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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JULY 24, 2007
The White House staged a major speech by George Bush on the Iraq War. The President redefined his military goals, narrowing the conflict: "al-Qaeda is Public Enemy #1 for the Iraqi people; al-Qaeda is Public Enemy #1 for the American people." Even as the Commander-in-Chief made his war aims more modest, the Pentagon drafted plans to prolong its troop deployment for another two years. Together, these two Iraq angles accounted a tepid Story of the Day. Only NBC led with Iraq and none of the networks assigned its Baghdad reporter to the US-Iran diplomacy between ambassadors there. ABC exemplified the lightness of the day's news by leading with a sports story. CBS chose a sell-off on Wall Street for its lead.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JULY 24, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
BUSH REDEFINES BAGHDAD ENEMY The White House staged a major speech by George Bush on the Iraq War. The President redefined his military goals, narrowing the conflict: "al-Qaeda is Public Enemy #1 for the Iraqi people; al-Qaeda is Public Enemy #1 for the American people." Even as the Commander-in-Chief made his war aims more modest, the Pentagon drafted plans to prolong its troop deployment for another two years. Together, these two Iraq angles accounted a tepid Story of the Day. Only NBC led with Iraq and none of the networks assigned its Baghdad reporter to the US-Iran diplomacy between ambassadors there. ABC exemplified the lightness of the day's news by leading with a sports story. CBS chose a sell-off on Wall Street for its lead.
CBS' White House correspondent Jim Axelrod focused on Bush's speech in South Carolina. The "rationale is clearly shifting from policing sectarian violence to targeting al-Qaeda," Axelrod asserted, noting that the President "barely mentioned" the Sunni-Shiite conflict, counting only two uses of the phrase "sectarian violence" in his half-hour speech. NBC's White House correspondent David Gregory noted that the President's "renewed" focus on al-Qaeda "appears designed to overcome bipartisan anger over the lack of political progress in Iraq."
Jack Keane, the wearer of two hats, apparently has not received the memo. Keane, a retired general, is both ABC News' in-house military consultant and a White House advisor who helped develop its misnamed surge in January. Keane told ABC's Jonathan Karl (subscription required) what the goals of the troop build-up had been supposed to be before this latest al-Qaeda-focused change: "This is about securing the population. It is not about seizing a military objective. This is about changing attitudes and behavior."
ABC's Karl was reporting on the classified Joint Campaign Plan, drawn up by Amb Ryan Crocker and Gen David Petraeus, the top men from the State Department and the Pentagon in Baghdad. Karl's anonymous military source told him that the JCP envisions an "eventual withdrawal of US forces beginning some time next spring" and "a substantial US role in Iraq" for at least the next two years.
TALK IS CHEAP Only ABC assigned a reporter to the fallout from CNN's Democratic Presidential candidates' debate, whose questions were submitted by YouTube users on do-it-yourself video. The newsworthy submission turned out to be this: "Would you be willing to meet separately with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?" It prompted a policy dispute between frontrunners: Barack Obama--"I would;" and Hillary Rodham Clinton--"I will not promise…I do not want to be used for propaganda purposes." When Rodham Clinton characterized Obama's pledge of outreach as "irresponsible and frankly naïve," ABC's Jake Tapper interpreted that as a belief that Obama had made a "rookie mistake." Tapper was not entirely convinced by Rodham Clinton's disavowal of summitry, however. He quoted her own previous denunciation of the current President: "Diplomacy has become a dirty word in the Bush Administration. They do not believe in talking to bad people."
COUNTRYWIDE CONCERNS The drop in prices on Wall Street was Anthony Mason's lead story at CBS while NBC consulted Erin Burnett of its sibling network CNBC. Both highlighted the plight of home mortgage lender Countrywide: Burnett quoted its assessment that house prices are falling at Great-Depression-style rates; Mason cited expectations that the real estate slump will last for at least two more years. Then Mason looked backwards for reassurance: "The Dow is still up 10% this year." ABC mentioned the downward direction in stock prices only in passing even though twice in the last two weeks--with John Berman (subscription required) and Dan Harris (subscription required)--it chose to mark the setting of all-time highs with its lead.
