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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 23, 2008
A massive questionnaire survey of the religious beliefs of Americans dominated the headlines even as one of the nation's most famous atheists died. The foul-mouthed God-ridiculing comedian George Carlin died, aged 71, earning obituaries on all three network newscasts. Carlin was in a clear minority, according to the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. After interviewing a sample of 35,000, the forum found that 92% of the population believes in God. Both CBS and ABC, with substitute anchor Elizabeth Vargas, led with the survey, which was Story of the Day. NBC kicked off with the pinch the high cost of oil puts on public school budgets as funds are diverted to pay for school bus diesel.
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GOD IS ALIVE AMONG AMERICANS; CARLIN DIES A massive questionnaire survey of the religious beliefs of Americans dominated the headlines even as one of the nation's most famous atheists died. The foul-mouthed God-ridiculing comedian George Carlin died, aged 71, earning obituaries on all three network newscasts. Carlin was in a clear minority, according to the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. After interviewing a sample of 35,000, the forum found that 92% of the population believes in God. Both CBS and ABC, with substitute anchor Elizabeth Vargas, led with the survey, which was Story of the Day. NBC kicked off with the pinch the high cost of oil puts on public school budgets as funds are diverted to pay for school bus diesel.
CBS anchor Katie Couric was hardly neutral on the survey's results. She interpreted the finding that "people think prayer and faith is very important in their lives" as "a lot of good news" when she interviewed her network's in-house faith analyst Thomas Williams, a Roman Catholic theology professor based in the Vatican. Williams disagreed about the "good news" part because the survey also found Americans to be open minded, tolerant and undogmatic when it comes to religious beliefs. "Religion has always been considered to be in the truth business," the priest insisted. "When it is no longer about truth but just about kind of feeling good and fitting in, then I think that that is threatening." On NBC Rehema Ellis extracted a similar soundbite from the Rev Eugene Rivers of Boston's Azusa Christian Community: "terribly theologically illiterate," was how he described Americans based on survey results. ABC's Dan Harris and CBS' Chip Reid came down on the side of tolerance. "We have had enough tolerance to make sure that our culture wars do not turn into civil wars," declared Harris. "Americans are becoming more and more willing to accept the religious beliefs of others," concluded Reid.
UPDATE: thinking about theological illiteracy, all three networks missed the opportunity to provide context for their reporting of the survey results. For example, ABC's Harris noted that the study found a big division between the 60% of Americans who believe they have a personal relationship with God and the 25% who consider the divine to be an impersonal force. It would have been instructive for Harris to have offered a theological checklist. Which religions and denominations find God to be personal? Which opt for impersonal? Which sects do the weakest job at instructing adherents on the articles of faith?
RADICAL CARPOOLING Rising oil prices were covered with different angles on all three newscasts. On NBC, Trish Regan of CNBC, its sibling financial news cable channel, kicked off with the school bus angle. CBS launched a series Changing Times with Nancy Cordes listing anecdotes of lifestyle changes prompted by high gasoline prices--more mass transit use, moves from suburbs to cities, switches from SUVs to hybrids, more bicycles and a free plug for dividetheride.com, which enables radical carpooling. CBS' Armen Keteyian attended hearings on Capitol Hill into the role of commodity speculation in driving up the cost of crude. On ABC, Ryan Owens (embargoed link) noted the speculators are a factor--but so is the weak US dollar and the so-called risk premium, the cost to ensure continued supply in the face of interruption from geopolitical or weather factors.
MUGABE’S HOODLUMS On a busy day of news all three networks turned an unaccustomed eye on the agonies of Zimbabwe. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai capitulated in the face of violent government repression and agreed not to contest the upcoming election against incumbent Robert Mugabe. ABC's Martha Raddatz filed from the White House, CBS' Richard Roth from London and NBC had Martin Geissler from its British newsgathering partner ITN file from Johannesburg. Together this trio paid more attention to Zimbabwe in one day than in the rest of the year.
FCC’S SEVEN BLEEPS There were two other stories covered by all three networks. Each had a follow-up on last week's Mississippi River floods: CBS' Ben Tracy (no link) showed us the clean-up in Cedar Rapids; ABC's Gigi Stone (embargoed link) profiled riverfront homeowners returning to sodden homes; and NBC's Michelle Kosinski stayed with the sandbaggers in Missouri. Secondly, all three filed an obituary for that foul-mouthed atheist whose seven words to this day, even posthumously, have to be bleeped out by order of Federal Communications Commission censors. George Carlin's obits were filed by NBC's George Lewis, CBS' Jim Axelrod and ABC substitute anchor Elizabeth Vargas.
ELSEWHERE… NBC anchor Brian Williams caught up on his Afghanistan coverage. His from-the-field reporting was interrupted when Tim Russert died and NBC switched into tribute mode. Williams' report on the 101st Airborne Division at Bagram AFB insisted that its presence in Afghanistan continues to be for the purpose of pursuing Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda rather than participating in Afghanistan's civil war. Williams' previous interview with NATO's commander Gen David McKiernan and with US commandos training local soldiers had emphasized the civil war.
