 |           |
TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 11, 2008
Which economic catastrophe should take pride of place? The collapse in real estate? Or the downfall of the automobile industry? The 4m homebuyers who are behind on their mortgage payments en route to foreclosure? Or the 2.5m workers who could face unemployment if General Motors goes bankrupt? ABC and CBS chose housing, as FannieMae, the mortgage guarantor, announced procedures for modifying home loan repayment plans. NBC chose autos, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her support for a federal bailout of Detroit. Autos, by a whisker, qualified as Story of the Day.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 11, 2008: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
PICK YOUR POISON: FORECLOSURE OR BANKRUPTCY? Which economic catastrophe should take pride of place? The collapse in real estate? Or the downfall of the automobile industry? The 4m homebuyers who are behind on their mortgage payments en route to foreclosure? Or the 2.5m workers who could face unemployment if General Motors goes bankrupt? ABC and CBS chose housing, as FannieMae, the mortgage guarantor, announced procedures for modifying home loan repayment plans. NBC chose autos, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her support for a federal bailout of Detroit. Autos, by a whisker, qualified as Story of the Day.
All three newscasts publicized the study by the Center for Automotive Research that projected the ripple effect of any of Detroit's Big Three automakers going out of business. Including workers, dealers, suppliers and support industries, one shutdown amounts to 2.5m layoffs. CNBC's automobile correspondent Phil LeBeau translated that on NBC into $125bn in annual income. "Detroit says it just needs a $25bn bridge loan to get through this rough patch," reported CBS' Anthony Mason. By "rough patch" he meant "an auto industry that is crashing. General Motors' sales fell 45% in October. It is bleeding $2bn in cash a month and cannot borrow."
For $5, CBS' Mason pointed out, an investor can buy a share of both Ford and General Motors. He asked an unidentified Wall Street analyst whether they were worth it: "There are better things you can do with your money." On ABC, Chris Bury (no link) doubted that a $25bn bailout would do the job. His figure was $75bn. "But if we are bailing out autos, why not steel companies, airlines or newspapers?" he asked rhetorically, gazing into a socialist future.
NEITHER A BORROWER NOR A LENDER BE On Monday, NBC's Lisa Myers told us about the FDIC's pilot program for modifying home mortgages offered by IndyMac Bank. Its target is to have no borrower pay more than 38% of monthly income on house payments. Now all three newscasts covered the proposal by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which took control of FannieMae and FreddieMac, to follow in the FDIC's footsteps. Payments will be reduced not by reducing the amount owed, but by cutting the interest rate and lengthening the schedule. "The pressure is growing on banks that have received money from the federal government to use that money to do more for homeowners," ABC's Betsy Stark (no link) observed. Accordingly, JP Morgan, Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup are following the lead of the FDIC and FHFA, CBS' Bill Whitaker reported.
Not all homeowners will be eligible; only those falling behind on their payments and whose home's value has fallen so sharply that what they owe exceeds 90% of its equity--oftentimes even 100%. NBC, which relied on its sibling financial news channel for its Detroit coverage, turned to CNBC again for the real estate story. Trish Regan noted that many see the plan as "simply unfair" since the relief is not extended to those who were "responsible and only bought as much home as they could afford." Meanwhile, for those who do renegotiate, "millions of homeowners will still be stuck in properties that are worth less now than when they bought them."
Robert Manning is the consumer debt expert given free publicity by Priya David for CBS' Dollars and Sense series. Manning has isolated a category of credit card debtor he has called the Near Bankrupt and operates his program through the resolution firms In Charge and Hope Financial in 25 states. Before he came along, banks used to insist that borrowers make the choice between declaring bankruptcy and pledging 100% debt repayment. Manning's formula persuades banks to accept partial payment--sometimes as little as 37c on the dollar.
IRRELEVANT BUT CUTE Tyndall Report had a premonition as early as last Thursday that the period between now and Inauguration Day could be sickly sweet with vignettes of how adorable the next First Family is going to be. So it was gratifying, in a way, to hear NBC anchor Brian Williams confess that the gush he ladled out Monday was "inescapably cute" but "irrelevant." The tidbit was the West Wingesque insider glimpse into the secret code names the Secret Service had assigned to the First Family: Renegade and Renaissance and Radiance and Rosebud. When his viewers protested that Williams was putting seven-year-old Sasha in danger by blowing her Rosebud cover, the anchor had to own up that in these days of encrypted radio the codes "no longer serve any real security function…The Secret Service loves the tradition. They come up with terrific names. They release them to us for broadcast."
