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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM AUGUST 13, 2007
There was no dispute about the Story of the Day. The three networks unanimously led from the White House with the announcement that political operative Karl Rove has resigned. The advisor George Bush himself designated as "the architect" of his re-election victory over Democrat John Kerry will be "movin' on down the road" as the President put it.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR AUGUST 13, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
KARL ROVE LEAVES THE WHITE HOUSE There was no dispute about the Story of the Day. The three networks unanimously led from the White House with the announcement that political operative Karl Rove has resigned. The advisor George Bush himself designated as "the architect" of his re-election victory over Democrat John Kerry will be "movin' on down the road" as the President put it.
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell zeroed in on what Rove's departure signifies for the remainder of the Bush Presidency: she called it a "key signal" that it has reached "lame duck status." The timing was dictated by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, CBS' Jim Axelrod explained: he set a Labor Day deadline "to leave or work through the end of the term." Rove's resignation "marks a new, less ambitious Bush Presidency," Axelrod said politely while ABC's George Stephanopoulos was as blunt as NBC's O'Donnell: "The President's second-term domestic agenda--immigration reform, Social Security reform, tax reform--is dead."
Correspondents looked back on both successes and frustrations in the Texan's 14 years as the "most influential and controversial strategist," as NBC's O'Donnell put it, to Bush the candidate, the governor and the President. Success consisted of a string of election victories relying on "his signature move," according to ABC's David Wright (subscription required), a "political jujitsu, turning an opponents strengths against him." Rove's attack on Kerry's war record was "an audacious move considering Bush's Vietnam War record was weak." Yet when the midterms of 2006 came along, "not even Karl Rove could spin the Iraq War as a success."
Rove's long term ambition for a permanent partisan realignment with Republicans as the national majority party has not been realized. An analysis by CBS' Jeff Greenfield argued that his need to build a coalition with reforms using "traditionally Democratic themes" was undercut by his "much more partisan approach" at election time. All three networks quoted his denigration of liberals as desiring to "offer therapy and understanding" to the terrorist attackers of September 11th, 2001. ABC's Stephanopoulos observed that Democrats think of Rove as "the enemy;" in the past four years registration in the Republican Party has fallen from 31% to 25% while that for the Democrats his risen from31% to 34%; and "all the groups he has been trying to get--independents, young voters, Hispanics--are going to the Democrats." How has Rove left the Republican Party? A high-ranking GOPer replied to CBS' Axelrod: "In tatters."
CBS' in-house analyst Nicolle Wallace, a former Rove colleague, told anchor Katie Couric that the Presidential campaigns were "grueling" for Rove and that he saw himself "as the guy who took arrows for the President." He has been "on the defense," noted ABC's Wright, because of investigations into that CIA agent's leaked identity and those firings of the US Attorneys. Rove told NBC's O'Donnell that he now "plans to write a book, with the full encouragement of the President." As for the 2008 Republican field, he told NBC's David Gregory (at the tail of the O'Donnell videostream) that he has "a lot of friends in these campaigns and would be willing to offer an opinion."
FOAM FRAGMENTS Apart from Rove, the day's news agenda consisted mostly of follow-ups from last week's mishaps. ABC and CBS both covered potential problems with NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour, whose underbelly was gouged by an icy chunk of foam upon liftoff--damage similar to that which sealed Columbia's fate upon reentry in 2003. CBS' Kelly Cobiella reported that the fragment punched "a cone-shaped hole three inches long and about an inch deep, almost to the orbiter's aluminum skin." However, Columbia's damage was on the wing, which gets much hotter upon reentry than the belly. Still, that means that "three of the four past Shuttle missions have been plagued by breakaway foam," counted ABC's Mike von Fremd. "Engineers pored over computer models" to work out whether a spacewalk repair would be worth the effort.
TOO SCARED Then there is the Utah coalmine cave-in, where NBC and ABC maintained their stakeouts. The latest development saw a remotely operated camera successfully lowered 1,800 feet below the mountainside. "The images show a dark small chamber," NBC's Jennifer London narrated, with mining gear and dripping water--but no signs of the six missing miners. Meanwhile, digging the horizontal rescue tunnel through the cave-in rubble is making slow progress--645ft done, 1,300ft to go, London calculated--and "is proving so dangerous that twelve of the rescue miners have now asked to be reassigned," ABC's Neal Karlinsky (subscription required) told us. "They are just too scared to go back down into the mine."
GO WITH THE FLOE The Land of the Midnight Sun provided spectacular video for both NBC and CBS. CBS' Daniel Sieberg kicked of his Journey to the Top of the World with a trip to sapphire-blue glaciers of Devon Island in Canada's Nunavut Territory. Sieberg cited that statistic that ice is melting this summer at its fastest rate in 30 years and he explained the impact of the warming of the Arctic Ocean on the rest of us: "Think of arctic ice as a mirror reflecting some of the sun's power back into space and helping to keep Earth cool. As ice disappears, temperatures go up and more ice melts."
