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National security attracted attention in both news and features -- at least on NBC and CBS. ABC did not assign a correspondent to any of the following stories:
National security news consisted of a personnel reshuffle at the National Security Council. White House correspondents Chuck Todd at NBC and Major Garrett at CBS followed Tom Donilon out as NSC Advisor, Susan Rice across from the United Nations to the Situation Room, and Samantha Power from the NSC to the United Nations.
Why is Rice famous? Both Todd and Garrett showed her repeating those infamous Benghazi Consulate talking points on the Sunday morning talkshows.
What about Power? Todd reminded us that she is a Pulitzer Prize winner. And she once called Hillary Rodham Clinton a monster.
More news from national security: the ban on pocket knives inside airline cabins that the TSA imposed, and then planned to lift, will now remain. If you look at the playlist of stories on airline security so far this year you will see that it has been almost all pocket-knives-all-the-time. CBS' Sharyl Attkisson acknowledged the clout of the flight attendants' labor union.
As for those national security features. NBC offered an Exclusive and an Investigates. Richard Engel's investigation came up with a spreadsheet documenting 114 lethal airstrikes from Predator drone aircraft inside Pakistan during 2010 and 2011. Engel did not say whether the killing was done by CIA spies or by USAF military. He noted that many targets had no affiliation listed with a specific militant organization; and many were selected for assassination on the basis of circumstantial evidence, so-called "signature profile" strikes. Pete Williams had an Exclusive sitdown with Attorney General Eric Holder, in which Holder acknowledged that the Justice Department's vigor in cracking down on national security intelligence leaks had been unbalanced, thus compromising the freedom of the press.
Elsewhere…
Michelle Miller used CBS' resources to track down a piece of family history. She looked at clips from CBS' own Terry Drinkwater. She got access to the archive of LIFE photojournalist Bill Eppridge. She was looking for evidence of on-the-scene first aid at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night Robert Kennedy was assassinated 45 years ago. When you see the face of the physician that Miller eventually found, you will see the family resemblance.
There were three hi-tech stories. David Muir made a big deal about the resurgence of computer manufacturing jobs for ABC's Made in America series when Lenovo, the Chinese PC firm, opened a plant in Raleigh NC. It really was no big deal. The plant employs 115 workers. Muir did not tell us what the wage scale is…NBC's Miguel Almaguer paid tribute to Eesha Khare, the 18-year-old dancer, field-hockey player, and electrical engineer. Her Intel science prize winning invention will charge your cellphone lickety-split…Juju Chang on ABC field-tested iPad touchscreen technology with infants too young to walk and talk. It turns out that it is not just on YouTube that you can see baby tap and sweep.
Back in January, all three networks assigned a reporter to the murder of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton and the subsequent pressure on Chicago police to prevent gang gun violence in the streets. CBS did the right thing and assigned Dean Reynolds to file a follow-up now that the murder rate has responded in a positive direction.
I know ABC has got it into its head that state lottery jackpots are newsworthy. Just look at this playlist over the past 18 months. ABC might as well be charging lotteries an advertising fee. I will make just one request for straightforward journalism. When a lottery winner goes home with a lump-sum after-tax cash prize of $278m, please Paula Faris, do not quote it as a $590m jackpot. That larger figure is lottery salesman's hype; the smaller one is reporter's accuracy.
Do not waste any time in the network nightly newshole on Paris Jackson. No, David Wright, not 18 months ago when she bragged to Ellen DeGeneres that her father taught her how to cry on cue. No, David Wright, not now, when the 15-year-old shares the lyrics to Yesterday -- a song whose copyright she happens to own -- on Twitter before trying, and failing, to kill herself. No, ABC, no Paris Jackson.
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