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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 23, 2007
Thanksgiving festivities continued on both ABC and CBS as each network pre-empted its newscast for live coverage of college football. It is a shame because the Story of the Day was a natural. The cruise ship Explorer hit an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean off the South Shetland Island and keeled over. All 154 on board had to abandon ship and were rescued from lifeboats six hours later.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 23, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
| click to play | story | angle | reporter | dateline | |
| NBC | Cruise liner founders on Antarctic iceberg | MV Explorer keels over, rescue all 154 on board | Dawna Friesen | London |
| NBC | Christmas holiday shopping season previewed | Retailers' traditional Black Friday kick-off | Carl Quintanilla | New York State |
| NBC | Cyclone in Bay of Bengal blasts Bangladesh | Storm contaminates coastal potable water supply | Ian Williams | Bangladesh |
| NBC | Iraq: many women are educated and emancipated | Violent sexist backlash by Islamists in Basra | Tom Aspell | Baghdad |
| NBC | President Bush recess appointments blocked | Senate stages one-man procedural sessions | John Yang | White House |
NEWS TAKES A HOLIDAY Thanksgiving festivities continued on both ABC and CBS as each network pre-empted its newscast for live coverage of college football. It is a shame because the Story of the Day was a natural. The cruise ship Explorer hit an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean off the South Shetland Island and keeled over. All 154 on board had to abandon ship and were rescued from lifeboats six hours later.
NBC's Dawna Friesen narrated the plight of the 40-year-old Explorer from London. The crew had to halt its efforts to "pump out water flooding in through a fist-sized hole" when the ship's power failed. No one was injured, no frostbite, not even any hypothermia. "Antarctica is increasingly popular with tourists" Friesen observed, showing some dazzling sights: "Breathtaking yes but treacherous too."
IN THE BLACK Without such maritime excitement, the staple news story for the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, the traditional first day of the Christmas shopping season, when retailing lore has it that accounts switch from red debt to black profits. True to form, NBC had Carl Quintanilla, of its financial sibling network CNBC, stationed at the Woodbury Common outlet mall in the New York suburbs. He properly put the hype in proportion: "This weekend accounts for about 10% of all holiday sales. The most critical period is still those last ten days before Christmas." NBC's Mark Mullen followed up from the toy manufacturing zone in China where he found a company called STR with a booming business. It is an independent American-owned testing laboratory whose clients include "big US toy companies, major retailers, even fast food restaurants who are giving away toys as part of a promotion"--all hiring STR technicians to make sure those toys have got the lead out.
DIRTY WATER, WOUNDED WOMEN NBC's Ian Williams filed for the fourth time this week on the dreadful plight of Bangladeshi after Cyclone Sidr. Monday he surveyed the damage; Wednesday he covered the six-day wait for aid; Thursday (no link) he profiled a relief delivery organizer. Now he concentrates on the contaminated lakes and ponds, the only supply of water. "Medical teams are inundated with waterborne disease cases." He showed us thirsty villagers "scramble for water purification tablets" even as doctors warned "they may not be effective because the water is so filthy."
Also from overseas, NBC's Tom Aspell rounded out a week of encouraging news from Iraq with a cautionary antidote. So far we have been told about the improving security in the Baghdad neighborhoods of Dora (The New York Times' Damien Cave for NBC), Adamiyah (CBS' Lara Logan) and Ghazaliyah (ABC's Miguel Marquez). ABC's Terry McCarthy has shown us the optimism of Gen Raymond Odierno as he talks to field commanders. Now Aspell turns to the worsening situation for women in the southern city of Basra. In the past five months, 50 women have been murdered as "Shiite militiamen and religious zealots are using Islam to tighten their control." The women's offenses include going outside without a veil, wearing cosmetics, even holding a profession. "Iraqi women were once the most emancipated in the Arab World," Aspell lamented.