DANCING IN THE STREETS NBC sent Brian Williams on the road to anchor from Detroit. He introduced Kevin Tibbles' update on automobile design trends. At General Motors, Bob Lutz, the executive "who once dismissed Toyota's hybrid Prius as a publicity stunt" is now championing the Chevy Volt, an electric car that will be available for sale in 2010. As for Williams, he marked the fortieth anniversary of the riots that led to 8,000 arrests, 43 deaths and the arson of 2,000 buildings before they were suppressed by the 82nd Airborne. "The city of Detroit has never fully recovered," Williams stated. Performing in concert on the night the riots started was local Motown star Martha Reeves and her Vandellas. Reeves recalled that she had to send her audience home before they could hear her then-chart-topper Jimmy Mack. Reeves eventually turned to politics and is now a member of the Detroit City Council: "We are tearing down the old burned-up buildings and putting up new ones. It is just a great renovation."
MIX AND MATCH Byron Pitts concluded his two-parter Battleline Philadelphia for CBS on the deadly toll that urban violence exacts on young black men. Why are so many people getting killed? "That is a simple enough question. And here is the answer. There is no simple answer." Pitts lined up a child welfare advocate, a Second Amendment absolutist, a big city police chief, a priest-employer and former teenage gang members. Match the plan of action offered by each--attend church, improve the schools, build more prisons, reduce economic disparity, ban guns at the federal level.
QUEL FROMAGE! Alarm bells went off at the federal Transportation Security Administration when a airport screeners found an airline passenger trying to carry on blocks of cheese with wires attached. The cheese probably belonged to a passenger with "no known criminal or terrorist links but whose explanations were questionable," reported NBC's Lisa Myers, when she obtained a TSA intelligence bulletin about the latest suspicious activity at airports. The TSA theory was that cheese has the consistency of some explosives and it may have been used as a dry-run test to check whether bomb components can elude interception at the baggage check. Or, Myers added, it "may turn out to be completely innocent."
SPORTS PAGE IS FRONT PAGE This day may "go down in sports history as Black Tuesday" declaimed CBS' Jeff Greenfield (no link) as a star quarterback of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons was barred from training camp, the commissioner of the NBA addressed allegations of rigged games, star cyclist Alexander Vinokourov was thrown off the Tour de France after testing positive for doping--and Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants "begins his final assault on Hank Aaron's career home run record surrounded by a cloud of suspicions involving everything from steroids use to tax evasion."
ABC filed a triple-play of sports stories. Dan Harris led with the investigation of basketball referee Tim Donaghy: Harris consulted gambling expert RJ Bell who isolated 15 games refereed by Donaghy last season in which there was "extreme money bet on one side;" in all 15, the gamblers won and the bookmakers lost. Pierre Thomas covered the fate of Michael Vick, facing prosecution for running pitbull fights: "In Atlanta, where dog ownership is among the highest in the nation, many fans are stunned." And John Berman (no link) was assigned to balance scandal with inspiration, profiling the comeback win by Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester, starting again after eleven months out of the game with lymphoma. Anchor Charles Gibson beamed: "Even Yankee fans had to be pleased for him." Well, let's not go overboard.
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 federal minimum wage raise goes into effect, up to $5.85 per hour…Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee…Hungary swelters in a summer heatwave.
CBS' White House correspondent Jim Axelrod focused on Bush's speech in South Carolina. The "rationale is clearly shifting from policing sectarian violence to targeting al-Qaeda," Axelrod asserted, noting that the President "barely mentioned" the Sunni-Shiite conflict, counting only two uses of the phrase "sectarian violence" in his half-hour speech. NBC's White House correspondent David Gregory noted that the President's "renewed" focus on al-Qaeda "appears designed to overcome bipartisan anger over the lack of political progress in Iraq."
Jack Keane, the wearer of two hats, apparently has not received the memo. Keane, a retired general, is both ABC News' in-house military consultant and a White House advisor who helped develop its misnamed surge in January. Keane told ABC's Jonathan Karl (subscription required) what the goals of the troop build-up had been supposed to be before this latest al-Qaeda-focused change: "This is about securing the population. It is not about seizing a military objective. This is about changing attitudes and behavior."
ABC's Karl was reporting on the classified Joint Campaign Plan, drawn up by Amb Ryan Crocker and Gen David Petraeus, the top men from the State Department and the Pentagon in Baghdad. Karl's anonymous military source told him that the JCP envisions an "eventual withdrawal of US forces beginning some time next spring" and "a substantial US role in Iraq" for at least the next two years.
