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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JANUARY 22, 2007
Democratic Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted her frontrunner status by demonstrating her clout in setting the news agenda. She obtained interviews on all three network newscasts: taped on CBS and NBC, live on ABC. Even though she made the news of her announcement of her candidacy on Saturday, two days later it was still newsworthy enough to be Story of the Day.
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MEET HILLARY CLINTON Democratic Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted her frontrunner status by demonstrating her clout in setting the news agenda. She obtained interviews on all three network newscasts: taped on CBS and NBC, live on ABC. Even though she made the news of her announcement of her candidacy on Saturday, two days later it was still newsworthy enough to be Story of the Day.
Last month when her rival John Edwards announced, only NBC assigned a reporter, Chip Reid, to cover it. Last Tuesday, when rival Barack Obama announced, he secured coverage from correspondents (ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required), CBS' Gloria Borger and NBC's Reid) but not the attention of the network anchors. Rodham Clinton warranted the full treatment.
A talking point she articulated in two of the interviews revealed what her campaign must feel is the main weakness of her candidacy, namely that so many voters are so familiar with her that those who dislike her do not have an open mind--or as CBS' Katie Couric put it, "another Clinton Administration, even if it is another Clinton, will feel eerily like Groundhog Day." Thus Rodham Clinton laughed and recapitulated the same phrase to CBS and NBC: "I am probably the most famous woman you do not really know."
CBS' Borger summed up the dilemma: she "knows very well that she is well known and that she comes with an awful lot of political baggage."
To NBC's Brian Williams, Rodham Clinton explained that the timing of her announcement was calculated: she wanted to throw her hat in the ring immediately before tomorrow's State of the Union speech to exaggerate the contrast between herself and President George Bush.
Rodham Clinton was fulsome in her praise of her rival Obama. On CBS she called him "extraordinarily talented" and on NBC "phenomenally accomplished," yet when ABC's Charles Gibson asked her directly whether Obama was qualified to be President, she demurred, settling on "a terrific guy."
THE PRE-PRIMARY SEASON When NBC's David Gregory called the start of the campaign "breathtakingly early" with the rush for cash being "the first test of a candidate's viability," ABC's Tapper (subscription required) explained the logistics. The traditional start of the primary season--Iowa and New Hampshire--has been crowded by adding Nevada and South Carolina. "What was typically a four-or-five-month process has been condensed to two or three weeks." Thus there will no longer be a window of opportunity for the traditional method of organizing a campaign--leveraging momentum gained from the first two to attract funds and support for subsequent contests. All candidates must now have operations in place in all states, so all are raising funds and hiring staffers now.
DEPRESSED STATE On the eve of the President's State of the Union speech, both CBS and NBC conducted polls of his approval rating. NBC's 35% was bad but CBS' 28% was abysmal.
Tim Russert detailed NBC poll results: voters see the President as suffering a long-term setback and want Congress to seize the policy initiative from the White House. Majorities foresee continued instability in Iraq and want Bush to abide by any resolution in opposition to a troop build-up there. However, only 41% supported of cut-off of funding for the war with 52% opposed.
CBS' poll showed higher levels of support for a cut-off of funds than NBC's--50% do not want to pay for the build-up--and Jim Axelrod saw former Republican Armed Services Committee chairman Sen John Warner join the opposition to the President's Iraq policy.
MARKET TARGETS The working-class Shiite market called Bab al-Sharqi--nicknamed "the thieves' market," according to NBC's Mike Boettcher--was the target of the latest sectarian bomb attacks that killed more than 80. ABC's Dan Harris (subscription required) told us that Sunni bombings have escalated in the last week. Calling the Sunni squads "media-savvy," Harris speculated that they may be timing attacks to coincide with the State of the Union.
CBS' Lara Logan toured Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Dora neighborhood where its market has been used "as a dumping ground for execution victims." Despite USArmy patrols based there round the clock to keep the peace, only one tenth of its stores and businesses are still in operation: "Their owners have seen US efforts fail twice here in the last six months."
Boettcher also recapped, complete with an NBC News animation, Saturday's raid by militiamen disguised as GIs that killed all five members of a USArmy civil affairs team in Karbala.
BIG MEN ON CAMPUS Before he was killed last year, the Jordanian terrorist leader abu-Mussab al-Zarqawi was suspected by the Defense Intelligence Agency of trying to organize a sabotage attack inside the United States. ABC's Pierre Thomas reported on plot paperwork "in its early stages" that intended to infiltrate followers into the US as fake students. Thomas told us that since the same visa loophole was used in 2001 by September 11th hijackers, colleges are required to be much stricter in tracking foreign enrollees.
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM Is the volume of spam in your e-mail inbox getting greater again? NBC's Rehema Ellis suspects it is. Spammers have worked out how to elude software filters. Ellis reported that the daily volume of spam doubled to 60bn messages in 2006. She outlined three new techniques for evading blockers: spam messages come in the form of pictures rather than text; they are embedded in quotations from bestselling books; and they use headlines from actual news stories.
SCAVENGE The ancient law of the treasure hunt was on display on the northern coast of the English Channel as cargo from a grounded container ship began washing ashore. CBS' Sheila MacVicar inspected the "beachcombing bonanza"--car parts, diapers, dog food, motorcycles. "There was little the ship was not carrying…the young, the old, even the slightly embarrassed joined in."
