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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM AUGUST 6, 2007
After last week's bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the new Story of the Day was a coalmine cave-in in Utah. The roof collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine operated by Genwal Resources trapped a crew of six miners, not known whether dead or alive. ABC and CBS both led their newscasts from the scene in the mining town of Huntington. NBC narrated its lead from New York. With each network following up with an update from the Twin Cities, this was an extremely light day of overseas news. Not one story was filed from an overseas dateline.
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UTAH COALMINE DISASTER After last week's bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the new Story of the Day was a coalmine cave-in in Utah. The roof collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine operated by Genwal Resources trapped a crew of six miners, not known whether dead or alive. ABC and CBS both led their newscasts from the scene in the mining town of Huntington. NBC narrated its lead from New York. With each network following up with an update from the Twin Cities, this was an extremely light day of overseas news. Not one story was filed from an overseas dateline.
The coalmine disaster was accompanied by a seismic shock that registered 3.9 on the Richter Scale. CBS' John Blackstone saw "safety and legal issues swirling" as the mine's owner, Robert Murray of Utah American Energy, insisted that "the earthquake triggered the collapse." However, NBC's Tom Costello consulted experts who disagreed: they concluded that the seismic tremors "may not have been an earthquake but rather the mine collapse itself." Since the accident was a roof collapse, not a noxious-gas explosion, ABC's Neal Karlinsky was assured that if the men are alive "they are likely in an area with plenty of air and water so they could survive for days." Still they are 1,500 feet below ground and almost four miles from the entrance.
ABC's Karlinsky cited statistics from Mine Safety & Health News, that the Crandall Canyon mine has a good safety record with an accident rate half the national average. Yet the technique of coal extraction they were apparently following, called retreat mining, raised eyebrows: ABC's Karlinsky called it "risky;" NBC's Costello "dangerous;" CBS' Blackstone "increasingly rare." Blackstone diagramed how retreat works: "Burrow into the vein leaving pillars of coal to support the roof. Once they had exhausted the area, miners retreat, collecting the coal pillars as they go, allowing the roof to fall in a planned collapse." His colleague Wyatt Andrews added that retreat mining "is a lucrative business" but is "an especially dangerous practice in Utah, experts say, because of the known shifting rock patterns in the mountains."
FILLING IN BLANKS The follow-ups from Minneapolis on the I-35 bridge consisted more of filling in the blanks of previous reporting rather than providing new breaking developments. No more bodies have been retrieved from the Mississippi River so searchers have concluded that the eight still missing must be underneath the rubble. CBS' Bianca Solorzano showed us cranes and heavy equipment arriving as the FBI used hi-tech helicopter photography to draw a 3-D map of the wreckage. ABC's Mike von Fremd looked back at what may have triggered the collapse. He zeroed in on a highway repair crew on the bridge at the time: "Construction workers were using heavy trucks on the bridge, carrying tens of thousands of pounds of crushed stone." NBC's Lee Cowan peered down from a neighboring bridge and mused that "it seems impossible" that two thirds of the motorists just walked away from a 60-foot plunge. He asked Professor James Kakalios of the University of Minnesota to explain: the steel supports underneath the roadway cushioned their fall "almost like an airbag."
ODDSMAKER Airline travel may have grown more irritating this summer but that is still no excuse for NBC's Rehema Ellis to mangle Department of Transportation statistics. "If you are hoping to get somewhere from an American airport on time, the odds are against you," Ellis misled NBC's substitute anchor Ann Curry. In fact the odds are in your favor. In June, 32% of flights were delayed, a terrible performance perhaps, the worst record in 13 years--nevertheless, it means that 68% of flights are on time, favorable odds of almost exactly 2:1. We advise Ms Ellis that her next flight should not be to play the tables at Las Vegas.
CBS' Nancy Cordes observed that delays are most severe at New York area airports, leading the state to require that flights trapped on the tarmac provide passengers with beverages, snacks and fresh air: "Congress is considering similar legislation." Of all the delays, ABC's David Kerley (subscription required) singled out NWAirlines Flight 656 from Detroit to Newark, late 100% of the time in June. Yet 656 was not late today: "It was canceled."
ABC followed up with Pierre Thomas taking A Closer Look at the airline crisis of last August--the suspicion in London that a terrorist cell was planning sabotage by carrying on liquids that, once mixed on board and detonated by an electric current, would produce a "catastrophic" explosion in flight. Thomas revealed that chemists at the Sandia National Laboratories had managed to replicate such an explosion using readily available household products. Even though there is "some question" as to whether the suspected terrorists had the "skill to properly mix and detonate their explosive cocktail in flight," the labs calculated the quantities required for success--and that is why three ounces is the maximum volume of carry-on gels and liquids allowed to this day.
DIANNE HEEDS DIRE WARNINGS On another counterterrorist note, only ABC covered the new rules covering the National Security Agency's wiretapping of citizens' international telephone calls and e-mail messages. Under the Protect America Act, a court-approved warrant will no longer be required as long as "the intended target of the surveillance is outside the country," Jonathan Karl (subscription required) told us. The act was passed under the leadership of Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Karl judged, who persuaded 15 fellow Democrats to respond to the "dire warnings" from Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence. "McConnell cited no evidence of a specific plot against the United States--but it was enough to get the bill passed."