NBC also offered a hat tip to ABC's bosses and rivals to its own corporate colleagues. Tom Costello filed a What Works feature on the exemplary customer service Disney World offers to its visitors. The service is of such high quality that United Airlines sends its agents to Orlando for how-to tips. Disney World is owned by the parent company of ABC. NBC has its own theme park, Universal Studios, as its corporate sibling--no word on how airlines rate the quality of customer service there.
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: Charles Black, from John McCain's Presidential campaign, speculated that a major terrorist attack would help Republicans in the General Election and then apologized for saying so…charitable donations rose to an all-time high in 2007, a total of $306bn…some 800 are feared dead in The Philippines, where a ferry capsized in a typhoon…Gen Ann Dunwoody has been promoted by the USArmy, to become its first woman with four stars.
CBS anchor Katie Couric was hardly neutral on the survey's results. She interpreted the finding that "people think prayer and faith is very important in their lives" as "a lot of good news" when she interviewed her network's in-house faith analyst Thomas Williams, a Roman Catholic theology professor based in the Vatican. Williams disagreed about the "good news" part because the survey also found Americans to be open minded, tolerant and undogmatic when it comes to religious beliefs. "Religion has always been considered to be in the truth business," the priest insisted. "When it is no longer about truth but just about kind of feeling good and fitting in, then I think that that is threatening." On NBC Rehema Ellis extracted a similar soundbite from the Rev Eugene Rivers of Boston's Azusa Christian Community: "terribly theologically illiterate," was how he described Americans based on survey results. ABC's Dan Harris and CBS' Chip Reid came down on the side of tolerance. "We have had enough tolerance to make sure that our culture wars do not turn into civil wars," declared Harris. "Americans are becoming more and more willing to accept the religious beliefs of others," concluded Reid.
UPDATE: thinking about theological illiteracy, all three networks missed the opportunity to provide context for their reporting of the survey results. For example, ABC's Harris noted that the study found a big division between the 60% of Americans who believe they have a personal relationship with God and the 25% who consider the divine to be an impersonal force. It would have been instructive for Harris to have offered a theological checklist. Which religions and denominations find God to be personal? Which opt for impersonal? Which sects do the weakest job at instructing adherents on the articles of faith?
RADICAL CARPOOLING Rising oil prices were covered with different angles on all three newscasts. On NBC, Trish Regan of CNBC, its sibling financial news cable channel, kicked off with the school bus angle. CBS launched a series Changing Times with Nancy Cordes listing anecdotes of lifestyle changes prompted by high gasoline prices--more mass transit use, moves from suburbs to cities, switches from SUVs to hybrids, more bicycles and a free plug for dividetheride.com, which enables radical carpooling. CBS' Armen Keteyian attended hearings on Capitol Hill into the role of commodity speculation in driving up the cost of crude. On ABC, Ryan Owens (embargoed link) noted the speculators are a factor--but so is the weak US dollar and the so-called risk premium, the cost to ensure continued supply in the face of interruption from geopolitical or weather factors.
MUGABE’S HOODLUMS On a busy day of news all three networks turned an unaccustomed eye on the agonies of Zimbabwe. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai capitulated in the face of violent government repression and agreed not to contest the upcoming election against incumbent Robert Mugabe. ABC's Martha Raddatz filed from the White House, CBS' Richard Roth from London and NBC had Martin Geissler from its British newsgathering partner ITN file from Johannesburg. Together this trio paid more attention to Zimbabwe in one day than in the rest of the year.
FCC’S SEVEN BLEEPS There were two other stories covered by all three networks. Each had a follow-up on last week's Mississippi River floods: CBS' Ben Tracy (no link) showed us the clean-up in Cedar Rapids; ABC's Gigi Stone (embargoed link) profiled riverfront homeowners returning to sodden homes; and NBC's Michelle Kosinski stayed with the sandbaggers in Missouri. Secondly, all three filed an obituary for that foul-mouthed atheist whose seven words to this day, even posthumously, have to be bleeped out by order of Federal Communications Commission censors. George Carlin's obits were filed by NBC's George Lewis, CBS' Jim Axelrod and ABC substitute anchor Elizabeth Vargas.
ELSEWHERE… NBC anchor Brian Williams caught up on his Afghanistan coverage. His from-the-field reporting was interrupted when Tim Russert died and NBC switched into tribute mode. Williams' report on the 101st Airborne Division at Bagram AFB insisted that its presence in Afghanistan continues to be for the purpose of pursuing Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda rather than participating in Afghanistan's civil war. Williams' previous interview with NATO's commander Gen David McKiernan and with US commandos training local soldiers had emphasized the civil war.
NBC also offered a hat tip to ABC's bosses and rivals to its own corporate colleagues. Tom Costello filed a What Works feature on the exemplary customer service Disney World offers to its visitors. The service is of such high quality that United Airlines sends its agents to Orlando for how-to tips. Disney World is owned by the parent company of ABC. NBC has its own theme park, Universal Studios, as its corporate sibling--no word on how airlines rate the quality of customer service there.
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: Charles Black, from John McCain's Presidential campaign, speculated that a major terrorist attack would help Republicans in the General Election and then apologized for saying so…charitable donations rose to an all-time high in 2007, a total of $306bn…some 800 are feared dead in The Philippines, where a ferry capsized in a typhoon…Gen Ann Dunwoody has been promoted by the USArmy, to become its first woman with four stars.
