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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 18, 2008
Flood waters continued to drain out of Iowa and Wisconsin into the Mississippi River and riverside towns continued to add sandbags to the tops of levees in an effort to keep those waters flowing southwards. For the third day in a row, the floods were Story of the Day as almost two dozen levees failed, flooding farmland in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Only NBC led with the floods. CBS' substitute anchor Russ Mitchell teed off with a sports story: the announcement by golfer Tiger Woods that he won the USOpen Monday while playing with a torn knee and a broken leg. ABC led with President George Bush's call for Congress to repeal the ban on exploration for oil in coastal waters. Both ABC and NBC aired from Washington DC since anchors Charles Gibson and Brian Williams attended the afternoon memorial for NBC's Tim Russert at the Kennedy Center.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JUNE 18, 2008: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
FLOODS LEAVE IOWA, HEAD FOR ILLINOIS, MISSOURI Flood waters continued to drain out of Iowa and Wisconsin into the Mississippi River and riverside towns continued to add sandbags to the tops of levees in an effort to keep those waters flowing southwards. For the third day in a row, the floods were Story of the Day as almost two dozen levees failed, flooding farmland in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Only NBC led with the floods. CBS' substitute anchor Russ Mitchell teed off with a sports story: the announcement by golfer Tiger Woods that he won the USOpen Monday while playing with a torn knee and a broken leg. ABC led with President George Bush's call for Congress to repeal the ban on exploration for oil in coastal waters. Both ABC and NBC aired from Washington DC since anchors Charles Gibson and Brian Williams attended the afternoon memorial for NBC's Tim Russert at the Kennedy Center.
All three networks stationed correspondents along the banks of the Mississippi River downstream from the crest. "The Big Muddy is fouled and fierce," warned NBC's Michelle Kosinski as she reported on 1,000 people filling one million sandbags in Quincy Ill. CBS' Cynthia Bowers watched "locals, inmates, soldiers" fill 500,000 "sandbags of salvation" in Clarksville Mo. ABC's Ryan Owens (embargoed link) stood atop a levee in Canton Mo with water lapping "just a couple of feet away."
The floods of 1993 inspired a couple of responses along the Mississippi River--a drive to strengthen levees and a drive to remove them. CBS' Bowers reported that $4bn had been spent on mitigation projects to buy up low-lying land and move flood prone homes. NBC' Kerry Sanders reported on "commissions and recommendations" to upgrade levees to protect against the cresting river's 1750 lbs of pressure on each square foot of wall. Yet the upshot has been a grade D on the structural integrity of the levee system from the American Society of Civil Engineers. "Many of these river towns have not had the money to improve their levees," ABC's Owens concluded.
To the north, ABC's Barbara Pinto (embargoed link) and CBS' Seth Doane followed up from Iowa now that the waters have receded. "Everything reeks with the stench of toxic mud," complained ABC's Pinto in Cedar Rapids, where ten square miles had been under water and hundreds of homes had their foundations ruined and were rendered uninhabitable. CBS' Doane brought us the terrible tale of Gina Rebitz and Bruce Recker for his Other America feature. The couple had to move into a trailer after their home was wiped out by a tornado on Memorial Day. Now floods have chased them out of that trailer leaving them "living in a Red Cross shelter feeling helpless." Rebitz reflected on her fate: "We are not homeless people but in reality…we actually are homeless."
LAME DUCK PITCH FOR BIG OIL George Bush's lame duck status is such that even when he makes news--as he did with his speech on oil exploration in coastal waters--there is a shortage of White House correspondents on hand to cover it. ABC treated his announcement as an economic story, assigning it its money woman Betsy Stark (embargoed link) in New York City. NBC and CBS covered the President's proposal from the point of view of the coastline. CBS substitute anchor Russ Mitchell found Bill Whitaker "on a gorgeous beach in Santa Monica" where he reminded us of the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969. In California, "opposition to offshore drilling is bipartisan." NBC went to Mark Potter in Tampa: "With tourism the major industry here, the big fear is that an oil spill could foul these beaches." The current spike in the cost of oil has undercut longstanding environmental opposition to drilling, ABC's Stark stated. Yet "the oil industry has long coveted the waters off Florida and California as potentially rich sources of crude" adding that "the technology of drilling in extreme locations has certainly improved since the ban was first put in place" in the 1980s.
