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The sorry task of turning dry macro-economic statistics into video news is a cross Anthony Mason, in particular, has to bear. Of the 27 stories on the slow recovery from recession filed in the past year-or-so, almost half have had Mason's name on them. Here he tries again for CBS, at least allowing his newscast to catch up on the Cypriot banking crisis that, until now, only CNBC's Sue Herera had mentioned, on NBC.
Both NBC and ABC picked up on a workplace story from CVS Pharmacies that is surefire watercooler fodder. Is it acceptable for employers to add a surcharge to their workers' out-of-pocket health insurance contribution when those workers refuse to undergo annual physical check-ups for their weight and blood sugar? NBC's svelte Stephanie Gosk and ABC's properly-proportioned Steve Osunsami delivered the skinny.
The same two newscasts picked up on a survey by the Centers for Disease Control on autism. NBC's Robert Bazell reckoned that increasing numbers of children on the mild end of the spectrum are being diagnosed. ABC's in-house physician Richard Besser pointed to a Swedish study of the mutating genetic material inherited from those grandfathers who happened already to be elderly when the autistic children's parents were conceived.
A nightly newscast throwback, a onetime in-house physician on both NBC and CBS, has gone over to the other side: ABC's Bob Woodruff interviewed Dr Bob Arnot in his capacity as medical consultant for Monster energy drinks. Woodruff's story featured a TV doctors' duel, as Arnot was defending Monster for issuing a cease-and-desist order against a nutritionist, whose warning against hyper-caffeinated drinks is going to be publicized on The Dr Oz Show in daytime syndication.
It was not just Jonathan Karl on ABC who used computer animation. The graphics department at CBS was busy too, depicting how Joseph Barone was sucked into the mud beneath the streets of New York City for Jim Axelrod.
CBS did what it likes to do: introduce us to a memorable, telegenic individual to anecdotalize a general phenomenon. Meet Father Tim Kitzke, an overworked parish priest from Milwaukee, courtesy of Elaine Quijano.
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