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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM SEPTEMBER 04, 2007
The first day back from the summer break saw very little news. Only NBC organized a traditional newscast--both ABC and CBS were in a reflective mood, offering surveys rather than headlines. CBS made the bigger splash, with anchor Katie Couric in Baghdad to kick off her weeklong tour America in Iraq: the Road Ahead. ABC took the end of the Labor Day weekend as an opportunity to survey the true beginning of the Campaign 2008 primary season. There was so little news to report that only a single story warranted attention from even two newscasts' reporters--that was NBC's lead, the disappearance of millionaire celebrity adventurer Steve Fossett. Fossett was not the Story of the Day, however; the Iraq War qualified for top spot, courtesy of CBS' series.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR SEPTEMBER 04, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
CBS LEADS WITH IRAQ SURVEY The first day back from the summer break saw very little news. Only NBC organized a traditional newscast--both ABC and CBS were in a reflective mood, offering surveys rather than headlines. CBS made the bigger splash, with anchor Katie Couric in Baghdad to kick off her weeklong tour America in Iraq: the Road Ahead. ABC took the end of the Labor Day weekend as an opportunity to survey the true beginning of the Campaign 2008 primary season. There was so little news to report that only a single story warranted attention from even two newscasts' reporters--that was NBC's lead, the disappearance of millionaire celebrity adventurer Steve Fossett. Fossett was not the Story of the Day, however; the Iraq War qualified for top spot, courtesy of CBS' series.
The news hook for the special focus on the Iraq War is the kickoff next week of the Congressional debate about the future of US troop deployments. That debate will start with the testimony of the military and diplomatic leaders in Baghdad, Gen David Petraeus and Amb Ryan Crocker. Not only did CBS' Couric included her questions to the general in her Road Ahead feature from Fallujah, ABC's Martha Raddatz also profiled Petraeus. Raddatz reminded us that if Petraeus' testimony turns out to be optimistic--he calls it his Kodak moment--it may say more about his demeanor than the facts on the ground: "He always manages to paint a hopeful picture," she observed, showing his cheery soundbites as a two-star general in 2004 and with three stars in 2005. Raddatz pointed out to Petraeus that a withdrawal of 30,000-or-so US troops is bound to begin soon, for reasons of logistics not strategy: "You calculations are about right," he agreed.
CBS filed a pair of Road Ahead reports on the war itself--Couric from al-Anbar and Lara Logan from Basra. Couric introduced us to Sheikh Saddoun al-Bouissa--"the powerful tribal leaders of al-Anbar Province are really the heads of large extended families"--who switched sides after 30 members of his clan were killed by his former allies in al-Qaeda. Now the tribal militias are being armed and trained by the US military instead as the sheikhs made "joining Iraqi security forces an honorable choice." Sheikh al-Bouissa told Couric that he wants US aid "until we finish al-Qaeda," not indefinitely. Couric did not preview what the politics of these Sunni sheikhs towards the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad would then be.
CBS' Logan showed us British troops leave Basra Palace downtown to relocate to an airfield on the outskirts. "The British insist their withdrawal to a single base outside Basra is not a retreat," Logan reported skeptically. She argued that "Shiite militias, battling each other for power, dominate this wealthy province" and that their "relentless attacks have succeeded" in driving British patrols off the streets. Even Mohammed al-Waili, the Governor of Basra, told her that his own police force had been infiltrated by rival militias. Teheran, Logan added, is "playing a huge role in Basra. There is no question that Iran is backing all of the militias in the south."
NON-GOVERNMENT Couric's second report on CBS' Road Ahead looked at the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. She was not impressed. She ticked off the lack of an army and police force to provide security, the lack of an agreement on the distribution of oil revenues, its inability to provide basic services to citizens, and the boycott of al-Maliki by almost half of the members of his cabinet. Couric flat out contradicted a major talking point of the Bush Administration: this "national unity government is neither," by which she, presumably, meant it is neither national nor united. Perhaps it is not even the third thing--a government.
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS Couric ended her first Road Ahead day with human interest. How does a Baghdad family survive the summer's 113F heat without electricity for air conditioning? "A living hell," Couric called it. "A good day simply means the kitchen faucet turns on." She profiled a middle class couple--the wife is a librarian, the husband a radio journalist--who warned that merely granting the interview, if discovered, would incur their beheading. Contaminated drinking water made Amman, their baby son sick. His two older brothers cannot play outside for fear of kidnapping. The father has to lie about his job because reporters are targeted for violence.
Why do they stay in Baghdad? "If I have enough money, tomorrow I will get my family out of Iraq."
BOOKNOTES NBC's White House correspondent David Gregory made his own anchor Brian Williams a key participant in his behind-the-scenes story of George Bush's presidency. He covered the highlights from Robert Draper's new book on Bush Dead Certain by airing soundbites of Williams' interview with Draper on the MSNBC cable news channel. Gregory included "gossipy" bits about Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Harriet Miers and Colin Powell. The President himself "is not one for introspection" as Gregory put it, so Draper speculated on his younger years as a heavy drinker, paraphrasing his conversation with First Lady Laura: "George pretty much does everything to excess. Now, in a way, his substitute addiction is exercise."
