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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 14, 2007
Palestine is divided. The West Bank remains ruled by Fatah under President Mahmoud Abbas. The Gaza Strip is now controled by Hamas, despite Abbas' dissolution of its government and declaration of a state of emergency. CBS and NBC both led with Hamas' victory in Gaza, making it the Story of the Day. ABC chose to lead with computer problems on the International Space Station. It was a rare day with minimal attention paid to Iraq: no coverage by reporters and a mention only in passing of Shiite Moslem protests against the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JUNE 14, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
HAMAS ADVANCES Palestine is divided. The West Bank remains ruled by Fatah under President Mahmoud Abbas. The Gaza Strip is now controled by Hamas, despite Abbas' dissolution of its government and declaration of a state of emergency. CBS and NBC both led with Hamas' victory in Gaza, making it the Story of the Day. ABC chose to lead with computer problems on the International Space Station. It was a rare day with minimal attention paid to Iraq: no coverage by reporters and a mention only in passing of Shiite Moslem protests against the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.
"The green flag of Hamas, the flag of Islamic radicals, flew over every major government building in Gaza," announced NBC's Tom Aspell. "The liberation of Gaza," was how CBS' Richard Roth characterized Hamas street celebrations, "the arrival of Islamic rule." The United States had paid for the Palestinian security headquarters on the Gaza Strip that had been manned by Fatah fighters. "Now it belongs to Hamas," ABC's Wilf Dinnick declared. "In less than 48 hours Gaza imploded. Palestinian security was helpless to stop it." From the White House, CBS' Bill Plante pointed out that Hamas' triumph "has badly undercut the US position in the Middle East." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded by "asking Egypt and Jordan to continue supporting Abbas. What else? Not much."
CBS anchor Katie Couric recalled that Hamas' victory in last year's Palestinian parliamentary elections was "shocking"--although it was not clear whether she meant surprising or offensive. She noted that now Hamas "has the support of Iran and Syria." ABC's Dean Reynolds (subscription required) saw Hamas' advances as part of a broader pattern including the Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon: "If Islamists are able to establish a heavily armed state of their own in Gaza it will be another sign to their adherents that radical Islam is on the march." As for the Strip's 1.5m population, NBC's Aspell saw them "caught in the middle--mired in poverty and now abandoned by aid groups because it is too dangerous to be there."
RUSSIA REBOOTS The six computers that crashed on the International Space Station were made in Germany and operated by Russia, NBC's Tom Costello pointed out, but that hardly prevented ABC anchor Charles Gibson from using his headline: "Houston has a problem." ABC's Lisa Stark (no link) speculated that a newly installed solar panel may be incompatible with the computers. CBS treated the snafu as no big deal, mentioning it only in passing.
Playing what if, ABC's Mike von Fremd focused on the Space Station's oxygen and water supply, both of which are controled by the faulty computers. Back-up systems mean that they run out in 56 days. NBC's Costello concentrated on the computers' role in keep the station in a stable orbit so that the solar panels are pointed at the sun and the radio antennas can communicate with the ground. Without "proper orientation" it would become uninhabitable: seven astronauts would have to return on the Shuttle Atlantis; the other three, two cosmonauts and one astronaut, on the Russian Soyuz.
OPPOSE OR AMEND? CBS and NBC offered contrasting viewpoints on the prospects for that immigration legislation that President George Bus lobbied for on Tuesday. NBC's David Gregory saw the bill's troubles as substantive, noting "a nearly unprecedented grassroots movement dedicated to defeating" the measure. His explanation for the backlash was that immigrants have moved from border states to heartland communities, such as North Carolina, that are unaccustomed to such an influx. On Capitol Hill, CBS' Sharyl Attkisson perceived the problem as procedural--that Senate Republicans wanted to debate more amendments than the Democratic leadership was willing to permit. Attkisson reported that Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) were meeting to whittle the GOP's wish list of 200 down to "fewer than 20" so immigration reform may be "back on track in the Senate as early as next week."
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH The precise same angle on the War on Drugs appealed to ABC's Jim Avila (subscription required) and NBC's Peter Alexander. Alexander traveled to Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County to show us "one of those sleepy all-American suburbs perfect for raising a family" while Avila showed us "upstairs in this big house in a low-crime suburban neighborhood" in San Bernardino County. Both residences were converted to indoor hydroponic marijuana farms with elaborate irrigation systems, racking up $4,000-per-month electric bills for grow-lights. Avila called the drug houses "hidden in plain sight, marijuana McMansions." So how do suburbanites know what is growing in their neighbors' potted plants? Alexander answered for NBC's In Depth: "The folks next door never seem to be home--and a strong skunk-like odor."