TALK IS CHEAP Only ABC assigned a reporter to the fallout from CNN's Democratic Presidential candidates' debate, whose questions were submitted by YouTube users on do-it-yourself video. The newsworthy submission turned out to be this: "Would you be willing to meet separately with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?" It prompted a policy dispute between frontrunners: Barack Obama--"I would;" and Hillary Rodham Clinton--"I will not promise…I do not want to be used for propaganda purposes." When Rodham Clinton characterized Obama's pledge of outreach as "irresponsible and frankly naïve," ABC's Jake Tapper interpreted that as a belief that Obama had made a "rookie mistake." Tapper was not entirely convinced by Rodham Clinton's disavowal of summitry, however. He quoted her own previous denunciation of the current President: "Diplomacy has become a dirty word in the Bush Administration. They do not believe in talking to bad people."
COUNTRYWIDE CONCERNS The drop in prices on Wall Street was Anthony Mason's lead story at CBS while NBC consulted Erin Burnett of its sibling network CNBC. Both highlighted the plight of home mortgage lender Countrywide: Burnett quoted its assessment that house prices are falling at Great-Depression-style rates; Mason cited expectations that the real estate slump will last for at least two more years. Then Mason looked backwards for reassurance: "The Dow is still up 10% this year." ABC mentioned the downward direction in stock prices only in passing even though twice in the last two weeks--with John Berman (subscription required) and Dan Harris (subscription required)--it chose to mark the setting of all-time highs with its lead.
DANCING IN THE STREETS NBC sent Brian Williams on the road to anchor from Detroit. He introduced Kevin Tibbles' update on automobile design trends. At General Motors, Bob Lutz, the executive "who once dismissed Toyota's hybrid Prius as a publicity stunt" is now championing the Chevy Volt, an electric car that will be available for sale in 2010. As for Williams, he marked the fortieth anniversary of the riots that led to 8,000 arrests, 43 deaths and the arson of 2,000 buildings before they were suppressed by the 82nd Airborne. "The city of Detroit has never fully recovered," Williams stated. Performing in concert on the night the riots started was local Motown star Martha Reeves and her Vandellas. Reeves recalled that she had to send her audience home before they could hear her then-chart-topper Jimmy Mack. Reeves eventually turned to politics and is now a member of the Detroit City Council: "We are tearing down the old burned-up buildings and putting up new ones. It is just a great renovation."
MIX AND MATCH Byron Pitts concluded his two-parter Battleline Philadelphia for CBS on the deadly toll that urban violence exacts on young black men. Why are so many people getting killed? "That is a simple enough question. And here is the answer. There is no simple answer." Pitts lined up a child welfare advocate, a Second Amendment absolutist, a big city police chief, a priest-employer and former teenage gang members. Match the plan of action offered by each--attend church, improve the schools, build more prisons, reduce economic disparity, ban guns at the federal level.
QUEL FROMAGE! Alarm bells went off at the federal Transportation Security Administration when a airport screeners found an airline passenger trying to carry on blocks of cheese with wires attached. The cheese probably belonged to a passenger with "no known criminal or terrorist links but whose explanations were questionable," reported NBC's Lisa Myers, when she obtained a TSA intelligence bulletin about the latest suspicious activity at airports. The TSA theory was that cheese has the consistency of some explosives and it may have been used as a dry-run test to check whether bomb components can elude interception at the baggage check. Or, Myers added, it "may turn out to be completely innocent."
SPORTS PAGE IS FRONT PAGE This day may "go down in sports history as Black Tuesday" declaimed CBS' Jeff Greenfield (no link) as a star quarterback of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons was barred from training camp, the commissioner of the NBA addressed allegations of rigged games, star cyclist Alexander Vinokourov was thrown off the Tour de France after testing positive for doping--and Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants "begins his final assault on Hank Aaron's career home run record surrounded by a cloud of suspicions involving everything from steroids use to tax evasion."
ABC filed a triple-play of sports stories. Dan Harris led with the investigation of basketball referee Tim Donaghy: Harris consulted gambling expert RJ Bell who isolated 15 games refereed by Donaghy last season in which there was "extreme money bet on one side;" in all 15, the gamblers won and the bookmakers lost. Pierre Thomas covered the fate of Michael Vick, facing prosecution for running pitbull fights: "In Atlanta, where dog ownership is among the highest in the nation, many fans are stunned." And John Berman (no link) was assigned to balance scandal with inspiration, profiling the comeback win by Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester, starting again after eleven months out of the game with lymphoma. Anchor Charles Gibson beamed: "Even Yankee fans had to be pleased for him." Well, let's not go overboard.
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 federal minimum wage raise goes into effect, up to $5.85 per hour…Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee…Hungary swelters in a summer heatwave.
