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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM DECEMBER 1, 2006
The end of a week of non-stop Iraq coverage saw the news agenda return home. A band of storms brought snow and ice to the midwest and turbulent air conditions to the east coast. The networks' anchors, returning from the Amman Summit, had to fly into JFK Airport through turbulent skies. "We got back just in time," said CBS' Katie Couric. No wonder they all made the early winter weather their Story of the Day.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR DECEMBER 1, 2006: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
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 example is Felipe Calderon inaugurated as President of Mexico amid protests. The 80th birthday celebrations for an ailing Fidel Castro almost made the list: Lara Logan filed on his no-show from Havana but CBS did not post her all-too-brief report online.
UNFRIENDLY SKIESThe end of a week of non-stop Iraq coverage saw the news agenda return home. A band of storms brought snow and ice to the midwest and turbulent air conditions to the east coast. The networks' anchors, returning from the Amman Summit, had to fly into JFK Airport through turbulent skies. "We got back just in time," said CBS' Katie Couric. No wonder they all made the early winter weather their Story of the Day.
All three networks chose the disruption of air travel as their angle, even though the storm also snowed in roads and icestorms created power outages. CBS' Cynthia Bowers and NBC's Janet Shamlian both filed from Chicago's O'Hare Airport. NBC brought us an In Their Own Words feature (at the end of the Shamlian stream) from Frank Stanton of American Airlines, who had the job of juggling all those delayed flights.
The FAA's public relations apparatus scored again. On Thanksgiving Eve, CBS and NBC both showcased its air traffic control command center in Herndon Va. This time it was ABC's turn as Lisa Stark (subscription required) showed us the blinking lights of flight patterns across the national map.
ARRIVALS The TSA, by contrast, was given a black eye by NBC's Pete Williams. Every international airline passenger is assessed as a potential risk by the TSA while in midair so that immigration authorities know whether to wave them through upon arrival or order an intrusive inspection. The TSA derives our "risk assessment score" by trawling through credit card and telephone call records. The trouble is once we are each assigned a rating, it is kept in a database for 40 years. Privacy groups told Williams that, because passengers cannot see the data for themselves, errors are "impossible to fix."
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? World AIDS Day was not covered by NBC and mentioned only in passing by ABC. CBS gave it priority as Couric interviewed Melinda Gates, the billionaire's wife, about her foundation's funding of vaccine research and its sponsorship of HIV-prevention projects. Claimed Gates: "We are making strides in Thailand and Uganda." Byron Pitts told us that AIDS deaths "have plummeted" inside the United States but the virus continues to kill in the Third World, with 2.5m annual deaths in Asia and Africa.
Evangelist Rick Warren has made AIDS his special cause--yet he incurred the wrath of 18 leading conservative Christians when he invited Sen Barack Obama to join him in his annual anti-HIV summit, because Obama is no pro-lifer. ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required) weighed Christian concerns about AIDS and abortion and poverty. Should one issue disqualify coalition building over another? "I am a pastor not a politician," Tapper quoted Warren. Is the preacher right-wing or left-wing? "I am for the whole bird."
GENUINE TALKS Iraq may have been forced out of the lead, but it was hardly forgotten. CBS' Bill Plante reported that President George Bush, returning from talks with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, will expand his diplomacy to include al-Maliki's rival for Shiite leadership abdul-Aziz al-Hakim--whose "Badr militia rivals the Mahdi Army"--and the leading Sunni Arab politician Tariq al-Hashemi. Plante's spook sources told him that the Badr Corps "was the first to send death squads to target Sunnis."
Left behind in Jordan was ABC's Terry McCarthy, who checked out the desert training grounds for military and police. The US is spending $3bn annually and has so far trained 133,000 soldiers and 160,000 cops. He pointed out that without "genuine reconciliation talks" between Sunni and Shiite, security forces alone will never keep the peace and so far those talks are "something that al-Maliki has failed to deliver."
UNDERCOVERED The massive protests by the Shiites of Lebanon were scanted. ABC mentioned the million-strong pro-Syria rally only in passing. CBS sent Mark Phillips to Beirut on his way home from Amman, but did not post his report online. NBC's Richard Engel watched Hezbollah's tent-city mobilization and concluded: "This great struggle between America and Iran is now being played out on the streets of Beirut."
PUBLICITY & PROMOTION National Geographic TV received free publicity from ABC for its documentary In The Womb: Animals. Ned Potter showed us how the movie renders the fetal development of our fellow mammals…Author Wendy Shanker won buzz from CBS' Overweight in America series for her book The Fat Girl's Guide to Life. Sharyn Alfonsi used Shanker to illustrate the fads, pills and books from the non-FDA-regulated $35bn-a-year diet and weight-loss industry. "Companies sell slim and we eat it up"…New York's Metropolitan Opera, a next-door neighbor of ABC News, won a mention for its new production of The First Emperor with Placido Domingo. Charles Gibson (subscription required) made the tenor ABC's Person of the Week for his fundraising for the hearing impaired.