DOWNTOWN MOVES UPMARKET Staying Afloat is NBC's series on the adjustments people make in tougheconomic times. Monday, Savannah Guthrie kicked off on the impact of the high price of food. Tuesday, Tom Costello covered the switch from cars to mass transit in the face of gasoline hikes. Now Kevin Tibbles looks at trends in the housing market. Real estate values are falling faster in the suburbs than in downtown areas, he told us, because urban homes are cheaper to heat and require a shorter commute. "There was a time when this section of downtown was considered a dead zone filled with old factories and parking lots," Tibbles told us from Minneapolis. "Today it is alive with the sound of new construction."
AFGHANISTAN ADVANCES ON IRAQ For the first five months of 2008, Iraq held its accustomed place of preeminence over Afghanistan (234 min v 25) in the networks' pecking order for warzone coverage. Things have changed in June. NBC sent anchor Brian Williams to Kabul last week and ABC have Jim Sciutto in Kandahar, where the Marine Corps' anti-Taliban sweep of neighboring villages encountered "little resistance." Afghanistan has received more coverage in the first half of this month than in the previous five months combined--and twice as much (32 min v 13 for June so far) as Iraq.
TOLEDO TERRORISM Only ABC covered the debate on the campaign trail between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain over the War on Terrorism. Obama endorsed the use of federal courts to prosecute suspected terrorists and to hear appeals against detention by Guantanamo Bay inmates. Jake Tapper quoted the McCain riposte that Obama "viewed terrorism as purely a law enforcement matter, not a war." Tapper quoted Obama's further riposte that Republicans "use terrorism as a club to make the American people afraid to win elections." Tapper saw Obama as being "determined not to fall into the national security trap that befell John Kerry in 2004" and implied that the GOP tactic may turn out to be ineffective, calling it "a familiar debate in a vastly different political landscape." Tapper did not explain what those vast differences are.
On CBS, Bob Orr had an example of the use of law enforcement to prosecute terrorists. He went behind the scenes of the Toledo Ohio trio convicted of a suicide bomb plot against GIs in Iraq on the evidence of an "ex-commando working undercover for the FBI." The three never made it to Iraq but they did contact a pair in Chicago who communicated with two Atlanta students who were in touch with a group in Toronto who reported to Irahbi 007, a "shadowy al-Qaeda Webmaster" based in London. Irahbi 007 was suspected of coordinating plots against the US Capitol and landmark buildings in Toronto. "None of these plots even came close. All were busted," Orr reassured us.
CELL ARMY The unprecedented cure of a single cancer patient that was written up in the New England Journal of Medicine inspired ABC's John McKenzie to share. The experiment involved isolating an immune system cell that is "actually programmed by the body to attack cancer." It was removed from the melanoma patient and cultivated in a laboratory, growing "a vast new army of them, 5bn cells," which were then injected into the patient. Within two months the tumor had disappeared. McKenzie called it "a promising start."
NO WHINING The Kennedy Center tribute to NBC's DC bureau chief Tim Russert was attended by anchors Charles Gibson and Brian Williams and mentioned on all three newscasts. Appropriately, only NBC assigned a reporter to summarize the ceremonies. Williams was still in the hall to introduce Bob Faw, who emphasized Russert's "zest for life, that joyful unfeigned exuberance" and quoted his late boss' motto for living: Thou Shalt Not Whine.
NO FAIR USE CLAIM FOR WOODS VIDEO Of all beats covered on the network nightly newscasts, sports stories are least likely to have a continued online presence. Even though it is indisputable that it would be fair use to include a clip from a sporting event in a legitimately newsworthy story, the networks seem reluctant to challenge the copyright claims of major sports organizations. So neither CBS' lead by Armen Keteyian nor ABC's closer by John Berman on the golfing injury to Tiger Woods are available as online videostreams. NBC, whose sports division broadcast Monday's USOpen 19-hole playoff between Woods and Rocco Mediate, has posted Mike Taibbi's report. Taibbi called the contest "irresistible television"…Keteyian praised "the kind of theater not even the most casual fan could resist"…Berman reckoned that the news of Woods' injury means that his victory "now goes from amazing to epic." CBS' substitute anchor Russ Mitchell interviewed sports orthopedist Michael Kelly, who treats the knees of basketball players on the NBA's New Jersey Nets. "Medically speaking are you stunned that he won this thing?" "Absolutely."
