Morning Show Wrap

ByABC News
June 3, 2004, 7:36 PM

W A S H I N G T O N, June 3, 2004<br> -- A product of Noted Now and The Note

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Leads:

The broadcast nets went in different directions for their lead stories. ABC's "Good Morning America" led with the extending of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. NBC's "Today" led with a Norah O'Donnell package President Bush's consulting a private attorney to possibly represent him in the CIA leak case. CBS' "Early Show" started off with gas prices and a package by Mark Phillips.

Townsend

White House counterterrorism czar Fran Townsend appeared exclusively on ABC's "Good Morning America" for her first live television interview. After being introduced with a laudatory package, Townsend was quizzed by Diane Sawyer about why Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge did not deliver the same message in announcing new terror warnings last week.

"You have to remember when you talk about the confusion, while I think that's unfortunate, the Attorney General has a different mission than Secretary Ridge. The Attorney General did an excellent job trying to mobilize the public to assist law enforcement in catching bad guys before they commit a crime or a terrorist attack," Townsend said. "Secretary Ridge is responsible for announcing when and if we should take particular protective measures related to the threat level."

Sawyer responded by wondering whether it was still bad to give mixed messages. "Of course it is," Townsend said, "and its unfortunate. I tell you, we're a lot more organized than three years ago, and we constantly refine our organization... We are continuing to get better."

Townsend also presented an extremely bleak view of what Jose Padilla was capable of, saying "he was determined planning on assassinating women and children where they sleep and live and eat… I find the debate over how he is being treated fascinating, because frankly it's a real Washington kind of debate. We wouldn't have the luxury of this debate if he had been successful."