HALF ASS CBS' jaunty Assignment America brought us Della the mule: the half horse, half donkey, explained her owner Bud Kenny, is on a 20-year "half-assed tour of the world." Steve Hartman told us that Kenny set off five years ago from Arkansas and is now all the way to New York--with Europe, Russia and Japan still to come. Kenny always wanted to circumnavigate with his wife. He had to go through six divorces before he found seventh wife Patricia to keep him and Della company.
Today's example is Felipe Calderon inaugurated as President of Mexico amid protests. The 80th birthday celebrations for an ailing Fidel Castro almost made the list: Lara Logan filed on his no-show from Havana but CBS did not post her all-too-brief report online.
UNFRIENDLY SKIES
All three networks chose the disruption of air travel as their angle, even though the storm also snowed in roads and icestorms created power outages. CBS' Cynthia Bowers and NBC's Janet Shamlian both filed from Chicago's O'Hare Airport. NBC brought us an In Their Own Words feature (at the end of the Shamlian stream) from Frank Stanton of American Airlines, who had the job of juggling all those delayed flights.
The FAA's public relations apparatus scored again. On Thanksgiving Eve, CBS and NBC both showcased its air traffic control command center in Herndon Va. This time it was ABC's turn as Lisa Stark (subscription required) showed us the blinking lights of flight patterns across the national map.
ARRIVALS The TSA, by contrast, was given a black eye by NBC's Pete Williams. Every international airline passenger is assessed as a potential risk by the TSA while in midair so that immigration authorities know whether to wave them through upon arrival or order an intrusive inspection. The TSA derives our "risk assessment score" by trawling through credit card and telephone call records. The trouble is once we are each assigned a rating, it is kept in a database for 40 years. Privacy groups told Williams that, because passengers cannot see the data for themselves, errors are "impossible to fix."
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? World AIDS Day was not covered by NBC and mentioned only in passing by ABC. CBS gave it priority as Couric interviewed Melinda Gates, the billionaire's wife, about her foundation's funding of vaccine research and its sponsorship of HIV-prevention projects. Claimed Gates: "We are making strides in Thailand and Uganda." Byron Pitts told us that AIDS deaths "have plummeted" inside the United States but the virus continues to kill in the Third World, with 2.5m annual deaths in Asia and Africa.
Evangelist Rick Warren has made AIDS his special cause--yet he incurred the wrath of 18 leading conservative Christians when he invited Sen Barack Obama to join him in his annual anti-HIV summit, because Obama is no pro-lifer. ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required) weighed Christian concerns about AIDS and abortion and poverty. Should one issue disqualify coalition building over another? "I am a pastor not a politician," Tapper quoted Warren. Is the preacher right-wing or left-wing? "I am for the whole bird."
GENUINE TALKS Iraq may have been forced out of the lead, but it was hardly forgotten. CBS' Bill Plante reported that President George Bush, returning from talks with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, will expand his diplomacy to include al-Maliki's rival for Shiite leadership abdul-Aziz al-Hakim--whose "Badr militia rivals the Mahdi Army"--and the leading Sunni Arab politician Tariq al-Hashemi. Plante's spook sources told him that the Badr Corps "was the first to send death squads to target Sunnis."
Left behind in Jordan was ABC's Terry McCarthy, who checked out the desert training grounds for military and police. The US is spending $3bn annually and has so far trained 133,000 soldiers and 160,000 cops. He pointed out that without "genuine reconciliation talks" between Sunni and Shiite, security forces alone will never keep the peace and so far those talks are "something that al-Maliki has failed to deliver."
UNDERCOVERED The massive protests by the Shiites of Lebanon were scanted. ABC mentioned the million-strong pro-Syria rally only in passing. CBS sent Mark Phillips to Beirut on his way home from Amman, but did not post his report online. NBC's Richard Engel watched Hezbollah's tent-city mobilization and concluded: "This great struggle between America and Iran is now being played out on the streets of Beirut."
PUBLICITY & PROMOTION National Geographic TV received free publicity from ABC for its documentary In The Womb: Animals. Ned Potter showed us how the movie renders the fetal development of our fellow mammals…Author Wendy Shanker won buzz from CBS' Overweight in America series for her book The Fat Girl's Guide to Life. Sharyn Alfonsi used Shanker to illustrate the fads, pills and books from the non-FDA-regulated $35bn-a-year diet and weight-loss industry. "Companies sell slim and we eat it up"…New York's Metropolitan Opera, a next-door neighbor of ABC News, won a mention for its new production of The First Emperor with Placido Domingo. Charles Gibson (subscription required) made the tenor ABC's Person of the Week for his fundraising for the hearing impaired.
HALF ASS CBS' jaunty Assignment America brought us Della the mule: the half horse, half donkey, explained her owner Bud Kenny, is on a 20-year "half-assed tour of the world." Steve Hartman told us that Kenny set off five years ago from Arkansas and is now all the way to New York--with Europe, Russia and Japan still to come. Kenny always wanted to circumnavigate with his wife. He had to go through six divorces before he found seventh wife Patricia to keep him and Della company.
