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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JULY 19, 2007
A busy day of news saw each network choose a separate lead story. Breaking news included a milestone on Wall Street, Capitol Hill hearings into post-Katrina bungling by FEMA and exploding infrastructure in midtown Manhattan. The Story of the Day, however, focused on Pentagon outreach on the Iraq War as NBC decided to lead with an emotional speech on the military death toll by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. ABC chose the Dow Jones Industrial Average. CBS, appropriately, picked the FEMA hearings, taking credit for the fact that they were prompted by its own exclusive Investigation two months ago.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JULY 19, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
PICK YOUR OWN HEADLINE A busy day of news saw each network choose a separate lead story. Breaking news included a milestone on Wall Street, Capitol Hill hearings into post-Katrina bungling by FEMA and exploding infrastructure in midtown Manhattan. The Story of the Day, however, focused on Pentagon outreach on the Iraq War as NBC decided to lead with an emotional speech on the military death toll by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. ABC chose the Dow Jones Industrial Average. CBS, appropriately, picked the FEMA hearings, taking credit for the fact that they were prompted by its own exclusive Investigation two months ago.
NBC's selection for its lead was not so much newsworthy as it was evocative. "The strain of the Iraq War has clearly taken its toll on the usually no-nonsense Defense Secretary," Andrea Mitchell observed, as Gates burst into tears while reading a speech in honor of Douglas Zembiec. The USMC major, whose nickname was the Lion of Fallujah, earned a desk job at the Pentagon after winning honors for battlefield heroism in 2004 but volunteered to return for a fourth tour in Iraq, where he was killed two months ago. Secretary Gates recalled writing a letter of condolence to Zembiec's widow. The Pentagon boss "still carries the burden of the war," mused Mitchell, "and the fighting goes on."
Both NBC and ABC covered the teleconference briefings from Baghdad that the Pentagon scheduled for members of Congress. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski judged that "lawmakers appeared unconvinced." Sen Pete Domenici (R-NM), for example, was "more certain than ever" that a troop pullout should get underway. ABC's Jonathan Karl covered the testimony of Amb Ryan Crocker and Gen Ray Odierno. Crocker "acknowledged that the Iraqi government is unlikely to meet the benchmarks set by Congress." Odierno claimed "tangible signs of progress" in Iraq, including the underwhelming assessment that "more than 50% of Baghdad" is now under control." Diplomat Crocker used a single word to describe the atmosphere in Iraq: "Fear."
GONZO GLOBAL The financial reporters at all three networks shared precisely the same explanation for the ebullient mood on Wall Street. Why has the value of the blue chip Industrial Average risen so quickly? CBS' Anthony Mason cited "a global boom that is sending stock prices soaring for multinationals." CNBC's Maria Bartiromo told NBC anchor Brian Willaims that "corporate profits are doing well, not just in the United States, but we are all watching the global economic expansion." For ABC's lead story, John Berman (subscription required) declared that "most of the fuel for this fire is not from home--40% of these companies' profits come from beyond our borders."
In fact, flush times on Wall Street do not necessarily signify general prosperity. ABC's Berman sees "serious jitters about the US economy." Specifically, CBS' Mason listed, "retailers just had their worst month in nearly two years; gas prices are rising; and house prices are falling."
KETEYIAN NAILS PAULISON CBS was given due credit for Armen Keteyian's two-part Investigation in May--here and here--into toxic formaldehyde. The fumes poison the air in the housing trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to 76,000 families evacuated by the floods from Hurricane Katrina almost two years ago. A clip from Keteyian's report was played at the House hearings convened to quiz Director David Paulison about FEMA's failure to test the trailers' safety.
All three networks focused on the internal legal advice Paulison was given not to monitor air quality since to do so "would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue." ABC's David Kerley reported that "only one occupied trailer has even been tested by the government." NBC's Mark Potter relayed FEMA's assurances that "formaldehyde fumes dissipate with time" and in the meantime "they urge residents to air out their trailers by running fans and operating windows and doors." CBS' Keteyian repeated Director Paulison's statement that it is "a priority" to relocate the trailer dwellers. "He did not say how or when."
LETTING OFF STEAM The explosion of a 24-inch diameter steam pipe near New York City's Grand Central Station created a 25-foot crater in the middle of an avenue that swallowed a truck. It killed one woman and injured 40-or-so other people. But was it a big enough story to warrant national coverage beyond the Big Apple? CBS decided that it was, assigning Bianca Solorzano to show us the "scalding geyser of steam and debris shot hundreds of feet into the air."
NBC and ABC disagreed, treating the explosion as nationally newsworthy only inasmuch as it is a symptom of a bigger problem. On ABC's A Closer Look, David Muir stated that the incident raised "new questions about the aging infrastructure beneath the streets, not only in New York City but in other major cities as well." Pumping steam heat underground is a century-old urban system that services 1,000 buildings in New York; Philadelphia's subterranean network of pipes stretches for 30 miles; Boston's for 22 miles. NBC's Ron Allen generalized to all sorts of infrastructure that requires repair and maintenance--highway bridges, sewage pipes, dams and so on--that could cost $1.6tr to fix nationwide.
