Heidi Collins claims Osama bin Laden death scoop

Heidi Collins: Better connected.

​If only CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the major networks, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal had exercised the foresight to tune into Fox 9 here in the Twin Cities on Sunday night, they could have broken the Osama bin Laden story so much faster.

That's because we're blessed with Heidi Collins, who says her sources were willing to spill the beans about bin Laden's death to her before anyone else.

"It was my Washington guy," the former CNN anchor boasted to the Pioneer Press.

"It was certainly an adrenaline rush in the beginning because I knew we had it before all the major TV networks, the cable stations, and the local stations here," Collins said. "I knew we were the first because we were monitoring in the newsroom what everyone else had and what they were doing."

It does seem a little peculiar that secret sources would opt to break the news of President Obama's single biggest triumph on the international stage to the fourth-ranked local evening newscast in the 15th-ranked U.S. media market, but stranger things have happened, one supposes.

Previously:

• Heidi Collins of CNN replaces Robyne Robinson at Fox 9
• Heidi Collins goes nuts on Mark Ritchie on Fox9