ACT YOUR AGE The parole laws in Texas for sex offenders after release from prison are so strict, reported CBS' Hari Sreenivasan, that ex-cons are not even allowed to register online profiles on social networking Websites. Authorities cross-referenced their list of parolees with user information from myspace.com and rounded up seven matches. "None of those arrested in Texas is known to have committed any crime," Sreenivasan cautioned. CBS followed up with in-house tech expert Daniel Sieberg who called the seven "the dumb ones who use their real information." He demonstrated how easy it is to log into a myspace.com page under a nom d'Internet: "Here is my fake page. I wish I were 22 years old."
GIRL POWER The treatment of girls in foreign cultures--both bizarre and brutal--attracted a couple of feature reports. The brutal story was filed by NBC's Mark Potter from London. It concerned Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Kurdish immigrant, who was murdered by her father and her uncle--"strangled with a shoelace, her body buried in a suitcase"--after she defied an arranged marriage and fell in love with a Kurd from a rival village. The bizarre came in the shape of ten-year-old Sajani Shakya, as she visited Washington DC to promote Living Goddess, a documentary movie. The Hindus of Nepal revere the girl as an incarnation of the goddess Kali, ABC's Claire Shipman explained, "handpicked at age two from a specific caste" because she conformed to the "32 perfections" including the gait of a swan, even teeth, a golden tender skin. Shipman called her an "honest-to-goodness goddess" but warned that worship ends when puberty arrives, "often a difficult transition." No kidding.
SNAP CRACKLE POP All three networks assigned a reporter to Kellogg's decision to revamp the way it sells high-sugar, high-salt food to children. The firm "is banking that good will from grateful parents will make up for the loss of one of its most effective marketing ploys," as CBS' Nancy Cordes put it. Specifically the cereal maker promised either to reformulate its non-nutritious brands--such as Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Eggos, Pop Tarts, Corn Puffs, Honey Smacks, Cocoa Krispies--or, if improvement does fail, to pull their advertising during Saturday morning children's television. As Dan Harris (subscription required) put it on ABC's A Closer Look, "Toucan Sam may go the way of the dodo."
The background to Kellogg's decision was the threat of lawsuits for promoting a diet that is harmful to children. NBC's Janet Shamlian raised our eyebrows at when she outlined the extent of the problem: "obesity rates" now exceed 15% of the child population of the United States. That number seems far too high. The Centers for Disease Control (text link) use the term "obese" for the minority of overweight adults whose health is at extreme risk from their size. Most overweight people are not obese and the CDC do not even use obese as a classification for children. Of course, children should eat nutritious food, but Shamlian's "obesity" terminology is sloppy at best, misleadingly alarmist at worst.
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: former White House aide Lewis Libby was not permitted to delay his incarceration pending appeal…former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim dies, aged 88…Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has a household net worth of $50m…imported Colgate toothpaste counterfeits are tainted with antifreeze…the Rev Billy Graham became a widower upon the death of his wife Betty…the legalization of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts is not vulnerable to repeal by referendum.
"The green flag of Hamas, the flag of Islamic radicals, flew over every major government building in Gaza," announced NBC's Tom Aspell. "The liberation of Gaza," was how CBS' Richard Roth characterized Hamas street celebrations, "the arrival of Islamic rule." The United States had paid for the Palestinian security headquarters on the Gaza Strip that had been manned by Fatah fighters. "Now it belongs to Hamas," ABC's Wilf Dinnick declared. "In less than 48 hours Gaza imploded. Palestinian security was helpless to stop it." From the White House, CBS' Bill Plante pointed out that Hamas' triumph "has badly undercut the US position in the Middle East." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded by "asking Egypt and Jordan to continue supporting Abbas. What else? Not much."
CBS anchor Katie Couric recalled that Hamas' victory in last year's Palestinian parliamentary elections was "shocking"--although it was not clear whether she meant surprising or offensive. She noted that now Hamas "has the support of Iran and Syria." ABC's Dean Reynolds (subscription required) saw Hamas' advances as part of a broader pattern including the Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon: "If Islamists are able to establish a heavily armed state of their own in Gaza it will be another sign to their adherents that radical Islam is on the march." As for the Strip's 1.5m population, NBC's Aspell saw them "caught in the middle--mired in poverty and now abandoned by aid groups because it is too dangerous to be there."
RUSSIA REBOOTS The six computers that crashed on the International Space Station were made in Germany and operated by Russia, NBC's Tom Costello pointed out, but that hardly prevented ABC anchor Charles Gibson from using his headline: "Houston has a problem." ABC's Lisa Stark (no link) speculated that a newly installed solar panel may be incompatible with the computers. CBS treated the snafu as no big deal, mentioning it only in passing.
