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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM SEPTEMBER 06, 2007
A light day of news saw not a single story warrant coverage from reporters on all three newscasts. NBC led with the economy--escalating foreclosures in the real estate housing market. ABC led with the War on Terrorism as Osama bin Laden is expected to deliver a videotape message. The lull allowed anchors to go on the road: ABC's Charles Gibson took a mundane trip to Kansas City; CBS' Katie Couric continued her Road Ahead adventure, moving from Baghdad to Damascus. Couric's interview with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad took more time than any other single development, so became the Story of the Day.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR SEPTEMBER 06, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
ASSAD REASSURES COURIC A light day of news saw not a single story warrant coverage from reporters on all three newscasts. NBC led with the economy--escalating foreclosures in the real estate housing market. ABC led with the War on Terrorism as Osama bin Laden is expected to deliver a videotape message. The lull allowed anchors to go on the road: ABC's Charles Gibson took a mundane trip to Kansas City; CBS' Katie Couric continued her Road Ahead adventure, moving from Baghdad to Damascus. Couric's interview with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad took more time than any other single development, so became the Story of the Day.
Couric's sit-down with al-Assad sported an Exclusive label, just as Diane Sawyer's (subscription required) interview with him for ABC had done in February--Ann Curry gained similar access for NBC in May but had the restraint not to claim exclusivity. Couric reminded us that Syria has a "reputation as a rogue state" and asserted that Damascus is a transit point for "hundreds of al-Qaeda foreign fighters recruited throughout the Arab World" who are "escorted across the Iraq border to become human bombs." Her "hundreds" number seems high since many suicide bombers in Iraq are local citizens and many others must have crossed from elsewhere but she offered no source to substantiate her statistic.
In response, the soft-spoken, slightly lisping President al-Assad presented a perfect picture of rational calm. Of course Syria wants Iraq to be stable and democratic: "Chaos is contagious. If we have chaos in Iraq this means it will work against our interests." Of course Syria tries to stop terrorist infiltration of Iraq: "We caught many coming from the airport but most of them, they do not come through the airport, they come through illegal borders, and we caught them." Of course Syria wants an end to the military occupation of Iraq: "Definitely yes--as a principle. How and when? That is an Iraqi issue."
Unable to ruffle the president in her one-on-one, Couric's skepticism was confined to her set-up piece. She called al-Assad "one of the region's greatest jugglers" with Damascus acting as the "hub" where he offers refuge and support for "a diverse mix of terror organizations blacklisted by the US government." The PFLP, Hezbollah, Hamas…in all Couric counted 15 factions, secular and fundamentalist, Sunni and Shiite: "Damascus is a safe haven where extremist leaders are granted diplomatic immunity along with channels for arms smuggling and logistical support."
CBS' Syria coverage was not all scary, however. Couric closed with a travelogue feature from the village of Malula in the Qalamoun Mountains were the Christian locals speak ancient Aramaic, the vernacular dialect of Hebrew that Jesus of Nazareth would have used. She showed us the village priest recite "the Lord's Prayer in the language of Jesus."
GRECIAN FORMULA ABC's lead by Brian Ross was in the form of Coming Attractions. He relayed the message from the Website al-Sahab, "the al-Qaeda propaganda arm" that "the lion, the sheikh Osama bin Laden will have a visual message." His videotape would mark "the blessed anniversary of the Invasion of Manhattan," the latest jargon for the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Apart from that, Ross' report was thin on details--except for the "curious" picture of bin Laden with a "very dark black beard" replacing the gray look from three years ago. NBC's Pete Williams, too, noted the touchup--and added that the exiled fugitive also "appears to have gained some weight."
DIRTY FACES As CBS' Couric moved on from Iraq, her colleague Lara Logan remained in Baghdad, filing an Exclusive profile of local special operations commandos, "Iraq's version of America's top counterterrorism unit Delta Force," trained by USArmy Green Berets and USNavy SEALs. Last year the unit was condemned as the "Dirty Squad" by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for its raids against Shiite militias in Baghdad. Since then, Sadr City has withdrawn its support for al-Maliki and "in the middle of constantly shifting alliances" the prime minister now deploys the squad in raids against his former allies.
ABC also filed an Exclusive from Baghdad, on the "huge increase in the number of juvenile detainees" held as prisoners of war. The Geneva Conventions forbade Martha Raddatz from showing their faces but there are 800 boys, aged 11 to 17, "illiterate, impoverished and unsupervised" who have been rounded up as child guerrilla warriors. "The military is required by international law to release juveniles after one year," so their wardens have to rush to indoctrinate them against violence and to convert them to soccer.
TELEVISION POLITICS CBS was too busy in Syria and Iraq to assign a reporter to Fred Thompson's official entry into the Presidential race, but both ABC and NBC covered the announcement by the Tennessee Republican. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, of course, included a clip from her own network's Tonight Show, where he appeared instead of joining a Fox News Channel debate in New Hampshire: "GOP rivals accused him of running away." When Thompson unveiled his slogan Commonsense Conservative on the hustings in Iowa, ABC's Jake Tapper noted that the actor and senator, "who has also served as a lawyer and a lobbyist, is not universally beloved by the right."
