 |
         
|
Most of the rest of the day's newscasts focused on Presidents--past, present and future. CBS' Bill Plante and ABC's John Cochran covered the release of the final tranche of audiotapes by Lyndon Johnson's Presidential Library of his Oval Office telephone conversations. The tapes covered 1968 and his last days in office in 1969. Plante selected LBJ's pick of Daniel Inouye as Hubert Humphrey's running mate and his support for Mayor Richard Daley during the Chicago Convention when the whole world was watching. Cochran picked his condolences to Edward Kennedy when brother Robert was assassinated and his suspicion that Richard Nixon was committing treason by conspiring with the Saigon government to sabotage the Vietnam peace process. "Absolutely no credibility," was how Nixon defended himself by telephone.
ABC made a big deal of its exit interviews with the current President earlier in the week (here, here, here and here) as anchor Charles Gibson landed a trip to Camp David to talk with George and Laura Bush. NBC was considerably less impressed by the lame duck's words of wisdom. Correspondent John Yang was assigned to the sitdown instead of an anchor and the exchange was summarized in a single segment. George equates leaving office with braking from 100 to 5 mph. Laura envisions George standing at a barbecue wearing a Barney's Dad apron flippin' burgers.
Looking forward to Inauguration Day, ABC anchor Charles Gibson filed a tribute to the Stafford Foundation, a charity that laid down $1m to rent all 300 rooms in Washington DC's downtown Marriott Hotel for three days to entertain supporters of Barack Obama who could otherwise not afford to attend. Wounded veterans, young people, the homeless, the terminally ill, victims of battery will be invited to stay at the hotel, watch the parade from the hotel's 12th floor balcony over Pennsylvania Avenue and dance the night away. NBC assigned Andrea Mitchell, habitually the hardest of its hard news correspondents, to the fluffy fashion beat for the day. Whose gown would Michelle Obama wear to the Inauguration Ball? According to Women's Wear Daily the shortlist is Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Zac Posen "or the more traditional Oscar de la Renta."
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