JUST JUNK "Uranium enrichment"…"Manhattan Project"…"nuclear materials"…these words all buzz with enough portent that when ABC's Pierre Thomas told us about the alleged theft and attempted sale of "highly classified equipment" it seems like a no-brainer that this is worthy of coverage. Upon inspection of the details, the arrest of a former contract worker at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks less of a big deal. "The buyer was an FBI agent. It was a sting," Thomas explained, and the defendant's lawyer called the equipment "junk." NBC's Pete Williams tried to defuse the story by repeating the assurance by the Department of Energy that "nuclear secrets were never in jeopardy." CBS made the correct call, mentioning the sting only in passing.
STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE CBS News conducted a poll on the opinions of women voters about Campaign 2008 and Kelly Wallace reported the results as an analysis of Hillary Rodham Clinton's standing. As Wallace pointed out, in the last three Presidential General Elections, the Democratic candidate attracted the support of the majority of women voters. Wallace's headline finding was that women "overwhelmingly" give Rodham Clinton high marks on leadership: 82% characterize her as a "strong leader" (Barack Obama 67%, Rudolph Giuliani 68%).
Wallace was misleading when she cited "believability" as "a possible vulnerability" for Rodham Clinton. Does she say what she thinks people want to hear or what she believes? With the poll's margin of error, her score (45%) for pandering was indistinguishable from Giuliani's (42%) yet Wallace implied that she had a worse reputation. On the other hand, Obama (27%) scored stellar marks for sincerity.
Finally, in the glass half full, glass half empty category, consider this formulation by Wallace. "The one area where men and women agree is on gender: more than half do not think it will matter at all in the campaign; but just about one third think it will make voters less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton." Another, more newsworthy, way to represent the same data would be to say this: "Men and women agree. Only one in six of either sex think Rodham Clinton's gender makes voters more likely to vote for her."
SCHOLASTIC SECRETS Now all three networks have provided free publicity for this weekend's publication of the finale of novelist JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. Monday, ABC's Dean Reynolds investigated the hypersecrecy at Scholastic's Indiana printing press. Yesterday, NBC's Janet Shamlian told us about Websites that offer photographs of each page so the embargoed conclusion can be read in advance online. Now, CBS' Sandra Hughes shows us a real-life owner of an advance copy: Robin Lenz, the managing editor of Publisher's Weekly, bought a book on eBay for an early review, part of a distributor's mistaken early shipment. Not to worry, Hughes reassured us: most muggles are not interested in finding out the ending of Deathly Hallows "before they have read it for themselves."
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: Pakistan suffered a series of suicide bomb attacks, leaving at least 50 dead…forest fires in western states intensify…the lawsuit filed by Valerie Plame against White House officials for blowing her cover as a CIA spy was rejected by a federal court…baseball star Barry Bonds inched closer to the record for most home runs in a career.
NBC's selection for its lead was not so much newsworthy as it was evocative. "The strain of the Iraq War has clearly taken its toll on the usually no-nonsense Defense Secretary," Andrea Mitchell observed, as Gates burst into tears while reading a speech in honor of Douglas Zembiec. The USMC major, whose nickname was the Lion of Fallujah, earned a desk job at the Pentagon after winning honors for battlefield heroism in 2004 but volunteered to return for a fourth tour in Iraq, where he was killed two months ago. Secretary Gates recalled writing a letter of condolence to Zembiec's widow. The Pentagon boss "still carries the burden of the war," mused Mitchell, "and the fighting goes on."
Both NBC and ABC covered the teleconference briefings from Baghdad that the Pentagon scheduled for members of Congress. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski judged that "lawmakers appeared unconvinced." Sen Pete Domenici (R-NM), for example, was "more certain than ever" that a troop pullout should get underway. ABC's Jonathan Karl covered the testimony of Amb Ryan Crocker and Gen Ray Odierno. Crocker "acknowledged that the Iraqi government is unlikely to meet the benchmarks set by Congress." Odierno claimed "tangible signs of progress" in Iraq, including the underwhelming assessment that "more than 50% of Baghdad" is now under control." Diplomat Crocker used a single word to describe the atmosphere in Iraq: "Fear."
GONZO GLOBAL The financial reporters at all three networks shared precisely the same explanation for the ebullient mood on Wall Street. Why has the value of the blue chip Industrial Average risen so quickly? CBS' Anthony Mason cited "a global boom that is sending stock prices soaring for multinationals." CNBC's Maria Bartiromo told NBC anchor Brian Willaims that "corporate profits are doing well, not just in the United States, but we are all watching the global economic expansion." For ABC's lead story, John Berman (subscription required) declared that "most of the fuel for this fire is not from home--40% of these companies' profits come from beyond our borders."
