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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM SEPTEMBER 14, 2007
All three networks assigned their White House correspondent to follow up on last night's televised Presidential speech to the nation on the future of the Iraq War. George Bush titled his address Return on Success, claiming that this spring's 30,000-strong surge of troop levels had been a military success and announcing that those extra forces would return from Iraq in July of next year. The analysis of the speech was the Story of the Day but only CBS led with it. ABC chose the CIA and torture, NBC the continuing troubles in the housing market.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR SEPTEMBER 14, 2007: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
WEEKLONG DRUMBEAT ON IRAQ All three networks assigned their White House correspondent to follow up on last night's televised Presidential speech to the nation on the future of the Iraq War. George Bush titled his address Return on Success, claiming that this spring's 30,000-strong surge of troop levels had been a military success and announcing that those extra forces would return from Iraq in July of next year. The analysis of the speech was the Story of the Day but only CBS led with it. ABC chose the CIA and torture, NBC the continuing troubles in the housing market.
ABC's Martha Raddatz went on a fact-checking tear. The President asserted: "Sectarian killings are down." The White House's own Benchmark Assessment Report found "an increase in ethno-sectarian deaths in July and August." Raddatz contrasted Bush's paraphrase of a report by a panel chaired by Jim Jones, a retired general--"There is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the national police"--with Jones' actual language: "The force is so sectarian and incompetent it should be disbanded." And when the President asserted that "ordinary life is beginning to return to normal," Raddatz dug up data from her own network's opinion poll of Iraqis: 24% say local security has improved in the last six months; 31% see deterioration; the remainder reports no change.
CBS' Jim Axelrod commented on the timing of the benchmark report. The speech was the culmination of a "weeklong, high-profile steady drumbeat of success" which started with Gen David Petraeus' testimony to Congress on the surge yet "that is a message that was undercut today by the actual report." In July, eight of 18 benchmarks were scored as "satisfactory;" current progress consists merely of a shift to nine of 18. And NBC's David Gregory pointed out that even the title of Bush's speech implicitly conceded lowered expectations: "The President spoke of success--not victory."
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates came up with the same number all three networks bandied about yesterday (text link) for troop levels in Iraq at the end of the Bush Presidency--down from 169K now to 135K in July 2008 to 100K five months later. CBS' substitute anchor Harry Smith hyped that number as an "ambitious" drawdown. CBS' Axelrod noted that it was Gates' "hope--it is not an administration plan."
Monday's advertisement in The New York Times by anti-war activists moveon.org is the gift that keeps on giving. Its rhyming insinuation that Gen Petraeus might "betray us" by imparting an optimistic spin to the military facts on the ground inspired Republican Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani to buy his own counter-ad in the Times accusing moveon.org of character assassination. ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required) noted that moveon.org is so influential in the Democratic Party that none of its Presidential candidates had publicly disavowed the "betray us" slogan. He calculated that the ad backfired: "It allowed Republicans to talk about the rhetoric of war opponents instead of failures in Iraq."
NO RETURN There was a lone report from Iraq itself--Robert Bazell's In Depth follow-up for NBC on the 28th Combat Support Hospital, nine months after his first visit. The medics were supposed to be returning home now but their tour of duty had been extended for five months "like so many units in Iraq." Bazell remarked that "the sounds and the scene are the same, the choppers, the rush of the medics…the same disciplined professionalism and compassion." However the "unrelenting casualties and time are taking their toll on the staff." Steeped in gore, nursing colonel Sharon Williams wondered: "When I get back home, am I going to think about this every day?"
TORTUOUS ABC's lead by Brian Ross was about the secret decision by the Central Intelligence Agency to ban an activity, which it officially never admitted using, because "it was no longer necessary." Ross was referring to waterboarding, the torture technique that creates the sensation of drowning in a prisoner. Ross' unidentified "official" sources told him that the White House has removed this form of torture from its official list of Approved Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. "Privately" Ross was told that Khalid Mohammed had been waterboarded and, indeed, the suspected al-Qaeda leader accused the CIA of torture at his tribunal, redacted audiotape portions of which Ross played for us.