INVENTORY SNAFUS Only NBC picked up on a Government Accountability Office expose of the disorganized way firearms were distributed by the Pentagon to local security forces in Iraq in 2004. The GAO reported that 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 80,000 pistols are unaccounted for. The general who was in "such a rush" at the time was David Petraeus, who has since been promoted to command of the entire military occupation of Iraq. Jim Miklaszewski speculated that some of the arms he handed out back then "are now being turned on Americans."
On a smaller scale, CBS had Sharyl Attkisson file an Eye on Your Money investigation into poor inventory management at the Centers for Disease Control. Among the $22m worth of scientific equipment that has gone missing from the CDC are DNA sequencers, centrifuges, a spectrometer, high-end microscopes, computers--and a John Deere tractor and backhoe.
NOT HOLIER THAN THOU ABC's George Stephanopoulos, anchor of This Week, moderated yesterday's debate in Iowa between the nine Republican Presidential contenders in advance of this weekend's straw poll in Ames. But only NBC found their dissension newsworthy enough for a follow-up. David Gregory focused on abortion, opposition to which is a "top issue for social conservatives" in the GOP base. He noted that a pair of frontrunners, Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney, face "nagging questions." The former is pro-choice, the latter a late pro-life convert. "I get tired of people who are holier than thou because they have been pro-life longer than I have," Gregory quoted Romney from ABC's debate. Gregory called Romney is the only "top-tier candidate" to compete actively in the cosmetic straw poll. NBC's in-house political director Chuck Todd explained: "This is his chance to prove that he is not a paper tiger."
EXECUTION STYLE Isolated violent crimes, a staple of local newscasts, rarely cross over to network news status. So it is noteworthy that both CBS and NBC perceived the callous murder of three college students in Newark NJ to be worthy of national attention. NBC's Ron Allen paid tribute to Iofemi Hightower, 20, who had just passed her entrance exam to Delaware State University; Terrance Aeriel, an 18-year-old freshman at the school, already an ordained minister; and Dashon Harvey, 20, a business major "just voted Mr Junior." All three were shot point blank in the head against a schoolyard wall in their hometown neighborhood, while Aeriel's sister was wounded. CBS' Michelle Miller covered City Hall protests against the violence. She heard "angry calls for action--more police, more resources--themes once voiced on these very steps by a young minister named TJ Aeriel." Miller added: "No one can fathom why these four good kids were targets for such a coldblooded, premeditated killing"
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: on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed all of Friday's losses with a 286 point gain…a truckbomb in Tal Afar in northern Iraq left 29 dead…five more Iraqi ministers resigned from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet…President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan met at Camp David with George Bush…Chrysler Motors appointed Robert Nardelli, the former boss of Home Depot, as its new chief executive.
The coalmine disaster was accompanied by a seismic shock that registered 3.9 on the Richter Scale. CBS' John Blackstone saw "safety and legal issues swirling" as the mine's owner, Robert Murray of Utah American Energy, insisted that "the earthquake triggered the collapse." However, NBC's Tom Costello consulted experts who disagreed: they concluded that the seismic tremors "may not have been an earthquake but rather the mine collapse itself." Since the accident was a roof collapse, not a noxious-gas explosion, ABC's Neal Karlinsky was assured that if the men are alive "they are likely in an area with plenty of air and water so they could survive for days." Still they are 1,500 feet below ground and almost four miles from the entrance.
ABC's Karlinsky cited statistics from Mine Safety & Health News, that the Crandall Canyon mine has a good safety record with an accident rate half the national average. Yet the technique of coal extraction they were apparently following, called retreat mining, raised eyebrows: ABC's Karlinsky called it "risky;" NBC's Costello "dangerous;" CBS' Blackstone "increasingly rare." Blackstone diagramed how retreat works: "Burrow into the vein leaving pillars of coal to support the roof. Once they had exhausted the area, miners retreat, collecting the coal pillars as they go, allowing the roof to fall in a planned collapse." His colleague Wyatt Andrews added that retreat mining "is a lucrative business" but is "an especially dangerous practice in Utah, experts say, because of the known shifting rock patterns in the mountains."
FILLING IN BLANKS The follow-ups from Minneapolis on the I-35 bridge consisted more of filling in the blanks of previous reporting rather than providing new breaking developments. No more bodies have been retrieved from the Mississippi River so searchers have concluded that the eight still missing must be underneath the rubble. CBS' Bianca Solorzano showed us cranes and heavy equipment arriving as the FBI used hi-tech helicopter photography to draw a 3-D map of the wreckage. ABC's Mike von Fremd looked back at what may have triggered the collapse. He zeroed in on a highway repair crew on the bridge at the time: "Construction workers were using heavy trucks on the bridge, carrying tens of thousands of pounds of crushed stone." NBC's Lee Cowan peered down from a neighboring bridge and mused that "it seems impossible" that two thirds of the motorists just walked away from a 60-foot plunge. He asked Professor James Kakalios of the University of Minnesota to explain: the steel supports underneath the roadway cushioned their fall "almost like an airbag."