The disappearing ice offers the opportunity that Kerry Sanders covered from the North Pole for NBC's In Depth. The Arctic, he explained, is home "to polar bears, walruses--and then there is the oil and gas." After Russia staked its territorial claim to submarine mineral rights last month, Canada has announced plans to build two new Arctic military bases and Denmark launched an expedition to map its claim to the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain chain stretching from Greenland to the pole. The United States has mobilized a Coast Guard cutter and Norway, too, has made a claim. Sanders concluded with multilateral optimism: "All this political maneuvering may not matter in the end. Right now, a United Nations treaty has the final word on who owns the Arctic Sea's riches."
A FATHER’S LOSS NBC's Ron Allen and CBS' Michelle Miller covered last week's execution of a trio of college students in a Newark NJ schoolyard. Now ABC catches up with a Mean Streets feature, assigning Pierre Thomas to put the "brutal murders…killed after being robbed of only a few dollars" in a national context. Thomas' unidentified police sources told him that contemporary criminals "glorify violence" and are "more willing then ever to shoot to kill and enhance their reputations." Protested James Harvey, the bereaved father of the slain 20-year-old Delaware State University psychology major: "Why should you die on the street by gunfire instead of old age? It should not happen."
POSTER BABY CBS' Lara Logan attracted plenty of attention in June with her Exclusive when she accompanied an 82nd Airborne unit as it liberated a Baghdad orphanage with two dozen filthy, naked, starving boys. The case of the infant Fatima Jbouri represents less exclusivity and diminishing emotional returns. NBC anchor Brian Williams (no link) noted that the girl, abandoned in Baghdad's 120F heat after her mother and uncle were assassinated by a death squad, had already made the front page of The New York Times. Now she is being cared for by US military medics in a Green Zone hospital. ABC's Miguel Marquez (no link) called it a "miracle" that the girl is alive while CBS' Logan called it merely a "small miracle."
JEOPARDY! TV talkshow host turned syndication executive Merv Griffin died, aged 82, over the weekend. CBS had Bill Whitaker in Hollywood file his obituary. Amid clips from his myriad guests--The Merv Griffin Show aired from 1962 through 1986--Whitaker started with a familiar musical phrase: "Answer: this person wrote this theme song. Question: who is Merv Griffin?" Griffin instructed that his tombstone should read: "I will not be back after this message."
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: Hawaii is in the path of Hurricane Flossie…the negligent homicide trial of a pair of nursing home operators, 35 of whose patients died during Hurricane Katrina, is underway in Louisiana…New York City socialite Brooke Astor dies, aged 105…the executive of a toy factory suspected of using toxic lead paint may have committed suicide in China…the Gilchrist & Soames brand of toothpaste, popular in hotel chains, has been recalled with an antifreeze taint.
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell zeroed in on what Rove's departure signifies for the remainder of the Bush Presidency: she called it a "key signal" that it has reached "lame duck status." The timing was dictated by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, CBS' Jim Axelrod explained: he set a Labor Day deadline "to leave or work through the end of the term." Rove's resignation "marks a new, less ambitious Bush Presidency," Axelrod said politely while ABC's George Stephanopoulos was as blunt as NBC's O'Donnell: "The President's second-term domestic agenda--immigration reform, Social Security reform, tax reform--is dead."
Correspondents looked back on both successes and frustrations in the Texan's 14 years as the "most influential and controversial strategist," as NBC's O'Donnell put it, to Bush the candidate, the governor and the President. Success consisted of a string of election victories relying on "his signature move," according to ABC's David Wright (subscription required), a "political jujitsu, turning an opponents strengths against him." Rove's attack on Kerry's war record was "an audacious move considering Bush's Vietnam War record was weak." Yet when the midterms of 2006 came along, "not even Karl Rove could spin the Iraq War as a success."
Rove's long term ambition for a permanent partisan realignment with Republicans as the national majority party has not been realized. An analysis by CBS' Jeff Greenfield argued that his need to build a coalition with reforms using "traditionally Democratic themes" was undercut by his "much more partisan approach" at election time. All three networks quoted his denigration of liberals as desiring to "offer therapy and understanding" to the terrorist attackers of September 11th, 2001. ABC's Stephanopoulos observed that Democrats think of Rove as "the enemy;" in the past four years registration in the Republican Party has fallen from 31% to 25% while that for the Democrats his risen from31% to 34%; and "all the groups he has been trying to get--independents, young voters, Hispanics--are going to the Democrats." How has Rove left the Republican Party? A high-ranking GOPer replied to CBS' Axelrod: "In tatters."
CBS' in-house analyst Nicolle Wallace, a former Rove colleague, told anchor Katie Couric that the Presidential campaigns were "grueling" for Rove and that he saw himself "as the guy who took arrows for the President." He has been "on the defense," noted ABC's Wright, because of investigations into that CIA agent's leaked identity and those firings of the US Attorneys. Rove told NBC's O'Donnell that he now "plans to write a book, with the full encouragement of the President." As for the 2008 Republican field, he told NBC's David Gregory (at the tail of the O'Donnell videostream) that he has "a lot of friends in these campaigns and would be willing to offer an opinion."