Ross could not obtain any on-the-record comment from either White House or CIA about the veracity of his report, only this from an unidentified spook: "It is fair to say now the interrogation program being used at this day has changed from the one used in the past."
BUYER’S MARKET NBC turned to the real estate market for its lead, dramatizing the steepest decline in house prices in 20 years with publicity for a stunt by the homebuilding firm Hovnanian. "Call it a fire sale but do not call it a going-out-of-business sale," declared CNBC's real estate specialist Diana Olick. Hovnanian, whose corporate value on the stock market has been slashed by 75% this year, is trying to clear 1,000 houses from its nationwide inventory this weekend, cutting its asking prices by as much as $100,000. Prices are being driven down for the classic reason, Olick stated simply: "The supply of new and existing homes for sale across the nation far exceeds demand." She ticked off the states where prices are falling fastest--those that led the boom (Cal, Fla, Ariz, Nev) and those where the local economy (Mich, Ohio) is in trouble.
UN-RANGEL With its Follow the Money title, Sharyl Attkisson's expose of porkbarrel spending in the halls of Congress for CBS promised to be another episode in outrage. Instead we saw good natured teasing of pomposity and a pair of the choicest soundbites.
At stake was a mere $2m in federal funding for a political science center at City College in New York City. The college is based in Harlem, represented for 36 years by Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee. The building will include the Charles B Rangel Center for Public Service, the Rangel Conference Center and the Charles Rangel Library.
Soundbite #1 came during a floor debate when John Campbell, a freshman Republican Congressman from California, questioned the propriety of this "monument to me," asking whether it was proper for politicians to name things after themselves. Answered Rangel: "I would have a problem if you did it because I do not think you have been around long enough."
Soundbite #2 came from Mary Lou Edmondson of City College when Attkisson asked her whether Rangel made it a requirement that his name be on the center. The concept of an un-Rangel Center was so unimaginable that Edmondson was at a loss for words: her reply came out as an astonished giggle.
LESS GREAT Global warming is reducing the amount of ice on the Great Lakes, allowing for more evaporation. Lower waters have made sandbars appear; they have required marinas to move docks; they force freighters to carry lighter cargoes. A decade-long drought has not helped, either. Levels are two feet lower than normal, with 12tr fewer gallons of fresh water. And they gave NBC's Lee Cowan the chance to nail his story from Duluth with this line: "Mighty Superior is becoming inferior."
ARE YOUR READY? And rounding out the week--football. All three networks assigned a correspondent to cover both coach Bill Belichick and Hall of Famer OJ Simpson.
The Juice got in a rhubarb at the Palace Station casino in Las Vegas over sports memorabilia. "There is no dispute there was a dust-up in a hotel room," reported CBS' Bill Whitaker. "What is disputed is whether OJ and his friends broke in with a gun." NBC's George Lewis repeated Simpson's version that he was conducting "a sting operation to recover souvenirs stolen from him." ABC's Brian Rooney (subscription required) speculated that the memorabilia may not have belonged to Simpson because of the $33m verdict against him for the wrongful death of his ex-wife and her waiter friend: "Even his Heisman Trophy was auctioned. Money from anything he sells goes to pay the judgment." The headlines coincided with the publication of his fantasy book If I Did It in which he imagines how he might have perpetrated the murders for which he was acquitted. Income from that, too, goes to pay the judgment. NBC's Lewis suggested "sales will probably by helped."
Belichick was punished by the National Football league for cheating. The so-called "evil genius" of the New England Patriots "had been warned but still broke the rule," noted NBC's Mike Taibbi. His assistant was caught videotaping signals sent in from the sidelines by an opposing coach. Belichick's Patriots have won three Super Bowl championships in the past six years, "a dynasty," ABC's John Berman called them. "Now many are wondering if it is a dynasty built on deceit." Doom and gloom was the theme at CBS, too: "A harsh shadow has been cast on the league's model franchise and the image of its iconic coach," intoned Armen Keteyian (no link). We know that fans take their football very seriously--but $500,000 seems a super stiff fine for some surreptitious videotape.