ODDSMAKER Airline travel may have grown more irritating this summer but that is still no excuse for NBC's Rehema Ellis to mangle Department of Transportation statistics. "If you are hoping to get somewhere from an American airport on time, the odds are against you," Ellis misled NBC's substitute anchor Ann Curry. In fact the odds are in your favor. In June, 32% of flights were delayed, a terrible performance perhaps, the worst record in 13 years--nevertheless, it means that 68% of flights are on time, favorable odds of almost exactly 2:1. We advise Ms Ellis that her next flight should not be to play the tables at Las Vegas.
CBS' Nancy Cordes observed that delays are most severe at New York area airports, leading the state to require that flights trapped on the tarmac provide passengers with beverages, snacks and fresh air: "Congress is considering similar legislation." Of all the delays, ABC's David Kerley (subscription required) singled out NWAirlines Flight 656 from Detroit to Newark, late 100% of the time in June. Yet 656 was not late today: "It was canceled."
ABC followed up with Pierre Thomas taking A Closer Look at the airline crisis of last August--the suspicion in London that a terrorist cell was planning sabotage by carrying on liquids that, once mixed on board and detonated by an electric current, would produce a "catastrophic" explosion in flight. Thomas revealed that chemists at the Sandia National Laboratories had managed to replicate such an explosion using readily available household products. Even though there is "some question" as to whether the suspected terrorists had the "skill to properly mix and detonate their explosive cocktail in flight," the labs calculated the quantities required for success--and that is why three ounces is the maximum volume of carry-on gels and liquids allowed to this day.
DIANNE HEEDS DIRE WARNINGS On another counterterrorist note, only ABC covered the new rules covering the National Security Agency's wiretapping of citizens' international telephone calls and e-mail messages. Under the Protect America Act, a court-approved warrant will no longer be required as long as "the intended target of the surveillance is outside the country," Jonathan Karl (subscription required) told us. The act was passed under the leadership of Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Karl judged, who persuaded 15 fellow Democrats to respond to the "dire warnings" from Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence. "McConnell cited no evidence of a specific plot against the United States--but it was enough to get the bill passed."
INVENTORY SNAFUS Only NBC picked up on a Government Accountability Office expose of the disorganized way firearms were distributed by the Pentagon to local security forces in Iraq in 2004. The GAO reported that 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 80,000 pistols are unaccounted for. The general who was in "such a rush" at the time was David Petraeus, who has since been promoted to command of the entire military occupation of Iraq. Jim Miklaszewski speculated that some of the arms he handed out back then "are now being turned on Americans."
On a smaller scale, CBS had Sharyl Attkisson file an Eye on Your Money investigation into poor inventory management at the Centers for Disease Control. Among the $22m worth of scientific equipment that has gone missing from the CDC are DNA sequencers, centrifuges, a spectrometer, high-end microscopes, computers--and a John Deere tractor and backhoe.
NOT HOLIER THAN THOU ABC's George Stephanopoulos, anchor of This Week, moderated yesterday's debate in Iowa between the nine Republican Presidential contenders in advance of this weekend's straw poll in Ames. But only NBC found their dissension newsworthy enough for a follow-up. David Gregory focused on abortion, opposition to which is a "top issue for social conservatives" in the GOP base. He noted that a pair of frontrunners, Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney, face "nagging questions." The former is pro-choice, the latter a late pro-life convert. "I get tired of people who are holier than thou because they have been pro-life longer than I have," Gregory quoted Romney from ABC's debate. Gregory called Romney is the only "top-tier candidate" to compete actively in the cosmetic straw poll. NBC's in-house political director Chuck Todd explained: "This is his chance to prove that he is not a paper tiger."
EXECUTION STYLE Isolated violent crimes, a staple of local newscasts, rarely cross over to network news status. So it is noteworthy that both CBS and NBC perceived the callous murder of three college students in Newark NJ to be worthy of national attention. NBC's Ron Allen paid tribute to Iofemi Hightower, 20, who had just passed her entrance exam to Delaware State University; Terrance Aeriel, an 18-year-old freshman at the school, already an ordained minister; and Dashon Harvey, 20, a business major "just voted Mr Junior." All three were shot point blank in the head against a schoolyard wall in their hometown neighborhood, while Aeriel's sister was wounded. CBS' Michelle Miller covered City Hall protests against the violence. She heard "angry calls for action--more police, more resources--themes once voiced on these very steps by a young minister named TJ Aeriel." Miller added: "No one can fathom why these four good kids were targets for such a coldblooded, premeditated killing"
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: on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed all of Friday's losses with a 286 point gain…a truckbomb in Tal Afar in northern Iraq left 29 dead…five more Iraqi ministers resigned from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet…President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan met at Camp David with George Bush…Chrysler Motors appointed Robert Nardelli, the former boss of Home Depot, as its new chief executive.