As far as the work of the transition is concerned, CBS' Chip Reid told us that Barack Obama and his aides are "intensely focused on plans for easing the economic crisis." ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported that the federal government may borrow up 3% or 4% of GDP--about $500bn--for stimulus spending on infrastructure, alternative energy, unemployment extensions and aid to state and local government. ABC's Jake Tapper updated us on the rules that forbid lobbyists from working on the Obama transition team. They are allowed to participate, he said with a straight face, "just not in the area of their expertise."
Translation--we do not mind influence peddling as long as it is incompetent.
PARTY ON "Is the Party over?" NBC's Andrea Mitchell wondered rhetorically about the GOP, having lost an election trifecta of White House and Senate and House. Of course it is not. She reeled off a list of six men and one woman who are in position to become the next Republican leader: Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty, Charlie Crist, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich--and Sarah Palin, who invited Today anchor Matt Lauer into her kitchen in Wasilla to rehash the highs and lows of Campaign 2008: "It was an amazing experience."
ELEVEN/ELEVEN Veterans Day is observed and all three newscasts filed sympathetic features about the military. Jim Miklaszewski for NBC's In Depth looked at those on active duty suffering from depression and traumatic stress. Chaplains are the first line of defense for preventing suicide, "spiritual combat buddies." On CBS, Kelly Wallace offered a preview of Lioness, the PBS documentary on female soldiers drawn into combat in Iraq despite the Pentagon's prohibition. Patty Culhane covered the lioness squads--designated to frisk civilian women while preserving their modesty--for NBC in July. Bob Woodruff on ABC's A Closer Look chose the Transition Training Academy for disabled veterans in San Diego. It offers hi-tech occupational training for those about to become civilians once more.
IMAGINARY PASSENGERS AND REAL BOMBERS A couple of contrasting features were filed from south Asia, one blood curdling, one whimsical. For whimsy, meet Bahadur Chand Gupta, a former aircraft engineer, who seeks to instill a love of flying in poor children from the villages around Delhi. NBC's Ian Williams showed us the fuselage of a decommissioned Airbus that Chand Gupta has assembled in a field near the airport. He invites children to travel on a 40-minute imaginary flight, complete with replica seating layout, safety belts, emergency announcements, call buttons and in-flight service. The children exit by the emergency chute.
Bloodcurdling was the Exclusive videotape played by CBS' Lara Logan of a schoolboy from a Pakistani madrassah blowing himself to smithereens next to a USArmy HumVee in Afghanistan. Logan speculated that Barack Obama's diplomacy there will involve the entire region--Pakistan, India, China and Iran. "The region is so connected that any of Afghanistan's neighbors could facilitate peace and security or, as we have already seen, make the situation a lot worse."
HERE’S GAFFNEY Adrienne Gaffney has joined our happy band of news junkies who "watched last night night's newscasts...so you do not have to." Here are her observations on the same content Tyndall Report just monitored at Vanity Fair magazine's Culture & Celebrity blog.
All three newscasts publicized the study by the Center for Automotive Research that projected the ripple effect of any of Detroit's Big Three automakers going out of business. Including workers, dealers, suppliers and support industries, one shutdown amounts to 2.5m layoffs. CNBC's automobile correspondent Phil LeBeau translated that on NBC into $125bn in annual income. "Detroit says it just needs a $25bn bridge loan to get through this rough patch," reported CBS' Anthony Mason. By "rough patch" he meant "an auto industry that is crashing. General Motors' sales fell 45% in October. It is bleeding $2bn in cash a month and cannot borrow."
For $5, CBS' Mason pointed out, an investor can buy a share of both Ford and General Motors. He asked an unidentified Wall Street analyst whether they were worth it: "There are better things you can do with your money." On ABC, Chris Bury (no link) doubted that a $25bn bailout would do the job. His figure was $75bn. "But if we are bailing out autos, why not steel companies, airlines or newspapers?" he asked rhetorically, gazing into a socialist future.
NEITHER A BORROWER NOR A LENDER BE On Monday, NBC's Lisa Myers told us about the FDIC's pilot program for modifying home mortgages offered by IndyMac Bank. Its target is to have no borrower pay more than 38% of monthly income on house payments. Now all three newscasts covered the proposal by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which took control of FannieMae and FreddieMac, to follow in the FDIC's footsteps. Payments will be reduced not by reducing the amount owed, but by cutting the interest rate and lengthening the schedule. "The pressure is growing on banks that have received money from the federal government to use that money to do more for homeowners," ABC's Betsy Stark (no link) observed. Accordingly, JP Morgan, Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup are following the lead of the FDIC and FHFA, CBS' Bill Whitaker reported.