NOT-SO-SUPER TUESDAY The week's other major political book is Giving on the virtues of public service by Bill Clinton. ABC's Andrea Mitchell spent little time on the former President's book tour. Instead she cited it as an example of the formidable "Clinton media machine" which included the candidate Hillary's appearance on The Late Show with CBS' David Letterman. "Constitutionally he could be a Vice-Presidential candidate, could he?" "Apparently not." "Apparently not?" No--and, believe me, he looked into that."
Following the major changes in the Presidential primary calendar, with major states like California, New York, Texas and Florida voting in early February, ABC reminded us that New Hampshire and Iowa will still have disproportionate clout. George Stephanopoulos (no link) told us that horse-race insiders believe that if a favorite sweeps both contests "they are not going to be able to be stopped" in the subsequent megastates. Jake Tapper (subscription required) filed from New Hampshire, "a state that loves underdogs." It is small enough, he reminded us, that a candidate can win "not so much running TV ads but by coming here and meeting the voters in person." It is also less partisan than other states, allowing independents to vote in either primary. In Des Moines, Kate Snow (at the tail of the Tapper videostream) characterized caucusgoers as "over 50; they are white; they are well educated; they are not all farmers." While national polls have Rudolph Giuliani and Hillary Rodham Clinton as each party's frontrunner, Snow noted that Mitt Romney and John Edwards are in the lead in Iowa.
ANIMAL KINGDOM Yesterday, ABC's John Berman (subscription required) looked into whether global warming will make severe Atlantic Ocean hurricanes more frequent. Now NBC's Ian Williams looks at the impact on the land in Australia. Wildlife habitats there are already stressed by drought and fires. Prolonged climate change could force ecosystems to relocate permanently. As a consequence a conservancy named Bush Heritage has purchased a continuous 1,700-mile corridor of wilderness along Australia's Pacific coastline that will allow species to migrate without having to overcome manmade obstacles as their habitats change. And besides the environmental explanation, Williams' video contained plenty of pictures of kangaroos and eagles, dingos and emus, wallabies and wombats.
FLIGHT UNPLAN As for the day's major breaking news, NBC's George Lewis and ABC's Lisa Stark both worried about Steve Fossett, the circumnavigating balloonist, solo aviator, mountaineer and long-distance swimmer. His latest adventure involved scouting salt flats in the Nevada desert to find a site where he could try to break the world land speed record. He set off on Monday morning alone in a single-engine propeller plane and has not been seen since. "He is no stranger to close calls with death," mused NBC's Lewis; ABC's Stark talked to Fossett's friends and found them "hoping this is just another challenge he will overcome."
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: Hurricane Felix made landfall in Nicaragua…a Pacific Ocean storm, Hurricane Henriette, simultaneously hit Baja California…crossover automobile and pick-up truck sales rebounded at General Motors…suicide bombers attacked Pakistan's intelligence services in Rawalpindi…another toy recall for lead paint imports from China will be announced by Mattel.
The news hook for the special focus on the Iraq War is the kickoff next week of the Congressional debate about the future of US troop deployments. That debate will start with the testimony of the military and diplomatic leaders in Baghdad, Gen David Petraeus and Amb Ryan Crocker. Not only did CBS' Couric included her questions to the general in her Road Ahead feature from Fallujah, ABC's Martha Raddatz also profiled Petraeus. Raddatz reminded us that if Petraeus' testimony turns out to be optimistic--he calls it his Kodak moment--it may say more about his demeanor than the facts on the ground: "He always manages to paint a hopeful picture," she observed, showing his cheery soundbites as a two-star general in 2004 and with three stars in 2005. Raddatz pointed out to Petraeus that a withdrawal of 30,000-or-so US troops is bound to begin soon, for reasons of logistics not strategy: "You calculations are about right," he agreed.
CBS filed a pair of Road Ahead reports on the war itself--Couric from al-Anbar and Lara Logan from Basra. Couric introduced us to Sheikh Saddoun al-Bouissa--"the powerful tribal leaders of al-Anbar Province are really the heads of large extended families"--who switched sides after 30 members of his clan were killed by his former allies in al-Qaeda. Now the tribal militias are being armed and trained by the US military instead as the sheikhs made "joining Iraqi security forces an honorable choice." Sheikh al-Bouissa told Couric that he wants US aid "until we finish al-Qaeda," not indefinitely. Couric did not preview what the politics of these Sunni sheikhs towards the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad would then be.
