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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 27, 2006
NBC News itself had been the newsmaker all day with its division-wide decision to refer to the sectarian violence in Iraq as a "civil war." NBC did not lead with its own decision, but Andrea Mitchell referred to it towards the end of her lead package. She quoted NBC's in-house historian Michael Beschloss with the following rationale: "A country where a lot of groups are struggling for power--and that is primarily the struggle."
TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 27, 2006: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
TRUTH IN LABELING NBC News itself had been the newsmaker all day with its division-wide decision to refer to the sectarian violence in Iraq as a "civil war." NBC did not lead with its own decision, but Andrea Mitchell referred to it towards the end of her lead package. She quoted NBC's in-house historian Michael Beschloss with the following rationale: "A country where a lot of groups are struggling for power--and that is primarily the struggle."
The White House and NBC's rivals both implicitly acknowledged that the CW label was a hot issue. ABC's Charles Gibson shrugged "you can call it anarchy; you can call it chaos; you can call it civil war…" and CBS' Katie Couric pointed out that the Bush Administration "is still not calling it a civil war." National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley briefed the White House press corps on Air Force One as it flew to the NATO Summit in Latvia. CBS' Jim Axelrod agreed that the White House does not want to use that CW term "because that is the next category of chaos." But when Hadley said the conflict had entered a "new phase," Axelrod commented: "He has got to acknowledge reality."
In Washington the Iraq Study Group is about to submit its policy recommendations. CBS' David Martin's source told him that the ISG report would be "unanimous or nothing at all." ABC's Martha Raddatz (subscription required) predicted that the ISG will call for US diplomacy with Iran and Syria, something that President George Bush is "unlikely to accept." He is also "adamant" against a timetable for US troop withdrawal. And NBC's Mitchell noted that while the US may not talk to Iran, Iraq already is. She led with diplomacy between presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Jalal Talabani. Ahmadinejad is "only too eager to step into the diplomatic vacuum."
LAST DAY AS SINGLE MAN In domestic news, all three networks followed up on the police shooting of a groom-to-be in Queens NY over the weekend. Undercover cops had staked out the strip club where his bachelor party was held. They were looking for "drugs, prostitution and guns," NBC's Mike Taibbi told us. When the party was over the groom's car and an undercover minivan collided and guns were drawn. The five policemen were armed; the three bachelors were not. In all, 50 bullets were fired and the groom was killed. ABC's Ron Clairborne (subscription required) pointed out that the NYPD trains its officers to fire only three shots "and then assess." NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the gunfire "excessive and unacceptable."
INFLAMED Only CBS assigned reporters to an overnight fire at a Missouri assisted-living home that killed ten residents. Lee Cowan was dispatched to the scene of the blaze while investigative reporter Armen Keteyian noted that such privately-owned facilities have proliferated as the mentally disabled have been moved out of large state-run hospitals. Keteyian investigated the safety records of the owner of the Missouri home. He found violations of fire laws and a guilty plea for Medicare-Medicaid fraud
HARD COPY NBC's investigative reporter Lisa Myers exposed the vulnerability of nuclear power plants to terrorist plots. Back in the early '80s, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had imagined various attack scenarios and pinpointed potential weaknesses in security. The NRC had published its "blueprint for terrorists" database both in print and online but after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, the agency had excised its scenarios from its Website. Myers revealed that the print versions had remained in the public domain and could be researched at dozens of public libraries.
ON THE MENU In the wake of the Thanksgiving holiday, food was on the mind of both ABC and CBS. CBS started a series called Overweight in America: Katie Couric examined the theory that modern obese people inherited a previously-useful gene that boosts appetite-increasing hormones. In the days when food was scarce, those hormones helped humans overcome satiety and load up on excess calories. She checked out mice in a Columbia University lab: excess ghrelin hormone stimulates hunger; depleted leptin hormone ignores fullness.
ABC's series is The Truth About Organics. Jim Avila explained that the hurdle to qualify for the "organic food" label is relatively low: no antibiotics, no growth hormones, no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers. The label no longer refers simply to local farmers' market fare; more and more, agribusiness is finding ways to qualify. Avila advised us that Wal-Mart will soon be an organic leader--"mass marketing going natural and without huge mark-up." Its organics cost only 10% more than conventional food.
EXTREMELY An article in the Harvard Business Review reveals that almost two million contemporary professionals are working 70-hour weeks. ABC's Betsy Stark claimed an Exclusive inside track on the study, profiling a 35-year-old Orlando wannabe-partner trial lawyer as her Exhibit A. "He is almost never home for dinner with his wife and three children." Stark dubbed it "extreme" work, illustrating the trend with clips from ABC's Extreme Makeover and ABC corporate sibling ESPN's X(treme)-Games and hot Christmas toy Extreme Elmo.