FOAM FRAGMENTS Apart from Rove, the day's news agenda consisted mostly of follow-ups from last week's mishaps. ABC and CBS both covered potential problems with NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour, whose underbelly was gouged by an icy chunk of foam upon liftoff--damage similar to that which sealed Columbia's fate upon reentry in 2003. CBS' Kelly Cobiella reported that the fragment punched "a cone-shaped hole three inches long and about an inch deep, almost to the orbiter's aluminum skin." However, Columbia's damage was on the wing, which gets much hotter upon reentry than the belly. Still, that means that "three of the four past Shuttle missions have been plagued by breakaway foam," counted ABC's Mike von Fremd. "Engineers pored over computer models" to work out whether a spacewalk repair would be worth the effort.
TOO SCARED Then there is the Utah coalmine cave-in, where NBC and ABC maintained their stakeouts. The latest development saw a remotely operated camera successfully lowered 1,800 feet below the mountainside. "The images show a dark small chamber," NBC's Jennifer London narrated, with mining gear and dripping water--but no signs of the six missing miners. Meanwhile, digging the horizontal rescue tunnel through the cave-in rubble is making slow progress--645ft done, 1,300ft to go, London calculated--and "is proving so dangerous that twelve of the rescue miners have now asked to be reassigned," ABC's Neal Karlinsky (subscription required) told us. "They are just too scared to go back down into the mine."
GO WITH THE FLOE The Land of the Midnight Sun provided spectacular video for both NBC and CBS. CBS' Daniel Sieberg kicked of his Journey to the Top of the World with a trip to sapphire-blue glaciers of Devon Island in Canada's Nunavut Territory. Sieberg cited that statistic that ice is melting this summer at its fastest rate in 30 years and he explained the impact of the warming of the Arctic Ocean on the rest of us: "Think of arctic ice as a mirror reflecting some of the sun's power back into space and helping to keep Earth cool. As ice disappears, temperatures go up and more ice melts."
The disappearing ice offers the opportunity that Kerry Sanders covered from the North Pole for NBC's In Depth. The Arctic, he explained, is home "to polar bears, walruses--and then there is the oil and gas." After Russia staked its territorial claim to submarine mineral rights last month, Canada has announced plans to build two new Arctic military bases and Denmark launched an expedition to map its claim to the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain chain stretching from Greenland to the pole. The United States has mobilized a Coast Guard cutter and Norway, too, has made a claim. Sanders concluded with multilateral optimism: "All this political maneuvering may not matter in the end. Right now, a United Nations treaty has the final word on who owns the Arctic Sea's riches."
A FATHER’S LOSS NBC's Ron Allen and CBS' Michelle Miller covered last week's execution of a trio of college students in a Newark NJ schoolyard. Now ABC catches up with a Mean Streets feature, assigning Pierre Thomas to put the "brutal murders…killed after being robbed of only a few dollars" in a national context. Thomas' unidentified police sources told him that contemporary criminals "glorify violence" and are "more willing then ever to shoot to kill and enhance their reputations." Protested James Harvey, the bereaved father of the slain 20-year-old Delaware State University psychology major: "Why should you die on the street by gunfire instead of old age? It should not happen."
POSTER BABY CBS' Lara Logan attracted plenty of attention in June with her Exclusive when she accompanied an 82nd Airborne unit as it liberated a Baghdad orphanage with two dozen filthy, naked, starving boys. The case of the infant Fatima Jbouri represents less exclusivity and diminishing emotional returns. NBC anchor Brian Williams (no link) noted that the girl, abandoned in Baghdad's 120F heat after her mother and uncle were assassinated by a death squad, had already made the front page of The New York Times. Now she is being cared for by US military medics in a Green Zone hospital. ABC's Miguel Marquez (no link) called it a "miracle" that the girl is alive while CBS' Logan called it merely a "small miracle."
JEOPARDY! TV talkshow host turned syndication executive Merv Griffin died, aged 82, over the weekend. CBS had Bill Whitaker in Hollywood file his obituary. Amid clips from his myriad guests--The Merv Griffin Show aired from 1962 through 1986--Whitaker started with a familiar musical phrase: "Answer: this person wrote this theme song. Question: who is Merv Griffin?" Griffin instructed that his tombstone should read: "I will not be back after this message."
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: Hawaii is in the path of Hurricane Flossie…the negligent homicide trial of a pair of nursing home operators, 35 of whose patients died during Hurricane Katrina, is underway in Louisiana…New York City socialite Brooke Astor dies, aged 105…the executive of a toy factory suspected of using toxic lead paint may have committed suicide in China…the Gilchrist & Soames brand of toothpaste, popular in hotel chains, has been recalled with an antifreeze taint.