CBS' Logan showed us British troops leave Basra Palace downtown to relocate to an airfield on the outskirts. "The British insist their withdrawal to a single base outside Basra is not a retreat," Logan reported skeptically. She argued that "Shiite militias, battling each other for power, dominate this wealthy province" and that their "relentless attacks have succeeded" in driving British patrols off the streets. Even Mohammed al-Waili, the Governor of Basra, told her that his own police force had been infiltrated by rival militias. Teheran, Logan added, is "playing a huge role in Basra. There is no question that Iran is backing all of the militias in the south."
NON-GOVERNMENT Couric's second report on CBS' Road Ahead looked at the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. She was not impressed. She ticked off the lack of an army and police force to provide security, the lack of an agreement on the distribution of oil revenues, its inability to provide basic services to citizens, and the boycott of al-Maliki by almost half of the members of his cabinet. Couric flat out contradicted a major talking point of the Bush Administration: this "national unity government is neither," by which she, presumably, meant it is neither national nor united. Perhaps it is not even the third thing--a government.
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS Couric ended her first Road Ahead day with human interest. How does a Baghdad family survive the summer's 113F heat without electricity for air conditioning? "A living hell," Couric called it. "A good day simply means the kitchen faucet turns on." She profiled a middle class couple--the wife is a librarian, the husband a radio journalist--who warned that merely granting the interview, if discovered, would incur their beheading. Contaminated drinking water made Amman, their baby son sick. His two older brothers cannot play outside for fear of kidnapping. The father has to lie about his job because reporters are targeted for violence.
Why do they stay in Baghdad? "If I have enough money, tomorrow I will get my family out of Iraq."
BOOKNOTES NBC's White House correspondent David Gregory made his own anchor Brian Williams a key participant in his behind-the-scenes story of George Bush's presidency. He covered the highlights from Robert Draper's new book on Bush Dead Certain by airing soundbites of Williams' interview with Draper on the MSNBC cable news channel. Gregory included "gossipy" bits about Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Harriet Miers and Colin Powell. The President himself "is not one for introspection" as Gregory put it, so Draper speculated on his younger years as a heavy drinker, paraphrasing his conversation with First Lady Laura: "George pretty much does everything to excess. Now, in a way, his substitute addiction is exercise."
NOT-SO-SUPER TUESDAY The week's other major political book is Giving on the virtues of public service by Bill Clinton. ABC's Andrea Mitchell spent little time on the former President's book tour. Instead she cited it as an example of the formidable "Clinton media machine" which included the candidate Hillary's appearance on The Late Show with CBS' David Letterman. "Constitutionally he could be a Vice-Presidential candidate, could he?" "Apparently not." "Apparently not?" No--and, believe me, he looked into that."
Following the major changes in the Presidential primary calendar, with major states like California, New York, Texas and Florida voting in early February, ABC reminded us that New Hampshire and Iowa will still have disproportionate clout. George Stephanopoulos (no link) told us that horse-race insiders believe that if a favorite sweeps both contests "they are not going to be able to be stopped" in the subsequent megastates. Jake Tapper (subscription required) filed from New Hampshire, "a state that loves underdogs." It is small enough, he reminded us, that a candidate can win "not so much running TV ads but by coming here and meeting the voters in person." It is also less partisan than other states, allowing independents to vote in either primary. In Des Moines, Kate Snow (at the tail of the Tapper videostream) characterized caucusgoers as "over 50; they are white; they are well educated; they are not all farmers." While national polls have Rudolph Giuliani and Hillary Rodham Clinton as each party's frontrunner, Snow noted that Mitt Romney and John Edwards are in the lead in Iowa.
ANIMAL KINGDOM Yesterday, ABC's John Berman (subscription required) looked into whether global warming will make severe Atlantic Ocean hurricanes more frequent. Now NBC's Ian Williams looks at the impact on the land in Australia. Wildlife habitats there are already stressed by drought and fires. Prolonged climate change could force ecosystems to relocate permanently. As a consequence a conservancy named Bush Heritage has purchased a continuous 1,700-mile corridor of wilderness along Australia's Pacific coastline that will allow species to migrate without having to overcome manmade obstacles as their habitats change. And besides the environmental explanation, Williams' video contained plenty of pictures of kangaroos and eagles, dingos and emus, wallabies and wombats.
FLIGHT UNPLAN As for the day's major breaking news, NBC's George Lewis and ABC's Lisa Stark both worried about Steve Fossett, the circumnavigating balloonist, solo aviator, mountaineer and long-distance swimmer. His latest adventure involved scouting salt flats in the Nevada desert to find a site where he could try to break the world land speed record. He set off on Monday morning alone in a single-engine propeller plane and has not been seen since. "He is no stranger to close calls with death," mused NBC's Lewis; ABC's Stark talked to Fossett's friends and found them "hoping this is just another challenge he will overcome."
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: Hurricane Felix made landfall in Nicaragua…a Pacific Ocean storm, Hurricane Henriette, simultaneously hit Baja California…crossover automobile and pick-up truck sales rebounded at General Motors…suicide bombers attacked Pakistan's intelligence services in Rawalpindi…another toy recall for lead paint imports from China will be announced by Mattel.