As Thompson seeks to parlay his Law & Order persona into campaign appeal, NBC's Andrea Mitchell found a yet more powerful television entry into Campaign 2008: Oprah Winfrey, recently ranked the second-most admired woman in America. "Can the billionaire entertainer and richest woman in America turn her magic into votes for Barack Obama?" Mitchell explained why Winfrey's endorsement of Obama, her hometown senator, could be so important in the Democratic primary: "She reaches 8.5m viewers each day, mostly women, exactly the voters now largely supporting Hillary Clinton." By the way, Mitchell closed by pointing out who beat out Winfrey as America's first-most admired woman. Just guess.
SUN BELT BUST NBC's lead was filed by Diana Olick, the real estate reporter from the network's sibling business channel, CNBC. Olick examined statistics from the second quarter that showed a 50% increase in home mortgage foreclosures over the same period in 2006. Her reassuring message was that the crisis is regional not national--reassuring, that is, unless you happen to be in California, Nevada, Arizona or Florida, states that account for nearly one third of all the problems.
OBSTREPEROUS AND DEPRESSED What was the local story in Kansas City that anchor Charles Gibson decided was worthy of national attention for ABC's A Closer Look? The city's school districts on either side of the state line have gone separate ways: Kansas is keeping the traditional three-tier structure, elementary, middle and high; Missouri keeps young teenagers in "ele-middle" schools all the way to grade eight, with a single homeroom teacher handling the entire curriculum rather than switching classes and teachers for each subject. "Middle schoolers, normally an obstreperous lot, calm down when they can be role models for the younger kids," was how Gibson explained the rationale of Superintendent Anthony Amato.
NBC also looked at teenagers, with Tom Costello's story on the possible unintended--and tragic--consequence of the FDA's new label on anti-depressant pills like Zoloft. It warns that some young patients can suffer from suicidal thoughts as a side-effect. After the label was added, the prescription of anti-depressants "dropped dramatically"--and the suicide rate increased. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in the 14 years before the label was added suicides declined by 28%, in the two years after, the rate among girls increased by 76%. Psychiatrist Adelaide Robb blamed the withdrawal of pharmaceutical treatment: "One of the bad outcomes from depression is death by suicide."
POP STAR Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti died in Italy of pancreatic cancer, aged 71. In his obituary, ABC's Bill Blakemore (subscription required) called him "like opera itself, bigger than life" with a "soaring voice." Blakemore credited Pavarotti with attracting whole new global audiences to his art: "When he asked Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras to join him in The Three Tenors it made opera part of pop culture."
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: a federal court upheld Internet privacy against provisions of the Patriot Act…Syria accused Israel of violating its airspace along the Mediterranean coast…Apple reduced the price of its iPhone--and offered a rebate to current users who bought at a higher price.
Couric's sit-down with al-Assad sported an Exclusive label, just as Diane Sawyer's (subscription required) interview with him for ABC had done in February--Ann Curry gained similar access for NBC in May but had the restraint not to claim exclusivity. Couric reminded us that Syria has a "reputation as a rogue state" and asserted that Damascus is a transit point for "hundreds of al-Qaeda foreign fighters recruited throughout the Arab World" who are "escorted across the Iraq border to become human bombs." Her "hundreds" number seems high since many suicide bombers in Iraq are local citizens and many others must have crossed from elsewhere but she offered no source to substantiate her statistic.
In response, the soft-spoken, slightly lisping President al-Assad presented a perfect picture of rational calm. Of course Syria wants Iraq to be stable and democratic: "Chaos is contagious. If we have chaos in Iraq this means it will work against our interests." Of course Syria tries to stop terrorist infiltration of Iraq: "We caught many coming from the airport but most of them, they do not come through the airport, they come through illegal borders, and we caught them." Of course Syria wants an end to the military occupation of Iraq: "Definitely yes--as a principle. How and when? That is an Iraqi issue."
Unable to ruffle the president in her one-on-one, Couric's skepticism was confined to her set-up piece. She called al-Assad "one of the region's greatest jugglers" with Damascus acting as the "hub" where he offers refuge and support for "a diverse mix of terror organizations blacklisted by the US government." The PFLP, Hezbollah, Hamas…in all Couric counted 15 factions, secular and fundamentalist, Sunni and Shiite: "Damascus is a safe haven where extremist leaders are granted diplomatic immunity along with channels for arms smuggling and logistical support."
CBS' Syria coverage was not all scary, however. Couric closed with a travelogue feature from the village of Malula in the Qalamoun Mountains were the Christian locals speak ancient Aramaic, the vernacular dialect of Hebrew that Jesus of Nazareth would have used. She showed us the village priest recite "the Lord's Prayer in the language of Jesus."
