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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
For the second straight day the threat of a meltdown in global financial capitalism led off all three network newscasts. American International Group, the insurance conglomerate, is desperate for an infusion of capital to stave off bankruptcy. Its fate was still unknown at the news hour. Yet, despite those lead items, it was the intersection between the financial markets and Campaign '08 that qualified as Story of the Day. With just seven weeks left until Election Day, all three networks have unveiled feature series on policy issues. Both NBC and CBS call theirs Where They Stand. ABC's is dubbed What's The Difference? Extended analysis of the two candidates' financial platforms by ABC and CBS qualified as the day's most heavily covered story. CBS split its anchoring chores, with Harry Smith in the New York studio and Katie Couric in Colorado, where she interviewed Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR SEPTEMBER 16, 2008: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
MORE HIGH FINANCE ANXIETY For the second straight day the threat of a meltdown in global financial capitalism led off all three network newscasts. American International Group, the insurance conglomerate, is desperate for an infusion of capital to stave off bankruptcy. Its fate was still unknown at the news hour. Yet, despite those lead items, it was the intersection between the financial markets and Campaign '08 that qualified as Story of the Day. With just seven weeks left until Election Day, all three networks have unveiled feature series on policy issues. Both NBC and CBS call theirs Where They Stand. ABC's is dubbed What's The Difference? Extended analysis of the two candidates' financial platforms by ABC and CBS qualified as the day's most heavily covered story. CBS split its anchoring chores, with Harry Smith in the New York studio and Katie Couric in Colorado, where she interviewed Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
First, the hard news from high finance. ABC's Betsy Stark told us about daylong meetings hosted by the New York Federal Reserve as the Treasury Department tried to convince Goldman Sachs, an investment house, and JP Morgan, a bank, "to offer AIG a line of credit big enough to keep its business going. But they refused." Why was it so important to find those funds? "Because AIG does business with every major financial institution and in 130 countries. When a bank makes a loan to another bank or company, AIG insures those loans," explained CBS' Anthony Mason. "If it goes bankrupt, banks will be forced to come up with capital or call in the loans." Funnily enough NBC, which made such an extra effort on the financial crisis in partnership with CNBC on Monday, went into least detail on the AIG story. CNBC's Carl Quintanilla concluded by informing us that "talks about a potential rescue package between AIG, banks and the government remain very unclear."
WHO REGULATES THE REGULATORS? Next, the campaign spin on the money worries. NBC's financial Where They Stand was filed by John Yang Monday, so ABC's issues feature by David Wright and CBS' by Ben Tracy trod some of the same ground a day later. Tracy was in Las Vegas, a city with 22,000 homes facing foreclosure, to outline the two candidates' proposals in the aftermath of the bursting of the real estate bubble. Tracy found no difference between Barack Obama and John McCain in their support for the nationalization of FannieMae and FreddieMac and no difference in their support for a program to convert adjustable rate loans into 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. The distinction Tracy found lies in their proposals for what happens next--one wants a smaller federal role, the other a larger one. No prizes for working out which is which. McCain would downsize FannieMae and FreddieMac and then privatize them. Obama would set up a $10bn federal fund to prevent foreclosures, to offer mortgage relief under bankruptcy, and to subsidize low-income homeowners.
ABC had Wright use its What's the Difference? format to summarize the day's debate from the campaign trail. Financial regulations? Obama has a package of six specific reforms; McCain proposes a bipartisan commission to draft a package. Fiscal policy? Obama wants to raise taxes on wealth and reduce them for the majority of households; McCain wants to extend tax cuts for the wealthy and grant new tax cuts for corporations and increase exemptions for dependents. Real estate? Wright saw a clearer distinction than Tracy did. He reported that only McCain supports fixed-rate refinancing; Obama's policy was the federal fund and the low-income support.
Obama listed the highlights of his financial reform package in his sitdown with CBS anchor Katie Couric, for which she claimed an Exclusive. NBC brought us the news from the two campaigns in tandem: first Lee Cowan with Obama in Colorado and then Kelly O'Donnell (at the tail of the same videostream) with McCain in Ohio. As McCain was calling for a commission to propose new financial regulations, O'Donnell reminded us that the candidate declared to The Wall Street Journal in March: "I am always for less regulation." Cowan noted that Obama's package of reforms had already been prepared six months ago, before the current financial crisis. Obama "blamed the mortgage meltdown--just like the collapse of the Savings & Loan industry--on government regulators being asleep at the switch." Presumably that was a reference to McCain's membership of the Keating Five, the group of senators accused of improperly lobbying regulators on behalf of a bankrupt S&L.
If so, Cowan should have connected those dots, pointing out that McCain was but a minor player in that quintet.
ACCESS HOLLYWOOD Democrat Barack Obama left Colorado for Beverly Hills for a fundraiser with Barbra Streisand. NBC's Chris Jansing found such starpower irresistible. She filed a breathless In Depth bold-faced type feature on Hollywood's celebrity divide. In Obama's corner she included Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker and Ben Affleck and George Clooney. Republican John McCain attracts an older posse of stars, including Tom Selleck and Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. Jansing tried to make a serious point to conclude a flippant feature. The paparazzi and the political press are never invited to cover such glamorous fundraisers because there is political risk to hosting them. Such publicity might place the celebrity-schmoozing candidate on the wrong side of the regular-vs-elite cultural divide. It is a "delicate but lucrative balancing act."
