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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JULY 23, 2007
A very light day of summer news saw only one story newsworthy enough to warrant coverage on all three networks. No, not the torrential floods in China that killed 150. The Story of the Day was the milder flooding of western England that surrounded the abbey town of Tewkesbury. Both ABC and NBC led with London correspondents in Wellington boots. In the absence of political headlines or breaking foreign policy news, CBS led with natural disasters too: firefighters for the National Forest Service may take too many risks to save property from wild fires.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JULY 23, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
IT IS RAINING IN ENGLAND A very light day of summer news saw only one story newsworthy enough to warrant coverage on all three networks. No, not the torrential floods in China that killed 150. The Story of the Day was the milder flooding of western England that surrounded the abbey town of Tewkesbury. Both ABC and NBC led with London correspondents in Wellington boots. In the absence of political headlines or breaking foreign policy news, CBS led with natural disasters too: firefighters for the National Forest Service may take too many risks to save property from wild fires.
Obviously the 60-year floods at the intersection of the Severn River and the River Avon are a big deal in England, where 400,000 risk losing drinking water because of overflowing sewage and 500,000 risk losing electric power. But there is no reason why they should lead an American network newscast. ABC's Jim Sciutto offered a tourist angle as he described how "imposing" Tewkesbury's church is--he called it a cathedral instead of an abbey. CBS' Elizabeth Palmer tried the climate change angle: "Research published today suggests human activity is warming the planet and changing rainfall patterns." NBC's Martin Savidge evoked the wartime blitz: "Many are facing it with the same spirit here that carried this island nation through much worse." Or as CBS' Palmer put it: "None of this has dampened the British stiff upper lip."
PLAYING WITH FIRE CBS had Sandra Hughes lead with the western forest fires that have burned 1.5m acres, mostly in Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and Utah. She focused on the rising annual death toll for NFS firefighters, up from an average of around six 60 years ago to more than 20 this decade. There is more danger because more homes are near fire zones. Hughes reported on a federal investigation that criticizes the NFS for taking too many risks to protect mere property. The firefighters' union countered that "the real problem is not reckless firefighting but risky homebuilding."
INNER TUBE CNN is holding a Presidential debate in South Carolina for Democratic candidates. ABC's Jake Tapper reported on the innovative format, whereby the cable news channel selects 50-or-so video questions to ask from 2,000 submitted by non-professionals at YouTube. Tapper played clips including…ostrich characters on head-in-the-sand Social Security planning…a snowman's fears about global warming…a cancer patient's lament at the lack of preventive healthcare. CBS anchor Katie Couric chose the hook of the debate to survey the multitude of ways that online video has shaped Campaign 2008: "Candidates are announcing on the Web, running ads on the Web, raising money on the Web." And they are also being romanced on the Web--the Obama Girl; documented in their stump speeches on the Web--John McCain hums bomb, bomb Iran; and ridiculed for their vanity on the Web--John Edwards looks oh so pretty.
MALAWI, MEXICO, NORTH PHILLY On such a light day of news, all three networks turned to special features, each with its own angle on poverty. ABC's A Closer Look had Kate Snow accompany former President Bill Clinton to Malawi where his foundation is trying to alleviate rural malnutrition by sponsoring a 1200-member peasant farmers' cooperative, providing loans for fertilizer and a mill contract for their winter wheat harvest.
NBC sent Bob Faw to the slums of Matamoros for its series Faith in America. Faw followed 50 members of Teenmania, the Christian youth movement, to the "squalor and sweltering heat of northern Mexico" for their two week ministry: they played with the children, fed the hungry, helped build homes and performed morality plays--all "to show them the love of Jesus," as one young missionary testified.
Back in May, we noted (text link) how "monochromatic" Katie Couric's portrayal of Philadelphia was when she went on the road to anchor from that city. Well, that deficit was certainly redressed by Byron Pitts in the start of his two-parter for CBS Battleline Philadelphia on the "urban genocide" there amid sky-high unemployment and school dropout rates. With 10,000 people wounded or killed from gunfire in the city in the past six years, Pitts confronted Sylvester Johnson, the city's soon-to-retire police commissioner: "Is it an urban problem? Is it a black problem?" "Philadelphia is definitely a black problem because 85% of the people who are being killed--close to 80%--are Afro-American males." Next Pitts asked a 19-year-old ex-con, newly released from jail for shooting a fellow teen four times, why he walks the streets with a concealed handgun. "Everywhere. I cannot go anywhere without it. Nowhere. Bad. Either dead or in jail. That is to talk like it is."
