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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 13, 2006
Iraq is the Story of the Day. All three networks led with their White House correspondents on the meeting between President George Bush and the Iraq Study Group led by former Secretary of State James Baker.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 13, 2006: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IRAQ? Iraq is the Story of the Day. All three networks led with their White House correspondents on the meeting between President George Bush and the Iraq Study Group led by former Secretary of State James Baker.
CBS' Jim Axelrod took the White House angle: its tardy move towards change and its likely resistance both to a troop pullout and to diplomacy with Iran. ABC's Martha Raddatz emphasized the Study Group itself: members "shook their heads" when they heard of Bush's policy snafus. New Democratic power was represented by Sen Carl Levin of Michigan, who landed a soundbite on all three networks. NBC's David Gregory contrasted his pullout call with the send-more-troops-in call from Presidential contender John McCain on his own network's Meet The Press.
IRAQ FOLLOW-UPS NBC's Jim Miklaszewski (at the end of the Gregory package) heard Pentagon plans to pull troops back to base according to Levin's six-month timetable. ABC's Jonathan Karl (not available online) pointed out the lack of military experienced in the ten-member Study Group. The only report from Baghdad was by CBS' Elizabeth Palmer, who explained the Iraqi strategy on US troops, militias and Iran, from National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
CBS' Katie Couric touted her troops-out-now interview with Rep John Murtha (D-PA) as an Exclusive. But this is hype. Murtha is hardly camera shy and his policy proposals were nothing new.
ON THE ROAD ABC and NBC sent their anchors on the road. NBC's Brian Williams broadcast from Washington DC, where he filed a Coming Home feature about an amputees' ward at Walter Reed military hospital. He called the prostheses, "the titanium trademark of this busy body shop."
ABC's Charles Gibson went to Dallas, first stop on his American Road Trip meet-and-greet with affiliates. He told us about the natural gas drilling boom in Fort Worth--part energy windfall, part neighborhood blight. The city is built on top of the Barnett Shale. Check out the Baptist Bishop praising divine geology.
ABC's second Texas feature (subscription required) was assigned to Mike von Fremd on the million feral swine, smart and vicious, that infest the Lone Star state's farmland. Hunters wanted so that more wild boar can end up on the menu. NBC's Robert Bazell, by the way, warns us in Life Line, that too much red meat can lead to breast cancer in women.
CHECK-UPS In yet more medical news, a New England Journal of Medicine study that found cardiologists too slow to treat heart attack patients was picked up by both ABC's John McKenzie and CBS' Jon LaPook. CBS really went overboard on the health beat by adding an Armen Keteyian feature Aging in the Shadows on unregulated care for Alzheimer's patients in assisted living facilities. In CBS' defense, Keteyian's two-parter had been slated for last week, but was pre-empted by obituaries for 60 Minutes' Ed Bradley.
JANJAWEED High marks for Ann Curry of NBC's Today. Granted, her reporting style is irritating: oversentimental and focused on human interest rather than the big picture. But that can be overlooked when she manages to get into Darfur to report on the spread of the ethnic cleansing into Chad. In this report, she follows Miriam, a burned-out refugee, back to her village to gather what meager remains survived the militias' arson.
CBS' Jim Axelrod took the White House angle: its tardy move towards change and its likely resistance both to a troop pullout and to diplomacy with Iran. ABC's Martha Raddatz emphasized the Study Group itself: members "shook their heads" when they heard of Bush's policy snafus. New Democratic power was represented by Sen Carl Levin of Michigan, who landed a soundbite on all three networks. NBC's David Gregory contrasted his pullout call with the send-more-troops-in call from Presidential contender John McCain on his own network's Meet The Press.
IRAQ FOLLOW-UPS NBC's Jim Miklaszewski (at the end of the Gregory package) heard Pentagon plans to pull troops back to base according to Levin's six-month timetable. ABC's Jonathan Karl (not available online) pointed out the lack of military experienced in the ten-member Study Group. The only report from Baghdad was by CBS' Elizabeth Palmer, who explained the Iraqi strategy on US troops, militias and Iran, from National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
CBS' Katie Couric touted her troops-out-now interview with Rep John Murtha (D-PA) as an Exclusive. But this is hype. Murtha is hardly camera shy and his policy proposals were nothing new.
ON THE ROAD ABC and NBC sent their anchors on the road. NBC's Brian Williams broadcast from Washington DC, where he filed a Coming Home feature about an amputees' ward at Walter Reed military hospital. He called the prostheses, "the titanium trademark of this busy body shop."
ABC's Charles Gibson went to Dallas, first stop on his American Road Trip meet-and-greet with affiliates. He told us about the natural gas drilling boom in Fort Worth--part energy windfall, part neighborhood blight. The city is built on top of the Barnett Shale. Check out the Baptist Bishop praising divine geology.
ABC's second Texas feature (subscription required) was assigned to Mike von Fremd on the million feral swine, smart and vicious, that infest the Lone Star state's farmland. Hunters wanted so that more wild boar can end up on the menu. NBC's Robert Bazell, by the way, warns us in Life Line, that too much red meat can lead to breast cancer in women.
CHECK-UPS In yet more medical news, a New England Journal of Medicine study that found cardiologists too slow to treat heart attack patients was picked up by both ABC's John McKenzie and CBS' Jon LaPook. CBS really went overboard on the health beat by adding an Armen Keteyian feature Aging in the Shadows on unregulated care for Alzheimer's patients in assisted living facilities. In CBS' defense, Keteyian's two-parter had been slated for last week, but was pre-empted by obituaries for 60 Minutes' Ed Bradley.
JANJAWEED High marks for Ann Curry of NBC's Today. Granted, her reporting style is irritating: oversentimental and focused on human interest rather than the big picture. But that can be overlooked when she manages to get into Darfur to report on the spread of the ethnic cleansing into Chad. In this report, she follows Miriam, a burned-out refugee, back to her village to gather what meager remains survived the militias' arson.