GALVESTON SMELLOVISION Galveston Bay remains the focus of the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. The island itself still has a 6pm curfew, ABC's Eric Horng told us, for all residents to leave; but they were allowed to return to inspect the damage to their homes during daylight hours for the first time. NBC's Don Teague tried some smellovision, describing the combined aromas of "dead fish, raw sewage and gasoline" hanging in the air. Galveston Island is covered by "toxic soup" from the household cleaners and solvents and paints and heavy metals that were churned up by the storm surge. CBS sent Mark Strassmann to the Bolivar peninsula, which ABC's Ryan Owens (embargoed link) visited Monday. "Beach homes look like Stonehenge," he showed us, as 60 "shell-shocked survivors" who had weathered the storm were finally rescued.
On the mainland, ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi (embargoed link) updated us on FEMA's relief efforts for the 1.5m residents of the Houston area on their fourth day without electricity or running water. The agency intends to deliver 7m meals, 5m gallons of water and 19m lbs of ice.
NO LONGER NOT HOPELESS Jonathan Karl was the only network Pentagon correspondent to file from Secretary Robert Gates' entourage in Baghdad. Gates was there to attend the United States' military command handover ceremony. Gen David Petraeus has been promoted after 19 months in charge in Iraq. Gen Raymond Odierno steps up. ABC's Karl summarized the before-and-after of Petraeus' tour in the general's own words. When he arrived the situation was "hard but not hopeless." Now it is "hard but hopeful."
UNLUCKY SEVEN The Food & Drug Administration held hearings into the possible risks of using plastic bottles made with Bisphenol A. They are the ones with #7 in the tiny triangle on the bottom. BPA is a synthetic version of the estrogen hormone; new research shows high concentration in humans is correlated with an increased risk for diabetes and heart disease. NBC assigned Robert Bazell to the story while CBS had in-house physician Jon LaPook report on the research. Even though the FDA does not agree that the ingredient leaches dangerously, both told us that a growing number of plastic bottle makers are switching their formulation to drop the chemical. LaPook added that, for safety's sake, #7 bottles should not be microwaved.
ALE, SPORE & SNORE All three newscasts closed with a fun feature as an antidote to fearful financial times. ABC's Nick Watt (embargoed link) visited The Pigs, a pub in the English countryside, where cash-strapped drinkers buy their beer by barter, providing fresh food for the kitchen in exchange…Daniel Sieberg kicked off CBS' Games Our Children Play series with the comforting news that most videogames played by teenagers do not have violent content and are enjoyed in social settings, often accomplishing educationally-approved goals such as solving problems and overcoming obstacles…for NBC's Planes, Trains & Automobiles series, Ron Mott introduced us to the mini-motel, a $50 single person indoor tent that folds into a five-pound carry-on bag. Mott posed as an airline passenger needing a nap while changing planes at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson or sitting through a delay. He pitched the red mini-motel on the floor in the terminal, zipped himself in and caught some z's.
First, the hard news from high finance. ABC's Betsy Stark told us about daylong meetings hosted by the New York Federal Reserve as the Treasury Department tried to convince Goldman Sachs, an investment house, and JP Morgan, a bank, "to offer AIG a line of credit big enough to keep its business going. But they refused." Why was it so important to find those funds? "Because AIG does business with every major financial institution and in 130 countries. When a bank makes a loan to another bank or company, AIG insures those loans," explained CBS' Anthony Mason. "If it goes bankrupt, banks will be forced to come up with capital or call in the loans." Funnily enough NBC, which made such an extra effort on the financial crisis in partnership with CNBC on Monday, went into least detail on the AIG story. CNBC's Carl Quintanilla concluded by informing us that "talks about a potential rescue package between AIG, banks and the government remain very unclear."
WHO REGULATES THE REGULATORS? Next, the campaign spin on the money worries. NBC's financial Where They Stand was filed by John Yang Monday, so ABC's issues feature by David Wright and CBS' by Ben Tracy trod some of the same ground a day later. Tracy was in Las Vegas, a city with 22,000 homes facing foreclosure, to outline the two candidates' proposals in the aftermath of the bursting of the real estate bubble. Tracy found no difference between Barack Obama and John McCain in their support for the nationalization of FannieMae and FreddieMac and no difference in their support for a program to convert adjustable rate loans into 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. The distinction Tracy found lies in their proposals for what happens next--one wants a smaller federal role, the other a larger one. No prizes for working out which is which. McCain would downsize FannieMae and FreddieMac and then privatize them. Obama would set up a $10bn federal fund to prevent foreclosures, to offer mortgage relief under bankruptcy, and to subsidize low-income homeowners.