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: the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer will lay off 10,000 workers…the reputed second-in-command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri released a videotape denouncing Bush's troop build-up plan for Iraq…other videotape purports to show the downing of a USArmy Blackhawk helicopter in Iraq over the weekend that killed 12.
Last month when her rival John Edwards announced, only NBC assigned a reporter, Chip Reid, to cover it. Last Tuesday, when rival Barack Obama announced, he secured coverage from correspondents (ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required), CBS' Gloria Borger and NBC's Reid) but not the attention of the network anchors. Rodham Clinton warranted the full treatment.
A talking point she articulated in two of the interviews revealed what her campaign must feel is the main weakness of her candidacy, namely that so many voters are so familiar with her that those who dislike her do not have an open mind--or as CBS' Katie Couric put it, "another Clinton Administration, even if it is another Clinton, will feel eerily like Groundhog Day." Thus Rodham Clinton laughed and recapitulated the same phrase to CBS and NBC: "I am probably the most famous woman you do not really know."
CBS' Borger summed up the dilemma: she "knows very well that she is well known and that she comes with an awful lot of political baggage."
To NBC's Brian Williams, Rodham Clinton explained that the timing of her announcement was calculated: she wanted to throw her hat in the ring immediately before tomorrow's State of the Union speech to exaggerate the contrast between herself and President George Bush.
Rodham Clinton was fulsome in her praise of her rival Obama. On CBS she called him "extraordinarily talented" and on NBC "phenomenally accomplished," yet when ABC's Charles Gibson asked her directly whether Obama was qualified to be President, she demurred, settling on "a terrific guy."
THE PRE-PRIMARY SEASON When NBC's David Gregory called the start of the campaign "breathtakingly early" with the rush for cash being "the first test of a candidate's viability," ABC's Tapper (subscription required) explained the logistics. The traditional start of the primary season--Iowa and New Hampshire--has been crowded by adding Nevada and South Carolina. "What was typically a four-or-five-month process has been condensed to two or three weeks." Thus there will no longer be a window of opportunity for the traditional method of organizing a campaign--leveraging momentum gained from the first two to attract funds and support for subsequent contests. All candidates must now have operations in place in all states, so all are raising funds and hiring staffers now.
DEPRESSED STATE On the eve of the President's State of the Union speech, both CBS and NBC conducted polls of his approval rating. NBC's 35% was bad but CBS' 28% was abysmal.
Tim Russert detailed NBC poll results: voters see the President as suffering a long-term setback and want Congress to seize the policy initiative from the White House. Majorities foresee continued instability in Iraq and want Bush to abide by any resolution in opposition to a troop build-up there. However, only 41% supported of cut-off of funding for the war with 52% opposed.
CBS' poll showed higher levels of support for a cut-off of funds than NBC's--50% do not want to pay for the build-up--and Jim Axelrod saw former Republican Armed Services Committee chairman Sen John Warner join the opposition to the President's Iraq policy.
MARKET TARGETS The working-class Shiite market called Bab al-Sharqi--nicknamed "the thieves' market," according to NBC's Mike Boettcher--was the target of the latest sectarian bomb attacks that killed more than 80. ABC's Dan Harris (subscription required) told us that Sunni bombings have escalated in the last week. Calling the Sunni squads "media-savvy," Harris speculated that they may be timing attacks to coincide with the State of the Union.
CBS' Lara Logan toured Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Dora neighborhood where its market has been used "as a dumping ground for execution victims." Despite USArmy patrols based there round the clock to keep the peace, only one tenth of its stores and businesses are still in operation: "Their owners have seen US efforts fail twice here in the last six months."
Boettcher also recapped, complete with an NBC News animation, Saturday's raid by militiamen disguised as GIs that killed all five members of a USArmy civil affairs team in Karbala.
BIG MEN ON CAMPUS Before he was killed last year, the Jordanian terrorist leader abu-Mussab al-Zarqawi was suspected by the Defense Intelligence Agency of trying to organize a sabotage attack inside the United States. ABC's Pierre Thomas reported on plot paperwork "in its early stages" that intended to infiltrate followers into the US as fake students. Thomas told us that since the same visa loophole was used in 2001 by September 11th hijackers, colleges are required to be much stricter in tracking foreign enrollees.
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM Is the volume of spam in your e-mail inbox getting greater again? NBC's Rehema Ellis suspects it is. Spammers have worked out how to elude software filters. Ellis reported that the daily volume of spam doubled to 60bn messages in 2006. She outlined three new techniques for evading blockers: spam messages come in the form of pictures rather than text; they are embedded in quotations from bestselling books; and they use headlines from actual news stories.
SCAVENGE The ancient law of the treasure hunt was on display on the northern coast of the English Channel as cargo from a grounded container ship began washing ashore. CBS' Sheila MacVicar inspected the "beachcombing bonanza"--car parts, diapers, dog food, motorcycles. "There was little the ship was not carrying…the young, the old, even the slightly embarrassed joined in."
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: the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer will lay off 10,000 workers…the reputed second-in-command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri released a videotape denouncing Bush's troop build-up plan for Iraq…other videotape purports to show the downing of a USArmy Blackhawk helicopter in Iraq over the weekend that killed 12.
