
programming with a special report at 7:30 a.m. that Gadhafi had been reportedly
wounded and captured. The top of the 8:30 a.m. newsblock on The Early Show
included his reported death, and Hill did another special report at 8:45 about
the reported death.
Jeffrey Kofman first reported the news for ABC from
London during Good Morning America's 8 a.m. news brief. ABC News aired a
special report at approximately 8:40 a.m. anchored by George Stephanopoulos and
Robin Roberts with Christiane Amanpour and Kofman.
Dan Rivers reported for CNN in Tripoli and had the
first on-camera interview with the National Transitional Council's information
minister on Thursday. Ben Wedeman provided on-air analysis throughout the day from New York.
Coverage continued into the evening newscasts Thursday. The CBS Evening News booked freelance American journalist Holly Pickett, who was one of the first journalists to see Gadhafi's dead body.
ABC World News had Amanpour recap the day's news, David Muir talk with some of the families affected by the Lockerbie bomber, Jake Tapper from the White House and Barbara
Walters revisit her 1989 interview with Gadhafi.
NBC Nightly News had coverage from chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell and correspondent Adrienne Mong in Misrata, Libya.