Playing what if, ABC's Mike von Fremd focused on the Space Station's oxygen and water supply, both of which are controled by the faulty computers. Back-up systems mean that they run out in 56 days. NBC's Costello concentrated on the computers' role in keep the station in a stable orbit so that the solar panels are pointed at the sun and the radio antennas can communicate with the ground. Without "proper orientation" it would become uninhabitable: seven astronauts would have to return on the Shuttle Atlantis; the other three, two cosmonauts and one astronaut, on the Russian Soyuz.
OPPOSE OR AMEND? CBS and NBC offered contrasting viewpoints on the prospects for that immigration legislation that President George Bus lobbied for on Tuesday. NBC's David Gregory saw the bill's troubles as substantive, noting "a nearly unprecedented grassroots movement dedicated to defeating" the measure. His explanation for the backlash was that immigrants have moved from border states to heartland communities, such as North Carolina, that are unaccustomed to such an influx. On Capitol Hill, CBS' Sharyl Attkisson perceived the problem as procedural--that Senate Republicans wanted to debate more amendments than the Democratic leadership was willing to permit. Attkisson reported that Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) were meeting to whittle the GOP's wish list of 200 down to "fewer than 20" so immigration reform may be "back on track in the Senate as early as next week."
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH The precise same angle on the War on Drugs appealed to ABC's Jim Avila (subscription required) and NBC's Peter Alexander. Alexander traveled to Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County to show us "one of those sleepy all-American suburbs perfect for raising a family" while Avila showed us "upstairs in this big house in a low-crime suburban neighborhood" in San Bernardino County. Both residences were converted to indoor hydroponic marijuana farms with elaborate irrigation systems, racking up $4,000-per-month electric bills for grow-lights. Avila called the drug houses "hidden in plain sight, marijuana McMansions." So how do suburbanites know what is growing in their neighbors' potted plants? Alexander answered for NBC's In Depth: "The folks next door never seem to be home--and a strong skunk-like odor."
ACT YOUR AGE The parole laws in Texas for sex offenders after release from prison are so strict, reported CBS' Hari Sreenivasan, that ex-cons are not even allowed to register online profiles on social networking Websites. Authorities cross-referenced their list of parolees with user information from myspace.com and rounded up seven matches. "None of those arrested in Texas is known to have committed any crime," Sreenivasan cautioned. CBS followed up with in-house tech expert Daniel Sieberg who called the seven "the dumb ones who use their real information." He demonstrated how easy it is to log into a myspace.com page under a nom d'Internet: "Here is my fake page. I wish I were 22 years old."
GIRL POWER The treatment of girls in foreign cultures--both bizarre and brutal--attracted a couple of feature reports. The brutal story was filed by NBC's Mark Potter from London. It concerned Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Kurdish immigrant, who was murdered by her father and her uncle--"strangled with a shoelace, her body buried in a suitcase"--after she defied an arranged marriage and fell in love with a Kurd from a rival village. The bizarre came in the shape of ten-year-old Sajani Shakya, as she visited Washington DC to promote Living Goddess, a documentary movie. The Hindus of Nepal revere the girl as an incarnation of the goddess Kali, ABC's Claire Shipman explained, "handpicked at age two from a specific caste" because she conformed to the "32 perfections" including the gait of a swan, even teeth, a golden tender skin. Shipman called her an "honest-to-goodness goddess" but warned that worship ends when puberty arrives, "often a difficult transition." No kidding.
SNAP CRACKLE POP All three networks assigned a reporter to Kellogg's decision to revamp the way it sells high-sugar, high-salt food to children. The firm "is banking that good will from grateful parents will make up for the loss of one of its most effective marketing ploys," as CBS' Nancy Cordes put it. Specifically the cereal maker promised either to reformulate its non-nutritious brands--such as Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Eggos, Pop Tarts, Corn Puffs, Honey Smacks, Cocoa Krispies--or, if improvement does fail, to pull their advertising during Saturday morning children's television. As Dan Harris (subscription required) put it on ABC's A Closer Look, "Toucan Sam may go the way of the dodo."
The background to Kellogg's decision was the threat of lawsuits for promoting a diet that is harmful to children. NBC's Janet Shamlian raised our eyebrows at when she outlined the extent of the problem: "obesity rates" now exceed 15% of the child population of the United States. That number seems far too high. The Centers for Disease Control (text link) use the term "obese" for the minority of overweight adults whose health is at extreme risk from their size. Most overweight people are not obese and the CDC do not even use obese as a classification for children. Of course, children should eat nutritious food, but Shamlian's "obesity" terminology is sloppy at best, misleadingly alarmist at worst.
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: former White House aide Lewis Libby was not permitted to delay his incarceration pending appeal…former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim dies, aged 88…Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has a household net worth of $50m…imported Colgate toothpaste counterfeits are tainted with antifreeze…the Rev Billy Graham became a widower upon the death of his wife Betty…the legalization of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts is not vulnerable to repeal by referendum.