GRECIAN FORMULA ABC's lead by Brian Ross was in the form of Coming Attractions. He relayed the message from the Website al-Sahab, "the al-Qaeda propaganda arm" that "the lion, the sheikh Osama bin Laden will have a visual message." His videotape would mark "the blessed anniversary of the Invasion of Manhattan," the latest jargon for the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Apart from that, Ross' report was thin on details--except for the "curious" picture of bin Laden with a "very dark black beard" replacing the gray look from three years ago. NBC's Pete Williams, too, noted the touchup--and added that the exiled fugitive also "appears to have gained some weight."
DIRTY FACES As CBS' Couric moved on from Iraq, her colleague Lara Logan remained in Baghdad, filing an Exclusive profile of local special operations commandos, "Iraq's version of America's top counterterrorism unit Delta Force," trained by USArmy Green Berets and USNavy SEALs. Last year the unit was condemned as the "Dirty Squad" by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for its raids against Shiite militias in Baghdad. Since then, Sadr City has withdrawn its support for al-Maliki and "in the middle of constantly shifting alliances" the prime minister now deploys the squad in raids against his former allies.
ABC also filed an Exclusive from Baghdad, on the "huge increase in the number of juvenile detainees" held as prisoners of war. The Geneva Conventions forbade Martha Raddatz from showing their faces but there are 800 boys, aged 11 to 17, "illiterate, impoverished and unsupervised" who have been rounded up as child guerrilla warriors. "The military is required by international law to release juveniles after one year," so their wardens have to rush to indoctrinate them against violence and to convert them to soccer.
TELEVISION POLITICS CBS was too busy in Syria and Iraq to assign a reporter to Fred Thompson's official entry into the Presidential race, but both ABC and NBC covered the announcement by the Tennessee Republican. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, of course, included a clip from her own network's Tonight Show, where he appeared instead of joining a Fox News Channel debate in New Hampshire: "GOP rivals accused him of running away." When Thompson unveiled his slogan Commonsense Conservative on the hustings in Iowa, ABC's Jake Tapper noted that the actor and senator, "who has also served as a lawyer and a lobbyist, is not universally beloved by the right."
As Thompson seeks to parlay his Law & Order persona into campaign appeal, NBC's Andrea Mitchell found a yet more powerful television entry into Campaign 2008: Oprah Winfrey, recently ranked the second-most admired woman in America. "Can the billionaire entertainer and richest woman in America turn her magic into votes for Barack Obama?" Mitchell explained why Winfrey's endorsement of Obama, her hometown senator, could be so important in the Democratic primary: "She reaches 8.5m viewers each day, mostly women, exactly the voters now largely supporting Hillary Clinton." By the way, Mitchell closed by pointing out who beat out Winfrey as America's first-most admired woman. Just guess.
SUN BELT BUST NBC's lead was filed by Diana Olick, the real estate reporter from the network's sibling business channel, CNBC. Olick examined statistics from the second quarter that showed a 50% increase in home mortgage foreclosures over the same period in 2006. Her reassuring message was that the crisis is regional not national--reassuring, that is, unless you happen to be in California, Nevada, Arizona or Florida, states that account for nearly one third of all the problems.
OBSTREPEROUS AND DEPRESSED What was the local story in Kansas City that anchor Charles Gibson decided was worthy of national attention for ABC's A Closer Look? The city's school districts on either side of the state line have gone separate ways: Kansas is keeping the traditional three-tier structure, elementary, middle and high; Missouri keeps young teenagers in "ele-middle" schools all the way to grade eight, with a single homeroom teacher handling the entire curriculum rather than switching classes and teachers for each subject. "Middle schoolers, normally an obstreperous lot, calm down when they can be role models for the younger kids," was how Gibson explained the rationale of Superintendent Anthony Amato.
NBC also looked at teenagers, with Tom Costello's story on the possible unintended--and tragic--consequence of the FDA's new label on anti-depressant pills like Zoloft. It warns that some young patients can suffer from suicidal thoughts as a side-effect. After the label was added, the prescription of anti-depressants "dropped dramatically"--and the suicide rate increased. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in the 14 years before the label was added suicides declined by 28%, in the two years after, the rate among girls increased by 76%. Psychiatrist Adelaide Robb blamed the withdrawal of pharmaceutical treatment: "One of the bad outcomes from depression is death by suicide."
POP STAR Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti died in Italy of pancreatic cancer, aged 71. In his obituary, ABC's Bill Blakemore (subscription required) called him "like opera itself, bigger than life" with a "soaring voice." Blakemore credited Pavarotti with attracting whole new global audiences to his art: "When he asked Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras to join him in The Three Tenors it made opera part of pop culture."
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: a federal court upheld Internet privacy against provisions of the Patriot Act…Syria accused Israel of violating its airspace along the Mediterranean coast…Apple reduced the price of its iPhone--and offered a rebate to current users who bought at a higher price.
