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The networks like to start each newscast with their Day Count. It is Day 56 since the Deepwater Horizon exploded and crude oil started gushing from the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico. Tyndall Report keeps a second counter--Weekday 25--the number of straight weekdays that the oil disaster has been Story of the Day. On this occasion CBS (19 min v ABC 9, NBC 8) led the way, with visiting anchor Katie Couric kicking off her newscast from the tourist beaches of Alabama. President Barack Obama was also visiting the Gulf Coast and ABC led with him. NBC started with the Congressional investigation into BP's costcutting at the rig.

The purpose of the President's trip was symbolic, ABC's Jake Tapper told us, "to project leadership…to provide clarity after weeks of missed messages." Tapper dinged Obama for once dismissing the idea of meeting with BP boss Tony Hayward, then reversing himself; once dismissing the importance of measuring the volume of the oil leak, then deploying sensors to monitor it; once shrugging off offers of help from foreign countries, then asking about booms and skimmers.

NBC's Chuck Todd noted that the President's visit was the start of a weeklong blitz, including that meeting with Hayward and an Oval Office televised address to the nation in primetime: "All of it is designed to send the message that the government finally has command and control of this crisis." On CBS, Chip Reid focused on Obama's photo-ops: a seafood meal to dramatize that some fisheries were still operating safely; and a stroll on a beach to urge would-be vacationers not to cancel their Gulf Coast plans.

Andrew Tyndall 6/16/10 10:35:34 pm

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