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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JULY 16, 2007
The pedophile priests sex scandal in the Roman Catholic Church was the unanimous choice for Story of the Day. All three networks led with the settlement of a lawsuit brought by more than 500 parishioners against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. NBC anchor Brian Williams happened to be on the road in the City of Angels to introduce it. The $660m payment in damages means that Cardinal Roger Mahony--who apologized "to anyone who has been offended, who has been abused"--will now not have to testify about his role in allegedly covering up his priests' corruption in open court.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JULY 16, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
ANGELIC CORRUPTION CONFESSED The pedophile priests sex scandal in the Roman Catholic Church was the unanimous choice for Story of the Day. All three networks led with the settlement of a lawsuit brought by more than 500 parishioners against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. NBC anchor Brian Williams happened to be on the road in the City of Angels to introduce it. The $660m payment in damages means that Cardinal Roger Mahony--who apologized "to anyone who has been offended, who has been abused"--will now not have to testify about his role in allegedly covering up his priests' corruption in open court.
The Los Angeles case was the latest in a series of nationwide confessions by church authorities that its priests molested its children. The archdiocese stood accused of "dragging its feet for five years, settling only on the eve of the first trial," ABC's Ryan Owens (subscription required) reported. The damages will be paid by a combination of insurance coverage, archdiocese assets and related Catholic charities. Owens observed that the Cardinal had pledged not to close schools or parish churches in order to raise the cash. NBC's Jennifer London noted that the lawsuits started in Boston in 2002. She called the release of personnel files for 221 accused priests "a key part of the settlement" in the hopes that they might shed light on the role of church's leadership. CBS' Sandra Hughes cautioned against optimism on that front: the "files must be reviewed in court before they are made public; some may never be released."
GET OFF THE BUS ABC and CBS both covered Campaign 2008, as Presidential fundraising statistics for this year's second quarter were published. "It is the Democrats who are in the fast lane," announced CBS' Jim Axelrod, pointing out that the Republican frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani's $18m is little more than half the stash accumulated by either of the two leading Democrats: Barack Obama has $34m, Hillary Rodham Clinton $33m. ABC's Jake Tapper pointed out that a key Wall Street backer of Rodham Clinton, Morgan Stanley boss John Mack, raised funds for the other party in 2004. In total, in the second quarter, Democratic candidates outraised Republicans by $81m to $49m.
"Even more depressing," ABC's Tapper added, GOPers such as Mitt Romney are spending more than they are raising. Romney's $21m in expenditures--including $15K on baseball tickets, $6K on cut flowers--contrasted with $14m in receipts. The millionaire borrowed money from himself to make good the difference. Last Friday, ABC's John Berman (subscription required) and NBC's Chip Reid detailed the sinking fortunes of onetime frontrunner John McCain. Now CBS' Axelrod notes that McCain's Straight Talk Express is off the road--the campaign "cannot afford the $103K-plus it cost to keep the bus running last quarter."
LIVING IN GLASS HOUSES "In most families this would have been handled completely privately." Thus NBC's Chip Reid quoted Wendy Vitter, even as his report refused to allow her to do so. Reid publicized her husband's apology after he was "linked to an alleged prostitution ring." What made the link newsworthy was that her husband is David Vitter, the Republican from Louisiana, "one of the most conservative members of the Senate, frequently invoking family values in his campaigns." Thus, Reid implied, it was Vitter who decided to make his sexual behavior a matter of public scrutiny, not the news media.
According to prosecutors, the $300-a-visit prostitutes whose services Vitter appears to have availed himself of were operated by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called DC Madam, Reid reported. ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required) covered Vitter's hypocrisy last week; NBC and CBS both covered Palfrey's publicity (text link) about her little black book last April.
BAGHDAD BLOTTER All three networks ran updates from Iraq: NBC chose news from the regime in Baghdad; CBS examined regional threats; and ABC aired Exclusive footage from photographer Sean Smith of The Guardian newspaper in London. Smith was embedded with a platoon of the USArmy's Second Infantry Division in Baghdad.
ABC had Nick Watt narrate Smith's grisly footage: we saw an explosion blow the skin off an Iraqi soldier; we saw a burning Bradley armored vehicle with seven dead inside, six GIs and their Arab translator; we saw a taxi cab circling a neighborhood looking for an address and its driver killed with a shot through the neck when a GI decided it looked suspicious. ABC's substitute anchor David Muir called the footage "rare and raw." He asked his colleague Martha Raddatz (no link) about the bitter, candid comments of the GIs: "The longer you spend with them, the more they will talk about their frustration and exhaustion," she reflected. "You really have to be out with them to hear that sort of talk."