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: a high school student's conviction for attempted murder arising from a racial dispute over a smalltown shade tree in Jena La was overturned on appeal…depositors staged a run on the Northern Rock bank in England…the White House press corps gave spokesman Tony Snow a standing ovation to mark his last day on the job…the clean-up is under way in Texas and Louisiana after Hurricane Humberto.
ABC's Martha Raddatz went on a fact-checking tear. The President asserted: "Sectarian killings are down." The White House's own Benchmark Assessment Report found "an increase in ethno-sectarian deaths in July and August." Raddatz contrasted Bush's paraphrase of a report by a panel chaired by Jim Jones, a retired general--"There is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the national police"--with Jones' actual language: "The force is so sectarian and incompetent it should be disbanded." And when the President asserted that "ordinary life is beginning to return to normal," Raddatz dug up data from her own network's opinion poll of Iraqis: 24% say local security has improved in the last six months; 31% see deterioration; the remainder reports no change.
CBS' Jim Axelrod commented on the timing of the benchmark report. The speech was the culmination of a "weeklong, high-profile steady drumbeat of success" which started with Gen David Petraeus' testimony to Congress on the surge yet "that is a message that was undercut today by the actual report." In July, eight of 18 benchmarks were scored as "satisfactory;" current progress consists merely of a shift to nine of 18. And NBC's David Gregory pointed out that even the title of Bush's speech implicitly conceded lowered expectations: "The President spoke of success--not victory."
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates came up with the same number all three networks bandied about yesterday (text link) for troop levels in Iraq at the end of the Bush Presidency--down from 169K now to 135K in July 2008 to 100K five months later. CBS' substitute anchor Harry Smith hyped that number as an "ambitious" drawdown. CBS' Axelrod noted that it was Gates' "hope--it is not an administration plan."
Monday's advertisement in The New York Times by anti-war activists moveon.org is the gift that keeps on giving. Its rhyming insinuation that Gen Petraeus might "betray us" by imparting an optimistic spin to the military facts on the ground inspired Republican Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani to buy his own counter-ad in the Times accusing moveon.org of character assassination. ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required) noted that moveon.org is so influential in the Democratic Party that none of its Presidential candidates had publicly disavowed the "betray us" slogan. He calculated that the ad backfired: "It allowed Republicans to talk about the rhetoric of war opponents instead of failures in Iraq."
NO RETURN There was a lone report from Iraq itself--Robert Bazell's In Depth follow-up for NBC on the 28th Combat Support Hospital, nine months after his first visit. The medics were supposed to be returning home now but their tour of duty had been extended for five months "like so many units in Iraq." Bazell remarked that "the sounds and the scene are the same, the choppers, the rush of the medics…the same disciplined professionalism and compassion." However the "unrelenting casualties and time are taking their toll on the staff." Steeped in gore, nursing colonel Sharon Williams wondered: "When I get back home, am I going to think about this every day?"
TORTUOUS ABC's lead by Brian Ross was about the secret decision by the Central Intelligence Agency to ban an activity, which it officially never admitted using, because "it was no longer necessary." Ross was referring to waterboarding, the torture technique that creates the sensation of drowning in a prisoner. Ross' unidentified "official" sources told him that the White House has removed this form of torture from its official list of Approved Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. "Privately" Ross was told that Khalid Mohammed had been waterboarded and, indeed, the suspected al-Qaeda leader accused the CIA of torture at his tribunal, redacted audiotape portions of which Ross played for us.
Ross could not obtain any on-the-record comment from either White House or CIA about the veracity of his report, only this from an unidentified spook: "It is fair to say now the interrogation program being used at this day has changed from the one used in the past."