CALLING DR PEPPER "Associated with" was the word used on CBS…"links" was the one NBC deployed. Thus the networks' in-house physicians, Jon LaPook and Nancy Snyderman, tried to dial back the headlines from their anchors. On NBC, Brian Williams announced: "This one is about soft drinks and heart disease." From CBS' Katie Couric warned that soft drinks "may be bad for our hearts." Well not quite. "Experts caution that today's study does not show cause and effect," Snyderman insisted. "It is not cause and effect," declared LaPook.
A sober Snyderman explained that the condition dubbed "metabolic syndrome" represents a cluster of risk factors for heart disease or diabetes such as increased waist size, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, lowered HDL cholesterol, high blood glucose. The study analyzed individuals diagnosed with the syndrome and those who drink more than a single soft drink a day--either soda or cola, regular or diet. It found that the two groups are more likely to overlap than not. This led LaPook to ask the "one big question. Does diet soda contribute to metabolic syndrome? Or are the people drinking it just more likely to engage in unhealthy behavior?"
DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON The virtue in Dawna Friesen's report from Barcelona on the mounting unpopularity of bullfighting in Catalonia--was the opportunity to show video of bullfighting. Friesen depicted the 72% opposition to the spectacle in the region as an animal rights protest against a "gruesome blood sport." Quoting Ernest Hemingway, Friesen assured us that the bullfight is not an equal contest between matador and beast: "There is danger for the man--but certain death for the bull." Unmentioned was the fact that Catalans and Spanish fail to see eye to eye on a gamut of issues. The closure of all but one of Barcelona's bullrings may reflect its separate culture more than solicitude for bulls.
FLIGHT OF FANCY ABC offered a serious report on airport security near the top of its newscast as Lisa Stark (subscription required) covered the expose by Lisa Fletcher of KNXV-TV, her network's Phoenix affiliate, that Sky Harbor Airport fails to screen terminal workers on the night shift. More fascinating by far was the artistic airlines report Robert Krulwich (subscription required) filed for ABC's closer. He showed us the time-lapse animation by graphic artist Aaron Koblin that drew an outline of the United States by tracing a day's flight patterns of the entire civil aviation fleet, 19,000 jetliners in all. The graphics were so gorgeous they made Krulwich giggle. You will too.
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: highway safety is improving: only 42,000 were killed by accidents nationwide last year…gasoline prices have stopped increasing, at least for now…a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Paktika Province killed six NATO fighters… President George Bush's colonoscopy found no signs of cancer…the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series sold 72m copies worldwide in its first weekend of publication.
Obviously the 60-year floods at the intersection of the Severn River and the River Avon are a big deal in England, where 400,000 risk losing drinking water because of overflowing sewage and 500,000 risk losing electric power. But there is no reason why they should lead an American network newscast. ABC's Jim Sciutto offered a tourist angle as he described how "imposing" Tewkesbury's church is--he called it a cathedral instead of an abbey. CBS' Elizabeth Palmer tried the climate change angle: "Research published today suggests human activity is warming the planet and changing rainfall patterns." NBC's Martin Savidge evoked the wartime blitz: "Many are facing it with the same spirit here that carried this island nation through much worse." Or as CBS' Palmer put it: "None of this has dampened the British stiff upper lip."
PLAYING WITH FIRE CBS had Sandra Hughes lead with the western forest fires that have burned 1.5m acres, mostly in Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and Utah. She focused on the rising annual death toll for NFS firefighters, up from an average of around six 60 years ago to more than 20 this decade. There is more danger because more homes are near fire zones. Hughes reported on a federal investigation that criticizes the NFS for taking too many risks to protect mere property. The firefighters' union countered that "the real problem is not reckless firefighting but risky homebuilding."
INNER TUBE CNN is holding a Presidential debate in South Carolina for Democratic candidates. ABC's Jake Tapper reported on the innovative format, whereby the cable news channel selects 50-or-so video questions to ask from 2,000 submitted by non-professionals at YouTube. Tapper played clips including…ostrich characters on head-in-the-sand Social Security planning…a snowman's fears about global warming…a cancer patient's lament at the lack of preventive healthcare. CBS anchor Katie Couric chose the hook of the debate to survey the multitude of ways that online video has shaped Campaign 2008: "Candidates are announcing on the Web, running ads on the Web, raising money on the Web." And they are also being romanced on the Web--the Obama Girl; documented in their stump speeches on the Web--John McCain hums bomb, bomb Iran; and ridiculed for their vanity on the Web--John Edwards looks oh so pretty.
