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Day Three of coverage of the G20 Financial Summit in London was the most extensive (29 min on the three newscasts combined v Wednesday 25, Tuesday 16) accounting for more than half (52% of 56 min) of the total newshole. All three newscasts led from London with their White House correspondents summarizing the summit's closing communique, including a $1tr investment in the International Monetary Fund to support developing economies during the global downturn. CBS anchor Katie Couric acknowledged her man Chip Reid meaningfully--"thank you very much for your work this week"--in an oblique reference to the death of his father. Our condolences too. NBC anchor Brian Williams also filed from London, while ABC split the anchoring chores, with Charles Gibson in London and Diane Sawyer back home in New York.

NBC's Chuck Todd asserted that the IMF investment was "the most substantial G20 action." He noted that the summit's other outcomes "boil down largely to pledges"--a pledge of cooperation on regulation, of faster future response on stimulus, of "name and shame" for tax havens, of avoidance of trade protectionism. CBS' Reid pointed out that Barack Obama "was unable to convince many nations to devote more to stimulus spending."

The President's aides had clearly worked hard behind the scenes to spread a flattering anecdote about Obama's diplomacy between Nicolas Sarkozy and Hu Jintao. All three White House correspondents alluded to it. This is how ABC's Jake Tapper put it: "American leadership was needed at least at one point. There seemed to be a deadlock as there was a heated argument between the President of France, who wanted to list all the countries that have tax havens, and the President of China, trying to halve some of them. President Obama stepped in, helped broker a deal--and the final document included language that satisfied both men."

NBC anchor Brian Williams assembled a roundtable of Todd plus diplomatic correspondent Andrea Mitchell plus CNBC's Maria Bartiromo to assess winners and losers. Bartiromo confirmed that the IMF funding was "effective…real, substantial." Todd reminded us that "all politics is local" so each leader was posturing to state "what the folks back home…needed to hear." Mitchell read "rave reviews" for the new President of the United States: "He is humble. He says he is coming to listen not to lecture. He is blessed by comparison with his predecessor."


Andrew Tyndall 4/3/09 9:33:58 pm

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