BUYER’S MARKET NBC turned to the real estate market for its lead, dramatizing the steepest decline in house prices in 20 years with publicity for a stunt by the homebuilding firm Hovnanian. "Call it a fire sale but do not call it a going-out-of-business sale," declared CNBC's real estate specialist Diana Olick. Hovnanian, whose corporate value on the stock market has been slashed by 75% this year, is trying to clear 1,000 houses from its nationwide inventory this weekend, cutting its asking prices by as much as $100,000. Prices are being driven down for the classic reason, Olick stated simply: "The supply of new and existing homes for sale across the nation far exceeds demand." She ticked off the states where prices are falling fastest--those that led the boom (Cal, Fla, Ariz, Nev) and those where the local economy (Mich, Ohio) is in trouble.
UN-RANGEL With its Follow the Money title, Sharyl Attkisson's expose of porkbarrel spending in the halls of Congress for CBS promised to be another episode in outrage. Instead we saw good natured teasing of pomposity and a pair of the choicest soundbites.
At stake was a mere $2m in federal funding for a political science center at City College in New York City. The college is based in Harlem, represented for 36 years by Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee. The building will include the Charles B Rangel Center for Public Service, the Rangel Conference Center and the Charles Rangel Library.
Soundbite #1 came during a floor debate when John Campbell, a freshman Republican Congressman from California, questioned the propriety of this "monument to me," asking whether it was proper for politicians to name things after themselves. Answered Rangel: "I would have a problem if you did it because I do not think you have been around long enough."
Soundbite #2 came from Mary Lou Edmondson of City College when Attkisson asked her whether Rangel made it a requirement that his name be on the center. The concept of an un-Rangel Center was so unimaginable that Edmondson was at a loss for words: her reply came out as an astonished giggle.
LESS GREAT Global warming is reducing the amount of ice on the Great Lakes, allowing for more evaporation. Lower waters have made sandbars appear; they have required marinas to move docks; they force freighters to carry lighter cargoes. A decade-long drought has not helped, either. Levels are two feet lower than normal, with 12tr fewer gallons of fresh water. And they gave NBC's Lee Cowan the chance to nail his story from Duluth with this line: "Mighty Superior is becoming inferior."
ARE YOUR READY? And rounding out the week--football. All three networks assigned a correspondent to cover both coach Bill Belichick and Hall of Famer OJ Simpson.
The Juice got in a rhubarb at the Palace Station casino in Las Vegas over sports memorabilia. "There is no dispute there was a dust-up in a hotel room," reported CBS' Bill Whitaker. "What is disputed is whether OJ and his friends broke in with a gun." NBC's George Lewis repeated Simpson's version that he was conducting "a sting operation to recover souvenirs stolen from him." ABC's Brian Rooney (subscription required) speculated that the memorabilia may not have belonged to Simpson because of the $33m verdict against him for the wrongful death of his ex-wife and her waiter friend: "Even his Heisman Trophy was auctioned. Money from anything he sells goes to pay the judgment." The headlines coincided with the publication of his fantasy book If I Did It in which he imagines how he might have perpetrated the murders for which he was acquitted. Income from that, too, goes to pay the judgment. NBC's Lewis suggested "sales will probably by helped."
Belichick was punished by the National Football league for cheating. The so-called "evil genius" of the New England Patriots "had been warned but still broke the rule," noted NBC's Mike Taibbi. His assistant was caught videotaping signals sent in from the sidelines by an opposing coach. Belichick's Patriots have won three Super Bowl championships in the past six years, "a dynasty," ABC's John Berman called them. "Now many are wondering if it is a dynasty built on deceit." Doom and gloom was the theme at CBS, too: "A harsh shadow has been cast on the league's model franchise and the image of its iconic coach," intoned Armen Keteyian (no link). We know that fans take their football very seriously--but $500,000 seems a super stiff fine for some surreptitious videotape.
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: a high school student's conviction for attempted murder arising from a racial dispute over a smalltown shade tree in Jena La was overturned on appeal…depositors staged a run on the Northern Rock bank in England…the White House press corps gave spokesman Tony Snow a standing ovation to mark his last day on the job…the clean-up is under way in Texas and Louisiana after Hurricane Humberto.