MALAWI, MEXICO, NORTH PHILLY On such a light day of news, all three networks turned to special features, each with its own angle on poverty. ABC's A Closer Look had Kate Snow accompany former President Bill Clinton to Malawi where his foundation is trying to alleviate rural malnutrition by sponsoring a 1200-member peasant farmers' cooperative, providing loans for fertilizer and a mill contract for their winter wheat harvest.
NBC sent Bob Faw to the slums of Matamoros for its series Faith in America. Faw followed 50 members of Teenmania, the Christian youth movement, to the "squalor and sweltering heat of northern Mexico" for their two week ministry: they played with the children, fed the hungry, helped build homes and performed morality plays--all "to show them the love of Jesus," as one young missionary testified.
Back in May, we noted (text link) how "monochromatic" Katie Couric's portrayal of Philadelphia was when she went on the road to anchor from that city. Well, that deficit was certainly redressed by Byron Pitts in the start of his two-parter for CBS Battleline Philadelphia on the "urban genocide" there amid sky-high unemployment and school dropout rates. With 10,000 people wounded or killed from gunfire in the city in the past six years, Pitts confronted Sylvester Johnson, the city's soon-to-retire police commissioner: "Is it an urban problem? Is it a black problem?" "Philadelphia is definitely a black problem because 85% of the people who are being killed--close to 80%--are Afro-American males." Next Pitts asked a 19-year-old ex-con, newly released from jail for shooting a fellow teen four times, why he walks the streets with a concealed handgun. "Everywhere. I cannot go anywhere without it. Nowhere. Bad. Either dead or in jail. That is to talk like it is."
CALLING DR PEPPER "Associated with" was the word used on CBS…"links" was the one NBC deployed. Thus the networks' in-house physicians, Jon LaPook and Nancy Snyderman, tried to dial back the headlines from their anchors. On NBC, Brian Williams announced: "This one is about soft drinks and heart disease." From CBS' Katie Couric warned that soft drinks "may be bad for our hearts." Well not quite. "Experts caution that today's study does not show cause and effect," Snyderman insisted. "It is not cause and effect," declared LaPook.
A sober Snyderman explained that the condition dubbed "metabolic syndrome" represents a cluster of risk factors for heart disease or diabetes such as increased waist size, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, lowered HDL cholesterol, high blood glucose. The study analyzed individuals diagnosed with the syndrome and those who drink more than a single soft drink a day--either soda or cola, regular or diet. It found that the two groups are more likely to overlap than not. This led LaPook to ask the "one big question. Does diet soda contribute to metabolic syndrome? Or are the people drinking it just more likely to engage in unhealthy behavior?"
DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON The virtue in Dawna Friesen's report from Barcelona on the mounting unpopularity of bullfighting in Catalonia--was the opportunity to show video of bullfighting. Friesen depicted the 72% opposition to the spectacle in the region as an animal rights protest against a "gruesome blood sport." Quoting Ernest Hemingway, Friesen assured us that the bullfight is not an equal contest between matador and beast: "There is danger for the man--but certain death for the bull." Unmentioned was the fact that Catalans and Spanish fail to see eye to eye on a gamut of issues. The closure of all but one of Barcelona's bullrings may reflect its separate culture more than solicitude for bulls.
FLIGHT OF FANCY ABC offered a serious report on airport security near the top of its newscast as Lisa Stark (subscription required) covered the expose by Lisa Fletcher of KNXV-TV, her network's Phoenix affiliate, that Sky Harbor Airport fails to screen terminal workers on the night shift. More fascinating by far was the artistic airlines report Robert Krulwich (subscription required) filed for ABC's closer. He showed us the time-lapse animation by graphic artist Aaron Koblin that drew an outline of the United States by tracing a day's flight patterns of the entire civil aviation fleet, 19,000 jetliners in all. The graphics were so gorgeous they made Krulwich giggle. You will too.
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: highway safety is improving: only 42,000 were killed by accidents nationwide last year…gasoline prices have stopped increasing, at least for now…a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Paktika Province killed six NATO fighters… President George Bush's colonoscopy found no signs of cancer…the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series sold 72m copies worldwide in its first weekend of publication.