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sat down with NBC's Richard Engel to tell him that Iraq "should be ready for a major US troop withdrawal by the end of this year." Both police and military will be trained to replace US forces by then, he predicted, revealing that "US and Iraqi officials are already preparing an exit strategy from Iraq." Engel explained why al-Maliki is so anxious to take over: "He worries he may be losing US support" so he has decided to seek backing from Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite opposition leader, and al-Sadr wants US troops to leave "while Shiites remain powerful."
On CBS, Allen Pizzey used the news hook of the carbombs that killed 80 in Kirkuk for an inquiry into which of Iraq's neighbors is the source of most of the terrorist attacks on civilians that foreigners perpetrate. And the winner is Saudi Arabia--Pizzey did not even mention Iran. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's National Security Advisor told Pizzey that he sent a request to Riyadh to crack down on "would-be jihadists." Each month, 60-or-so suicide-minded Saudi nationals infiltrate by way of Syria. Mused Pizzey: "The Saudi connection puts Washington in an awkward spot because the kingdom is a favorite ally in the region."
SHAKEN NOT STIRRED None of the networks had a reporter in Tokyo to cover the powerful earthquake in the Sea of Japan that damaged a huge nuclear generating plant in Kashiwazaki. CBS merely mentioned the quake in passing--Richter 6.8, at least nine dead--while NBC and ABC both narrated the videotape of shaking buildings and mangled railroad tracks from their bureaus in Beijing. ABC's Stephanie Sy (subscription required) reassured us that the reactor shut down automatically while "a tiny amount of radioactive substance leaked into the water supply." NBC's Mark Mullen called a fire at the plant "the biggest cause for concern."
MEGADRY NBC's assignment of Brian Williams to California attracted the anchor's attention to the climate. "Growth rings on trees show evidence of ancient megadroughts, lasting over a century," reported NBC's George Lewis as the Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger warned that another dry season would be "catastrophic." Lewis predicted that irrigation will grow so expensive that many of the state's farms will be forced to sell. The last twelve months have been so dry that the city of Riverside has received even less rain than Death Valley.
HARRY POTTER EXPRESS Who knows what the conclusion will be for Harry Potter? ABC's Dean Reynolds thinks he knows where to find out. The RR Donnelly press in the small Indiana town of Crawfordsville has a printing contract with Scholastic Books, the American publisher of the seven part series that will conclude with The Deathly Hallows. The plant is "practically under lockdown" and workers "will not give you the time of day" amid a "Hoosier vow of silence." Yet Reynolds is certain the books are in there. As he showed himself investigating with a night-vision lens, he cited "increased train traffic here on the tracks at all hours of the night."
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: President George Bush announced a new diplomatic initiative on behalf of the rump Fatah rulers of the Palestinian Authority…the national average price of gasoline once more exceeds $3/gallon…a gunman threatened to attack the office of Democrat Bill Ritter, the Governor of Colorado, and was shot dead…the president of Eastern Michigan University was fired for a cover-up of the campus murder of a 22-year-old coed by a fellow student…on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 13950, another all-time high…baseball's Philadelphia Phillies franchise lost its 10,000th game, the losingest team in professional sports.
The Los Angeles case was the latest in a series of nationwide confessions by church authorities that its priests molested its children. The archdiocese stood accused of "dragging its feet for five years, settling only on the eve of the first trial," ABC's Ryan Owens (subscription required) reported. The damages will be paid by a combination of insurance coverage, archdiocese assets and related Catholic charities. Owens observed that the Cardinal had pledged not to close schools or parish churches in order to raise the cash. NBC's Jennifer London noted that the lawsuits started in Boston in 2002. She called the release of personnel files for 221 accused priests "a key part of the settlement" in the hopes that they might shed light on the role of church's leadership. CBS' Sandra Hughes cautioned against optimism on that front: the "files must be reviewed in court before they are made public; some may never be released."
GET OFF THE BUS ABC and CBS both covered Campaign 2008, as Presidential fundraising statistics for this year's second quarter were published. "It is the Democrats who are in the fast lane," announced CBS' Jim Axelrod, pointing out that the Republican frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani's $18m is little more than half the stash accumulated by either of the two leading Democrats: Barack Obama has $34m, Hillary Rodham Clinton $33m. ABC's Jake Tapper pointed out that a key Wall Street backer of Rodham Clinton, Morgan Stanley boss John Mack, raised funds for the other party in 2004. In total, in the second quarter, Democratic candidates outraised Republicans by $81m to $49m.
"Even more depressing," ABC's Tapper added, GOPers such as Mitt Romney are spending more than they are raising. Romney's $21m in expenditures--including $15K on baseball tickets, $6K on cut flowers--contrasted with $14m in receipts. The millionaire borrowed money from himself to make good the difference. Last Friday, ABC's John Berman (subscription required) and NBC's Chip Reid detailed the sinking fortunes of onetime frontrunner John McCain. Now CBS' Axelrod notes that McCain's Straight Talk Express is off the road--the campaign "cannot afford the $103K-plus it cost to keep the bus running last quarter."
