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The Senate voted to go ahead with its debate on immigration legislation. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell filed a brief stand-up on parliamentary procedure. ABC's Jim Avila filed a background feature on support for increased visas from the Chamber of Commerce, illustrated by the case of Kunal Bahl, founder of Snapdeal.com, who was obliged to launch his online commerce site in his native India. ABC grabbed a twofer from George Stephanopoulos' sitdown with Speaker John Boehner on Good Morning America: quoted by Ross on NSA espionage, and by Avila on immigration legislation.
It is unclear whether a story emerging from the State Department is a big deal -- or any deal at all. John Miller at CBS claimed an exclusive for his original reporting, but it was not deemed important enough by the Evening News to give him airtime: he filed it on CBS' This Morning instead. ABC's Jonathan Karl followed up on the underlying investigation into diplomatic sexual peccadilloes: an ambassador and some security personnel may have consorted with prostitutes. CBS' Miller follows up on the meta story -- not about the prostitution but about whether Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy suppressed an investigation into it. Kennedy denies the suppression, and Ambassador Howard Gutman denies the insinuation that his walks through a Brussels park were for procuration. NBC did not mention pin-striped sex at all.
It is no surprise that NBC picked up on the news that the majority of the consumer revenue that banks take in from fees and penalties is derived from overdraft charges: 60% in all, amounting to more than $12bn annually. NBC's Lisa Myers has focused on banks' overdraft fee gouging since 2009. This time Myers' colleague Tom Costello landed the assignment.
NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman offered free publicity to the latest miniaturized Bluetooth-compatible digital design for hearing aides -- only $4,600 each -- for all of us babyboomers who have blasted our ears by turning the stereo up to eleven. Dr Nancy noted that a $2 pair of earplugs represents an ounce of prevention.
Reporters who confuse doing journalism with being a character in their own reality show…
…see CBS' Michelle look-no-hands Miller behind the joystick with Wally Funk, the 75-year-old spurned wannabe astronautess…
…see NBC's Kevin Tibbles settle down with some popcorn in his black-&-white convertible to watch a double bill at The Cascade (no he did not sneak in under a blanket).
Hey, ABC, how about some original newsgathering? It is called "news" after all:
If you thought you had seen the falling-over Prime Minister of Australia in Amy Robach's report before, well you did, thanks to Sharyn Alfonsi last October.
If you thought you had seen Mike Olinski's stop-motion video of an haboob sandstorm in David Wright's report before, well you did, thanks to Neal Karlinsky last September.
And if something seemed familiar in the free publicity by anchor Diane Sawyer for the book Safe Kids, Smart Parents by psychologist Rebecca Bailey, well it could have been the video of the failed child abduction that Pierre Thomas told us about last July, or the Prime Time Live video from 2005 that Cecilia Vega recycled last month, or that fact that Dr Bailey's famous patient was Jaycee Dugard, whom anchor Sawyer herself profiled in a primetime special in July 2011.
Why not just change the name to ABC World Recycled?
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