Excellent Report, Terrible Tweet, Aid and Outrage | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

Patriot missile systems have been installed along Poland’s border with Ukraine, and a U.S. Army Major General says they’re “ready to defend” against threats to NATO countries.

CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell reported from eastern Poland on Tuesday and gave an exclusive tour of the missile batteries, which have been in place since last week.

Most of the fighting which has occurred since Russia invaded has taken place in central and eastern Ukraine. There are fears cities such as Lviv in the west will be next for major combat. Already, shelling has hit targets near the city and has been increasing.

O’Donnell spoke to the man in charge of the NATO batteries in Poland, but he was not named and CBS blurred out his face for obvious security reasons.

“All of these missiles are designed to defeat tactical ballistic missiles, designed to defeat cruise-type missiles, as well as aircraft,” the battery commander told O’Donnell. “Regardless of intentional or accidental, the system actually does not have the means of discriminating against those, it identifies threats and we have the ability of defeating those threats.”

Patriot systems have also been deployed in Germany and the Netherlands, the report added.

O’Donnell interviewed the man in charge of Europe’s air defenses, U.S. Army Major Gen. Gregory Brady.

“We always are maintaining a high level of readiness,” Brady told O’Donnell. “They are here ready to defend against any type of aerial threats that could threaten NATO territory.”

It was a detailed, exclusive report. On the ground reporting in Ukraine from the world’s press has been extensive and courageous and even tragic. O’Donnell’s expert look at the potential next phase is one more example of fascinating and excellent coverage.

CNN analyst and New Yorker writer Susan Glasser was excoriated Tuesday after attacking Fox News in a quote retweet of anchor John Roberts announcing the death of cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, who was killed outside of Kyiv in Ukraine.

Producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova was also killed in the attack, and Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured and hospitalized, but is now on his way home.

“What a tragedy. A cameraman died covering the war for a TV network that airs a pro-Putin propagandist as its top-rated primetime host,” Glasser said in her quote retweet of Roberts, obviously making a reference to Tucker Carlson.

The remark drew immediate blowback within seconds. After about five minutes of it, Glasser tacked on a second tweet about being “grateful” for the “heroic work” of the crew she’d just disrespected.

Reporter Alexander Nazaryan observed, after witnessing the massive rejection of her response, “Once in a while, a Twitter pile-on is truly and richly deserved.”

By contrast, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Clarissa Ward deftly handled the tragic deaths of their fellow journalists, and Fox’s Jennifer Griffin on Tuesday spoke quite movingly.

Just hours after sending out her tweet, Glasser appeared on CNN for more than eight minutes to discuss the chaos in Ukraine. During that time, she did not address her tweet and was not asked to do so by Newsroom hosts Victor Blackwell and Alisyn Camerota.

There is a time and a place, as people say, and it was not the time. And a quote retweet of the man’s colleague sharing the tragic news was not the place.

But, however awkward it might be for the anchors, her later the same day appearance on CNN absolutely was the time and place to acknowledge the controversy. That’s losing twice on the same classless moment.