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What a pathetic day of news! ABC led with raids against illegal immigrants--a story neither of the other two networks even mentioned. CBS chose the prospects for fully booked airline flights over Thanksgiving--likewise utterly ignored by its rivals. There were only two stories that were deemed newsworthy enough to qualify for a mention on all three newscasts--and they were tawdry. Marion Jones, the Olympic sprinter admitted that she cheated to win her gold medals and then lied about it. Larry Craig, the Republican Senator from Idaho, argued that he was lying when he admitted being disorderly in a toilet but a judge insisted on his guilty plea. Craig's embarrassment was NBC's lead. But none of the lead stories qualified as Story of the Day. That dubious honor in a newsfree zone belonged to ABC's feature profile of Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Richardson.

NBC's Pete Williams spared us a rehashing of the lavatorial details that led to Craig's admission of guilt. He merely summarized the logic of the Minnesota judge who called his plea "entirely proper." Craig "may have felt pressure to plead guilty to get it over with and avoid the publicity," Williams reported, "but that pressure was in Craig's own mind." And, needless to say, the publicity came anyway. ABC's Jake Tapper reminded us that Craig had announced that he would resign from the Senate at the end of September if his conviction was not overturned. "Now he is saying he is not going anywhere" because "he has realized he can still be an effective senator." Tapper foresaw ethics hearings that "could embarrass not just Sen Craig but all of the Republicans--and all of the Senate."

Reporter Amy Shipley of the Washington Post landed the exclusive that Jones, winner of five medals at the Sydney Olympics of 2000, was ready to file her guilty plea. Shipley told NBC's Brian Williams that Jones would admit she had been lying when she claimed she trained with flax seed, a nutritional supplement, in the two years before her track-&-field triumph. Instead she was doping herself with performance-enhancing steroids. Shipley added that the flax seed explanation was identical to the "excuse" from baseball slugger Barry Bonds. "A grand jury is investigating perjury allegations with regard to his testimony."

Andrew Tyndall 10/5/07 9:20:16 pm

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