Woods will undergo surgery to have his knee ligaments rebuilt and will rest to repair the hairline fractures in his leg. "Few people swing the golf club at 127 mph," Taibbi demonstrated, using considerable less damaging torque.
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 Government Accountability Office criticized the US Air Force for its procedures in awarding its $40bn flying fuel tanker contract to Airbus not Boeing…fresh tomatoes, which had been withdrawn by supermarkets and fast food outlets pending investigation into the source of salmonella, have been put back on sale…Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic Presidential candidate, appeared on ABC's talkshow The View and thanked First Lady Laura Bush for defending her patriotism.
All three networks stationed correspondents along the banks of the Mississippi River downstream from the crest. "The Big Muddy is fouled and fierce," warned NBC's Michelle Kosinski as she reported on 1,000 people filling one million sandbags in Quincy Ill. CBS' Cynthia Bowers watched "locals, inmates, soldiers" fill 500,000 "sandbags of salvation" in Clarksville Mo. ABC's Ryan Owens (embargoed link) stood atop a levee in Canton Mo with water lapping "just a couple of feet away."
The floods of 1993 inspired a couple of responses along the Mississippi River--a drive to strengthen levees and a drive to remove them. CBS' Bowers reported that $4bn had been spent on mitigation projects to buy up low-lying land and move flood prone homes. NBC' Kerry Sanders reported on "commissions and recommendations" to upgrade levees to protect against the cresting river's 1750 lbs of pressure on each square foot of wall. Yet the upshot has been a grade D on the structural integrity of the levee system from the American Society of Civil Engineers. "Many of these river towns have not had the money to improve their levees," ABC's Owens concluded.
To the north, ABC's Barbara Pinto (embargoed link) and CBS' Seth Doane followed up from Iowa now that the waters have receded. "Everything reeks with the stench of toxic mud," complained ABC's Pinto in Cedar Rapids, where ten square miles had been under water and hundreds of homes had their foundations ruined and were rendered uninhabitable. CBS' Doane brought us the terrible tale of Gina Rebitz and Bruce Recker for his Other America feature. The couple had to move into a trailer after their home was wiped out by a tornado on Memorial Day. Now floods have chased them out of that trailer leaving them "living in a Red Cross shelter feeling helpless." Rebitz reflected on her fate: "We are not homeless people but in reality…we actually are homeless."
LAME DUCK PITCH FOR BIG OIL George Bush's lame duck status is such that even when he makes news--as he did with his speech on oil exploration in coastal waters--there is a shortage of White House correspondents on hand to cover it. ABC treated his announcement as an economic story, assigning it its money woman Betsy Stark (embargoed link) in New York City. NBC and CBS covered the President's proposal from the point of view of the coastline. CBS substitute anchor Russ Mitchell found Bill Whitaker "on a gorgeous beach in Santa Monica" where he reminded us of the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969. In California, "opposition to offshore drilling is bipartisan." NBC went to Mark Potter in Tampa: "With tourism the major industry here, the big fear is that an oil spill could foul these beaches." The current spike in the cost of oil has undercut longstanding environmental opposition to drilling, ABC's Stark stated. Yet "the oil industry has long coveted the waters off Florida and California as potentially rich sources of crude" adding that "the technology of drilling in extreme locations has certainly improved since the ban was first put in place" in the 1980s.
DOWNTOWN MOVES UPMARKET Staying Afloat is NBC's series on the adjustments people make in tougheconomic times. Monday, Savannah Guthrie kicked off on the impact of the high price of food. Tuesday, Tom Costello covered the switch from cars to mass transit in the face of gasoline hikes. Now Kevin Tibbles looks at trends in the housing market. Real estate values are falling faster in the suburbs than in downtown areas, he told us, because urban homes are cheaper to heat and require a shorter commute. "There was a time when this section of downtown was considered a dead zone filled with old factories and parking lots," Tibbles told us from Minneapolis. "Today it is alive with the sound of new construction."