In fact, flush times on Wall Street do not necessarily signify general prosperity. ABC's Berman sees "serious jitters about the US economy." Specifically, CBS' Mason listed, "retailers just had their worst month in nearly two years; gas prices are rising; and house prices are falling."
KETEYIAN NAILS PAULISON CBS was given due credit for Armen Keteyian's two-part Investigation in May--here and here--into toxic formaldehyde. The fumes poison the air in the housing trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to 76,000 families evacuated by the floods from Hurricane Katrina almost two years ago. A clip from Keteyian's report was played at the House hearings convened to quiz Director David Paulison about FEMA's failure to test the trailers' safety.
All three networks focused on the internal legal advice Paulison was given not to monitor air quality since to do so "would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue." ABC's David Kerley reported that "only one occupied trailer has even been tested by the government." NBC's Mark Potter relayed FEMA's assurances that "formaldehyde fumes dissipate with time" and in the meantime "they urge residents to air out their trailers by running fans and operating windows and doors." CBS' Keteyian repeated Director Paulison's statement that it is "a priority" to relocate the trailer dwellers. "He did not say how or when."
LETTING OFF STEAM The explosion of a 24-inch diameter steam pipe near New York City's Grand Central Station created a 25-foot crater in the middle of an avenue that swallowed a truck. It killed one woman and injured 40-or-so other people. But was it a big enough story to warrant national coverage beyond the Big Apple? CBS decided that it was, assigning Bianca Solorzano to show us the "scalding geyser of steam and debris shot hundreds of feet into the air."
NBC and ABC disagreed, treating the explosion as nationally newsworthy only inasmuch as it is a symptom of a bigger problem. On ABC's A Closer Look, David Muir stated that the incident raised "new questions about the aging infrastructure beneath the streets, not only in New York City but in other major cities as well." Pumping steam heat underground is a century-old urban system that services 1,000 buildings in New York; Philadelphia's subterranean network of pipes stretches for 30 miles; Boston's for 22 miles. NBC's Ron Allen generalized to all sorts of infrastructure that requires repair and maintenance--highway bridges, sewage pipes, dams and so on--that could cost $1.6tr to fix nationwide.
JUST JUNK "Uranium enrichment"…"Manhattan Project"…"nuclear materials"…these words all buzz with enough portent that when ABC's Pierre Thomas told us about the alleged theft and attempted sale of "highly classified equipment" it seems like a no-brainer that this is worthy of coverage. Upon inspection of the details, the arrest of a former contract worker at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks less of a big deal. "The buyer was an FBI agent. It was a sting," Thomas explained, and the defendant's lawyer called the equipment "junk." NBC's Pete Williams tried to defuse the story by repeating the assurance by the Department of Energy that "nuclear secrets were never in jeopardy." CBS made the correct call, mentioning the sting only in passing.
STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE CBS News conducted a poll on the opinions of women voters about Campaign 2008 and Kelly Wallace reported the results as an analysis of Hillary Rodham Clinton's standing. As Wallace pointed out, in the last three Presidential General Elections, the Democratic candidate attracted the support of the majority of women voters. Wallace's headline finding was that women "overwhelmingly" give Rodham Clinton high marks on leadership: 82% characterize her as a "strong leader" (Barack Obama 67%, Rudolph Giuliani 68%).
Wallace was misleading when she cited "believability" as "a possible vulnerability" for Rodham Clinton. Does she say what she thinks people want to hear or what she believes? With the poll's margin of error, her score (45%) for pandering was indistinguishable from Giuliani's (42%) yet Wallace implied that she had a worse reputation. On the other hand, Obama (27%) scored stellar marks for sincerity.
Finally, in the glass half full, glass half empty category, consider this formulation by Wallace. "The one area where men and women agree is on gender: more than half do not think it will matter at all in the campaign; but just about one third think it will make voters less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton." Another, more newsworthy, way to represent the same data would be to say this: "Men and women agree. Only one in six of either sex think Rodham Clinton's gender makes voters more likely to vote for her."
SCHOLASTIC SECRETS Now all three networks have provided free publicity for this weekend's publication of the finale of novelist JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. Monday, ABC's Dean Reynolds investigated the hypersecrecy at Scholastic's Indiana printing press. Yesterday, NBC's Janet Shamlian told us about Websites that offer photographs of each page so the embargoed conclusion can be read in advance online. Now, CBS' Sandra Hughes shows us a real-life owner of an advance copy: Robin Lenz, the managing editor of Publisher's Weekly, bought a book on eBay for an early review, part of a distributor's mistaken early shipment. Not to worry, Hughes reassured us: most muggles are not interested in finding out the ending of Deathly Hallows "before they have read it for themselves."
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: Pakistan suffered a series of suicide bomb attacks, leaving at least 50 dead…forest fires in western states intensify…the lawsuit filed by Valerie Plame against White House officials for blowing her cover as a CIA spy was rejected by a federal court…baseball star Barry Bonds inched closer to the record for most home runs in a career.