LIVING IN GLASS HOUSES "In most families this would have been handled completely privately." Thus NBC's Chip Reid quoted Wendy Vitter, even as his report refused to allow her to do so. Reid publicized her husband's apology after he was "linked to an alleged prostitution ring." What made the link newsworthy was that her husband is David Vitter, the Republican from Louisiana, "one of the most conservative members of the Senate, frequently invoking family values in his campaigns." Thus, Reid implied, it was Vitter who decided to make his sexual behavior a matter of public scrutiny, not the news media.
According to prosecutors, the $300-a-visit prostitutes whose services Vitter appears to have availed himself of were operated by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called DC Madam, Reid reported. ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required) covered Vitter's hypocrisy last week; NBC and CBS both covered Palfrey's publicity (text link) about her little black book last April.
BAGHDAD BLOTTER All three networks ran updates from Iraq: NBC chose news from the regime in Baghdad; CBS examined regional threats; and ABC aired Exclusive footage from photographer Sean Smith of The Guardian newspaper in London. Smith was embedded with a platoon of the USArmy's Second Infantry Division in Baghdad.
ABC had Nick Watt narrate Smith's grisly footage: we saw an explosion blow the skin off an Iraqi soldier; we saw a burning Bradley armored vehicle with seven dead inside, six GIs and their Arab translator; we saw a taxi cab circling a neighborhood looking for an address and its driver killed with a shot through the neck when a GI decided it looked suspicious. ABC's substitute anchor David Muir called the footage "rare and raw." He asked his colleague Martha Raddatz (no link) about the bitter, candid comments of the GIs: "The longer you spend with them, the more they will talk about their frustration and exhaustion," she reflected. "You really have to be out with them to hear that sort of talk."
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sat down with NBC's Richard Engel to tell him that Iraq "should be ready for a major US troop withdrawal by the end of this year." Both police and military will be trained to replace US forces by then, he predicted, revealing that "US and Iraqi officials are already preparing an exit strategy from Iraq." Engel explained why al-Maliki is so anxious to take over: "He worries he may be losing US support" so he has decided to seek backing from Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite opposition leader, and al-Sadr wants US troops to leave "while Shiites remain powerful."
On CBS, Allen Pizzey used the news hook of the carbombs that killed 80 in Kirkuk for an inquiry into which of Iraq's neighbors is the source of most of the terrorist attacks on civilians that foreigners perpetrate. And the winner is Saudi Arabia--Pizzey did not even mention Iran. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's National Security Advisor told Pizzey that he sent a request to Riyadh to crack down on "would-be jihadists." Each month, 60-or-so suicide-minded Saudi nationals infiltrate by way of Syria. Mused Pizzey: "The Saudi connection puts Washington in an awkward spot because the kingdom is a favorite ally in the region."
SHAKEN NOT STIRRED None of the networks had a reporter in Tokyo to cover the powerful earthquake in the Sea of Japan that damaged a huge nuclear generating plant in Kashiwazaki. CBS merely mentioned the quake in passing--Richter 6.8, at least nine dead--while NBC and ABC both narrated the videotape of shaking buildings and mangled railroad tracks from their bureaus in Beijing. ABC's Stephanie Sy (subscription required) reassured us that the reactor shut down automatically while "a tiny amount of radioactive substance leaked into the water supply." NBC's Mark Mullen called a fire at the plant "the biggest cause for concern."
MEGADRY NBC's assignment of Brian Williams to California attracted the anchor's attention to the climate. "Growth rings on trees show evidence of ancient megadroughts, lasting over a century," reported NBC's George Lewis as the Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger warned that another dry season would be "catastrophic." Lewis predicted that irrigation will grow so expensive that many of the state's farms will be forced to sell. The last twelve months have been so dry that the city of Riverside has received even less rain than Death Valley.
HARRY POTTER EXPRESS Who knows what the conclusion will be for Harry Potter? ABC's Dean Reynolds thinks he knows where to find out. The RR Donnelly press in the small Indiana town of Crawfordsville has a printing contract with Scholastic Books, the American publisher of the seven part series that will conclude with The Deathly Hallows. The plant is "practically under lockdown" and workers "will not give you the time of day" amid a "Hoosier vow of silence." Yet Reynolds is certain the books are in there. As he showed himself investigating with a night-vision lens, he cited "increased train traffic here on the tracks at all hours of the night."
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: President George Bush announced a new diplomatic initiative on behalf of the rump Fatah rulers of the Palestinian Authority…the national average price of gasoline once more exceeds $3/gallon…a gunman threatened to attack the office of Democrat Bill Ritter, the Governor of Colorado, and was shot dead…the president of Eastern Michigan University was fired for a cover-up of the campus murder of a 22-year-old coed by a fellow student…on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 13950, another all-time high…baseball's Philadelphia Phillies franchise lost its 10,000th game, the losingest team in professional sports.
