NY1 Now Covering Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx--and, um, the Staples Center?

For Time Warner cable subscribers (not to mention anyone with an Internet hookup), there was hardly a shortage of places to watch Michael Jackson's memorial service today in Los Angeles. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc., all blanketed the cable landscape with hours and hours of coverage, chronicling and re-chronicling every nano-angle of the event.

None of which particularly surprised us. Considering the widespread interest in MJ and the subsequent ratings boost his coverage provides the national news networks, they would be crazy not to.

But we were somewhat perplexed this afternoon, when we were flipping through the channels and found NY1--goodly, wholesome, hyper-local NY1--breaking into their usual news wheel to go live with coverage of MJ's service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a few thousand miles outside of NY1's stated beat.

Why give up your comparative local advantage covering an event that is already mobbed by countless other media outlets?

When we put the question to NY1 this afternoon, a spokesperson sent us the following statement from Bernie Han, vice president of news.

Michael Jackson's death has been a major story for our viewers.... NY1 has long provided live coverage of the funerals of major entertainers, even when we were the only station interested in doing so. From Lionel Hampton to Dizzy Gillespie, to Ossie Davis and Luther Vandross. We also carried the funeral for James Brown, even though in that case the funeral was held far from New York City. Why? Because James Brown, like Michael Jackson, became a star here in New York City, and remained a star for many of our viewers.

No need to be so defensive, NY1! We just thought we'd ask.