LONELY DAYS For political fun to round out the week, NBC's John Yang offered us the lonely figure of Byron Dorgan, the Democratic senator from North Dakota. "Who said Congress cannot act quickly and efficiently?" Yang joked as Webb conducted an entire day of business singlehandedly in all of 27 seconds. Yang explained the parliamentary maneuver to prevent President George Bush from exercising his Constitutional power "to temporarily fill vacancies on his own when the Senate is in recess." That 27-second day is enough to keep the world's most deliberative body in session. "There may be more lonely days for Democratic senators over the Christmas holidays," Yang predicted.
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 influenza medicines Tamiflu and Relenza may have harmful psychiatric side effects on children…disgraced sprinter Marion Jones, the confessed cheat, may have to refund $700,000 in track and field prize money…Russia now has more billionaires in its population than any other single country.
NBC's Dawna Friesen narrated the plight of the 40-year-old Explorer from London. The crew had to halt its efforts to "pump out water flooding in through a fist-sized hole" when the ship's power failed. No one was injured, no frostbite, not even any hypothermia. "Antarctica is increasingly popular with tourists" Friesen observed, showing some dazzling sights: "Breathtaking yes but treacherous too."
IN THE BLACK Without such maritime excitement, the staple news story for the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, the traditional first day of the Christmas shopping season, when retailing lore has it that accounts switch from red debt to black profits. True to form, NBC had Carl Quintanilla, of its financial sibling network CNBC, stationed at the Woodbury Common outlet mall in the New York suburbs. He properly put the hype in proportion: "This weekend accounts for about 10% of all holiday sales. The most critical period is still those last ten days before Christmas." NBC's Mark Mullen followed up from the toy manufacturing zone in China where he found a company called STR with a booming business. It is an independent American-owned testing laboratory whose clients include "big US toy companies, major retailers, even fast food restaurants who are giving away toys as part of a promotion"--all hiring STR technicians to make sure those toys have got the lead out.
DIRTY WATER, WOUNDED WOMEN NBC's Ian Williams filed for the fourth time this week on the dreadful plight of Bangladeshi after Cyclone Sidr. Monday he surveyed the damage; Wednesday he covered the six-day wait for aid; Thursday (no link) he profiled a relief delivery organizer. Now he concentrates on the contaminated lakes and ponds, the only supply of water. "Medical teams are inundated with waterborne disease cases." He showed us thirsty villagers "scramble for water purification tablets" even as doctors warned "they may not be effective because the water is so filthy."
Also from overseas, NBC's Tom Aspell rounded out a week of encouraging news from Iraq with a cautionary antidote. So far we have been told about the improving security in the Baghdad neighborhoods of Dora (The New York Times' Damien Cave for NBC), Adamiyah (CBS' Lara Logan) and Ghazaliyah (ABC's Miguel Marquez). ABC's Terry McCarthy has shown us the optimism of Gen Raymond Odierno as he talks to field commanders. Now Aspell turns to the worsening situation for women in the southern city of Basra. In the past five months, 50 women have been murdered as "Shiite militiamen and religious zealots are using Islam to tighten their control." The women's offenses include going outside without a veil, wearing cosmetics, even holding a profession. "Iraqi women were once the most emancipated in the Arab World," Aspell lamented.
LONELY DAYS For political fun to round out the week, NBC's John Yang offered us the lonely figure of Byron Dorgan, the Democratic senator from North Dakota. "Who said Congress cannot act quickly and efficiently?" Yang joked as Webb conducted an entire day of business singlehandedly in all of 27 seconds. Yang explained the parliamentary maneuver to prevent President George Bush from exercising his Constitutional power "to temporarily fill vacancies on his own when the Senate is in recess." That 27-second day is enough to keep the world's most deliberative body in session. "There may be more lonely days for Democratic senators over the Christmas holidays," Yang predicted.
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 influenza medicines Tamiflu and Relenza may have harmful psychiatric side effects on children…disgraced sprinter Marion Jones, the confessed cheat, may have to refund $700,000 in track and field prize money…Russia now has more billionaires in its population than any other single country.
