Nancy Grace Parking Lot: Why Did 2 CNN Anchors Hold Split-Screen Interview Feet Apart?

CNN anchor Nancy Grace was the subject of another embarrassing episode, this time involving fellow anchor Ashleigh Banfield, a parking lot and a transit bus. It is more than commonplace in the media for anchors to hold "split-screen" interviews with either subjects of a story or those reporting on a breaking story. Chyron titles reading "New York" and "Washington" often appear below each journalist's video image. What if the two cities were "Phoenix" and... "Phoenix"?

Banfield and Grace were "no more than 30 feet [a]way from one another" as the Daily Mail put it. The two were discussing the discovery of three women allegedly held captive by a Cleveland man, Ariel Castro. One woman, Amanda Berry, caught the attention of Castro's neighbor, Charles Ramsey, and was later rescued along with her co-captives, Georgina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.

During the coverage, Nancy Grace even pressed her right ear at times to allegedly feign the look of listening to a true satellite feed of a faraway correspondent. Grace and Banfield were in Phoenix, Ariz. to cover the Jodi Arias trial. Arias was found later found guilty of murdering her boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

While the two technically work for two different news networks, Banfield for CNN and Grace for Headline News, both are encompassed by the CNN brand and owned by Time Warner.

Ashleigh Banfield, a Canadian native, has covered breaking legal events for a long time with both CNN and MSNBC. She also hosted "Caught on Camera", a program depicting emotive crimes captured on videotape.

Nancy Grace is a former Georgia prosecutor turned television host. She is well known for her very emotional delivery. The split-screen incident with Banfield is not the first time she has raised eyebrows over her actions. During the 2007 Duke University Lacrosse rape case, she was blasted by critics for allegedly depicting the group of male lacrosse players accused of rape to be guilty. Crystal Mangum accused a number of lacrosse players of rape, which was later found to be untrue.

Television satirist Jon Stewart notably called out Grace on her coverage. Stewart played a montage of Grace asking various interviewees questions about the Duke case, finishing with a clip of her cynically saying that the male players wouldn't pass a polygraph test if administered.

Stewart called her coverage "unfounded and unfair". She later incredulously told a guest that "why don't we all move to Nazi Germany" where there was no jury proceeding mandate, after the guest cited legal documents might have indicated that the allegations by Mangum were questionable, according to a clip shown by Stewart.