ABC had Wright use its What's the Difference? format to summarize the day's debate from the campaign trail. Financial regulations? Obama has a package of six specific reforms; McCain proposes a bipartisan commission to draft a package. Fiscal policy? Obama wants to raise taxes on wealth and reduce them for the majority of households; McCain wants to extend tax cuts for the wealthy and grant new tax cuts for corporations and increase exemptions for dependents. Real estate? Wright saw a clearer distinction than Tracy did. He reported that only McCain supports fixed-rate refinancing; Obama's policy was the federal fund and the low-income support.
Obama listed the highlights of his financial reform package in his sitdown with CBS anchor Katie Couric, for which she claimed an Exclusive. NBC brought us the news from the two campaigns in tandem: first Lee Cowan with Obama in Colorado and then Kelly O'Donnell (at the tail of the same videostream) with McCain in Ohio. As McCain was calling for a commission to propose new financial regulations, O'Donnell reminded us that the candidate declared to The Wall Street Journal in March: "I am always for less regulation." Cowan noted that Obama's package of reforms had already been prepared six months ago, before the current financial crisis. Obama "blamed the mortgage meltdown--just like the collapse of the Savings & Loan industry--on government regulators being asleep at the switch." Presumably that was a reference to McCain's membership of the Keating Five, the group of senators accused of improperly lobbying regulators on behalf of a bankrupt S&L.
If so, Cowan should have connected those dots, pointing out that McCain was but a minor player in that quintet.
ACCESS HOLLYWOOD Democrat Barack Obama left Colorado for Beverly Hills for a fundraiser with Barbra Streisand. NBC's Chris Jansing found such starpower irresistible. She filed a breathless In Depth bold-faced type feature on Hollywood's celebrity divide. In Obama's corner she included Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker and Ben Affleck and George Clooney. Republican John McCain attracts an older posse of stars, including Tom Selleck and Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. Jansing tried to make a serious point to conclude a flippant feature. The paparazzi and the political press are never invited to cover such glamorous fundraisers because there is political risk to hosting them. Such publicity might place the celebrity-schmoozing candidate on the wrong side of the regular-vs-elite cultural divide. It is a "delicate but lucrative balancing act."
GALVESTON SMELLOVISION Galveston Bay remains the focus of the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. The island itself still has a 6pm curfew, ABC's Eric Horng told us, for all residents to leave; but they were allowed to return to inspect the damage to their homes during daylight hours for the first time. NBC's Don Teague tried some smellovision, describing the combined aromas of "dead fish, raw sewage and gasoline" hanging in the air. Galveston Island is covered by "toxic soup" from the household cleaners and solvents and paints and heavy metals that were churned up by the storm surge. CBS sent Mark Strassmann to the Bolivar peninsula, which ABC's Ryan Owens (embargoed link) visited Monday. "Beach homes look like Stonehenge," he showed us, as 60 "shell-shocked survivors" who had weathered the storm were finally rescued.
On the mainland, ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi (embargoed link) updated us on FEMA's relief efforts for the 1.5m residents of the Houston area on their fourth day without electricity or running water. The agency intends to deliver 7m meals, 5m gallons of water and 19m lbs of ice.
NO LONGER NOT HOPELESS Jonathan Karl was the only network Pentagon correspondent to file from Secretary Robert Gates' entourage in Baghdad. Gates was there to attend the United States' military command handover ceremony. Gen David Petraeus has been promoted after 19 months in charge in Iraq. Gen Raymond Odierno steps up. ABC's Karl summarized the before-and-after of Petraeus' tour in the general's own words. When he arrived the situation was "hard but not hopeless." Now it is "hard but hopeful."
UNLUCKY SEVEN The Food & Drug Administration held hearings into the possible risks of using plastic bottles made with Bisphenol A. They are the ones with #7 in the tiny triangle on the bottom. BPA is a synthetic version of the estrogen hormone; new research shows high concentration in humans is correlated with an increased risk for diabetes and heart disease. NBC assigned Robert Bazell to the story while CBS had in-house physician Jon LaPook report on the research. Even though the FDA does not agree that the ingredient leaches dangerously, both told us that a growing number of plastic bottle makers are switching their formulation to drop the chemical. LaPook added that, for safety's sake, #7 bottles should not be microwaved.
ALE, SPORE & SNORE All three newscasts closed with a fun feature as an antidote to fearful financial times. ABC's Nick Watt (embargoed link) visited The Pigs, a pub in the English countryside, where cash-strapped drinkers buy their beer by barter, providing fresh food for the kitchen in exchange…Daniel Sieberg kicked off CBS' Games Our Children Play series with the comforting news that most videogames played by teenagers do not have violent content and are enjoyed in social settings, often accomplishing educationally-approved goals such as solving problems and overcoming obstacles…for NBC's Planes, Trains & Automobiles series, Ron Mott introduced us to the mini-motel, a $50 single person indoor tent that folds into a five-pound carry-on bag. Mott posed as an airline passenger needing a nap while changing planes at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson or sitting through a delay. He pitched the red mini-motel on the floor in the terminal, zipped himself in and caught some z's.
