According to this rather dismissive critique, regular network news is "like the New York Times," and cable news is more like the tabloids:
The trajectory of the JonBenet story highlights a new stratification of television news. The major broadcast networks that once set the nation's news agenda have settled into a less powerful evening niche offering more traditional journalistic fare while their cable rivals have matured into a kind of 24-hour tabloid broadcast, more like the Daily News than The New York Times. As such, they're more likely to focus on the sensational to keep their ratings up.
"The funny thing is that you can help your ratings and erode your reputation," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project on Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) in Washington. "The [broadcast] networks came to understand that, but the cable networks just can't seem to resist."
Tabloid sensationalism has been part of American media since the mid-1800s, and its formula hasn't changed: It involves a crime, the downfall of the innocent, and some kind of social deviance. But its dominance of the news agenda has come in waves.
Nobody has pounded the Ramsey saga like cable has, but I noticed JonBenet was the lead story on the networks at least one day, and it was on Page 1 of most papers, including both the local ones. I don't mean to suggest that cable stations are completely setting the agenda, but they're definitely in the mix.