AFGHANISTAN ADVANCES ON IRAQ For the first five months of 2008, Iraq held its accustomed place of preeminence over Afghanistan (234 min v 25) in the networks' pecking order for warzone coverage. Things have changed in June. NBC sent anchor Brian Williams to Kabul last week and ABC have Jim Sciutto in Kandahar, where the Marine Corps' anti-Taliban sweep of neighboring villages encountered "little resistance." Afghanistan has received more coverage in the first half of this month than in the previous five months combined--and twice as much (32 min v 13 for June so far) as Iraq.
TOLEDO TERRORISM Only ABC covered the debate on the campaign trail between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain over the War on Terrorism. Obama endorsed the use of federal courts to prosecute suspected terrorists and to hear appeals against detention by Guantanamo Bay inmates. Jake Tapper quoted the McCain riposte that Obama "viewed terrorism as purely a law enforcement matter, not a war." Tapper quoted Obama's further riposte that Republicans "use terrorism as a club to make the American people afraid to win elections." Tapper saw Obama as being "determined not to fall into the national security trap that befell John Kerry in 2004" and implied that the GOP tactic may turn out to be ineffective, calling it "a familiar debate in a vastly different political landscape." Tapper did not explain what those vast differences are.
On CBS, Bob Orr had an example of the use of law enforcement to prosecute terrorists. He went behind the scenes of the Toledo Ohio trio convicted of a suicide bomb plot against GIs in Iraq on the evidence of an "ex-commando working undercover for the FBI." The three never made it to Iraq but they did contact a pair in Chicago who communicated with two Atlanta students who were in touch with a group in Toronto who reported to Irahbi 007, a "shadowy al-Qaeda Webmaster" based in London. Irahbi 007 was suspected of coordinating plots against the US Capitol and landmark buildings in Toronto. "None of these plots even came close. All were busted," Orr reassured us.
CELL ARMY The unprecedented cure of a single cancer patient that was written up in the New England Journal of Medicine inspired ABC's John McKenzie to share. The experiment involved isolating an immune system cell that is "actually programmed by the body to attack cancer." It was removed from the melanoma patient and cultivated in a laboratory, growing "a vast new army of them, 5bn cells," which were then injected into the patient. Within two months the tumor had disappeared. McKenzie called it "a promising start."
NO WHINING The Kennedy Center tribute to NBC's DC bureau chief Tim Russert was attended by anchors Charles Gibson and Brian Williams and mentioned on all three newscasts. Appropriately, only NBC assigned a reporter to summarize the ceremonies. Williams was still in the hall to introduce Bob Faw, who emphasized Russert's "zest for life, that joyful unfeigned exuberance" and quoted his late boss' motto for living: Thou Shalt Not Whine.
NO FAIR USE CLAIM FOR WOODS VIDEO Of all beats covered on the network nightly newscasts, sports stories are least likely to have a continued online presence. Even though it is indisputable that it would be fair use to include a clip from a sporting event in a legitimately newsworthy story, the networks seem reluctant to challenge the copyright claims of major sports organizations. So neither CBS' lead by Armen Keteyian nor ABC's closer by John Berman on the golfing injury to Tiger Woods are available as online videostreams. NBC, whose sports division broadcast Monday's USOpen 19-hole playoff between Woods and Rocco Mediate, has posted Mike Taibbi's report. Taibbi called the contest "irresistible television"…Keteyian praised "the kind of theater not even the most casual fan could resist"…Berman reckoned that the news of Woods' injury means that his victory "now goes from amazing to epic." CBS' substitute anchor Russ Mitchell interviewed sports orthopedist Michael Kelly, who treats the knees of basketball players on the NBA's New Jersey Nets. "Medically speaking are you stunned that he won this thing?" "Absolutely."
Woods will undergo surgery to have his knee ligaments rebuilt and will rest to repair the hairline fractures in his leg. "Few people swing the golf club at 127 mph," Taibbi demonstrated, using considerable less damaging torque.
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 Government Accountability Office criticized the US Air Force for its procedures in awarding its $40bn flying fuel tanker contract to Airbus not Boeing…fresh tomatoes, which had been withdrawn by supermarkets and fast food outlets pending investigation into the source of salmonella, have been put back on sale…Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic Presidential candidate, appeared on ABC's talkshow The View and thanked First Lady Laura Bush for defending her patriotism.