Not all homeowners will be eligible; only those falling behind on their payments and whose home's value has fallen so sharply that what they owe exceeds 90% of its equity--oftentimes even 100%. NBC, which relied on its sibling financial news channel for its Detroit coverage, turned to CNBC again for the real estate story. Trish Regan noted that many see the plan as "simply unfair" since the relief is not extended to those who were "responsible and only bought as much home as they could afford." Meanwhile, for those who do renegotiate, "millions of homeowners will still be stuck in properties that are worth less now than when they bought them."
Robert Manning is the consumer debt expert given free publicity by Priya David for CBS' Dollars and Sense series. Manning has isolated a category of credit card debtor he has called the Near Bankrupt and operates his program through the resolution firms In Charge and Hope Financial in 25 states. Before he came along, banks used to insist that borrowers make the choice between declaring bankruptcy and pledging 100% debt repayment. Manning's formula persuades banks to accept partial payment--sometimes as little as 37c on the dollar.
IRRELEVANT BUT CUTE Tyndall Report had a premonition as early as last Thursday that the period between now and Inauguration Day could be sickly sweet with vignettes of how adorable the next First Family is going to be. So it was gratifying, in a way, to hear NBC anchor Brian Williams confess that the gush he ladled out Monday was "inescapably cute" but "irrelevant." The tidbit was the West Wingesque insider glimpse into the secret code names the Secret Service had assigned to the First Family: Renegade and Renaissance and Radiance and Rosebud. When his viewers protested that Williams was putting seven-year-old Sasha in danger by blowing her Rosebud cover, the anchor had to own up that in these days of encrypted radio the codes "no longer serve any real security function…The Secret Service loves the tradition. They come up with terrific names. They release them to us for broadcast."
As far as the work of the transition is concerned, CBS' Chip Reid told us that Barack Obama and his aides are "intensely focused on plans for easing the economic crisis." ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported that the federal government may borrow up 3% or 4% of GDP--about $500bn--for stimulus spending on infrastructure, alternative energy, unemployment extensions and aid to state and local government. ABC's Jake Tapper updated us on the rules that forbid lobbyists from working on the Obama transition team. They are allowed to participate, he said with a straight face, "just not in the area of their expertise."
Translation--we do not mind influence peddling as long as it is incompetent.
PARTY ON "Is the Party over?" NBC's Andrea Mitchell wondered rhetorically about the GOP, having lost an election trifecta of White House and Senate and House. Of course it is not. She reeled off a list of six men and one woman who are in position to become the next Republican leader: Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty, Charlie Crist, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich--and Sarah Palin, who invited Today anchor Matt Lauer into her kitchen in Wasilla to rehash the highs and lows of Campaign 2008: "It was an amazing experience."
ELEVEN/ELEVEN Veterans Day is observed and all three newscasts filed sympathetic features about the military. Jim Miklaszewski for NBC's In Depth looked at those on active duty suffering from depression and traumatic stress. Chaplains are the first line of defense for preventing suicide, "spiritual combat buddies." On CBS, Kelly Wallace offered a preview of Lioness, the PBS documentary on female soldiers drawn into combat in Iraq despite the Pentagon's prohibition. Patty Culhane covered the lioness squads--designated to frisk civilian women while preserving their modesty--for NBC in July. Bob Woodruff on ABC's A Closer Look chose the Transition Training Academy for disabled veterans in San Diego. It offers hi-tech occupational training for those about to become civilians once more.
IMAGINARY PASSENGERS AND REAL BOMBERS A couple of contrasting features were filed from south Asia, one blood curdling, one whimsical. For whimsy, meet Bahadur Chand Gupta, a former aircraft engineer, who seeks to instill a love of flying in poor children from the villages around Delhi. NBC's Ian Williams showed us the fuselage of a decommissioned Airbus that Chand Gupta has assembled in a field near the airport. He invites children to travel on a 40-minute imaginary flight, complete with replica seating layout, safety belts, emergency announcements, call buttons and in-flight service. The children exit by the emergency chute.
Bloodcurdling was the Exclusive videotape played by CBS' Lara Logan of a schoolboy from a Pakistani madrassah blowing himself to smithereens next to a USArmy HumVee in Afghanistan. Logan speculated that Barack Obama's diplomacy there will involve the entire region--Pakistan, India, China and Iran. "The region is so connected that any of Afghanistan's neighbors could facilitate peace and security or, as we have already seen, make the situation a lot worse."
HERE’S GAFFNEY Adrienne Gaffney has joined our happy band of news junkies who "watched last night night's newscasts...so you do not have to." Here are her observations on the same content Tyndall Report just monitored at Vanity Fair magazine's Culture & Celebrity blog.