MENTIONED IN PASSING The network newscasts do not assign correspondents to all of the news of the day. If Tyndall Report readers come across videostreamed reports online of stories that were mentioned only in passing, post the link in comments for us to check out
Today's examples: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's peace feelers to the Palestinians…The 158-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street…Ford Motors' decision to go $18bn in debt to raise capital.
The White House and NBC's rivals both implicitly acknowledged that the CW label was a hot issue. ABC's Charles Gibson shrugged "you can call it anarchy; you can call it chaos; you can call it civil war…" and CBS' Katie Couric pointed out that the Bush Administration "is still not calling it a civil war." National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley briefed the White House press corps on Air Force One as it flew to the NATO Summit in Latvia. CBS' Jim Axelrod agreed that the White House does not want to use that CW term "because that is the next category of chaos." But when Hadley said the conflict had entered a "new phase," Axelrod commented: "He has got to acknowledge reality."
In Washington the Iraq Study Group is about to submit its policy recommendations. CBS' David Martin's source told him that the ISG report would be "unanimous or nothing at all." ABC's Martha Raddatz (subscription required) predicted that the ISG will call for US diplomacy with Iran and Syria, something that President George Bush is "unlikely to accept." He is also "adamant" against a timetable for US troop withdrawal. And NBC's Mitchell noted that while the US may not talk to Iran, Iraq already is. She led with diplomacy between presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Jalal Talabani. Ahmadinejad is "only too eager to step into the diplomatic vacuum."
LAST DAY AS SINGLE MAN In domestic news, all three networks followed up on the police shooting of a groom-to-be in Queens NY over the weekend. Undercover cops had staked out the strip club where his bachelor party was held. They were looking for "drugs, prostitution and guns," NBC's Mike Taibbi told us. When the party was over the groom's car and an undercover minivan collided and guns were drawn. The five policemen were armed; the three bachelors were not. In all, 50 bullets were fired and the groom was killed. ABC's Ron Clairborne (subscription required) pointed out that the NYPD trains its officers to fire only three shots "and then assess." NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the gunfire "excessive and unacceptable."
INFLAMED Only CBS assigned reporters to an overnight fire at a Missouri assisted-living home that killed ten residents. Lee Cowan was dispatched to the scene of the blaze while investigative reporter Armen Keteyian noted that such privately-owned facilities have proliferated as the mentally disabled have been moved out of large state-run hospitals. Keteyian investigated the safety records of the owner of the Missouri home. He found violations of fire laws and a guilty plea for Medicare-Medicaid fraud
HARD COPY NBC's investigative reporter Lisa Myers exposed the vulnerability of nuclear power plants to terrorist plots. Back in the early '80s, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had imagined various attack scenarios and pinpointed potential weaknesses in security. The NRC had published its "blueprint for terrorists" database both in print and online but after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, the agency had excised its scenarios from its Website. Myers revealed that the print versions had remained in the public domain and could be researched at dozens of public libraries.
ON THE MENU In the wake of the Thanksgiving holiday, food was on the mind of both ABC and CBS. CBS started a series called Overweight in America: Katie Couric examined the theory that modern obese people inherited a previously-useful gene that boosts appetite-increasing hormones. In the days when food was scarce, those hormones helped humans overcome satiety and load up on excess calories. She checked out mice in a Columbia University lab: excess ghrelin hormone stimulates hunger; depleted leptin hormone ignores fullness.
ABC's series is The Truth About Organics. Jim Avila explained that the hurdle to qualify for the "organic food" label is relatively low: no antibiotics, no growth hormones, no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers. The label no longer refers simply to local farmers' market fare; more and more, agribusiness is finding ways to qualify. Avila advised us that Wal-Mart will soon be an organic leader--"mass marketing going natural and without huge mark-up." Its organics cost only 10% more than conventional food.
EXTREMELY An article in the Harvard Business Review reveals that almost two million contemporary professionals are working 70-hour weeks. ABC's Betsy Stark claimed an Exclusive inside track on the study, profiling a 35-year-old Orlando wannabe-partner trial lawyer as her Exhibit A. "He is almost never home for dinner with his wife and three children." Stark dubbed it "extreme" work, illustrating the trend with clips from ABC's Extreme Makeover and ABC corporate sibling ESPN's X(treme)-Games and hot Christmas toy Extreme Elmo.
MENTIONED IN PASSING The network newscasts do not assign correspondents to all of the news of the day. If Tyndall Report readers come across videostreamed reports online of stories that were mentioned only in passing, post the link in comments for us to check out
Today's examples: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's peace feelers to the Palestinians…The 158-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street…Ford Motors' decision to go $18bn in debt to raise capital.
