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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 6, 2008
The heady coverage of Election Day and its aftermath is over. After expanding their half-hour newscasts to an hour on Monday and Wednesday and airing all-night results on Tuesday, things are back to normal. All three networks led with the Story of the Day, the first step of Barack Obama's transition to his new administration, the appointment of fellow Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel to be Chief of Staff of the White House. CBS filed its lead from the White House itself; ABC and NBC were both with the President-elect in the Second City.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 6, 2008: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
BROAD SHOULDERS TO MOVE INTO OVAL OFFICE The heady coverage of Election Day and its aftermath is over. After expanding their half-hour newscasts to an hour on Monday and Wednesday and airing all-night results on Tuesday, things are back to normal. All three networks led with the Story of the Day, the first step of Barack Obama's transition to his new administration, the appointment of fellow Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel to be Chief of Staff of the White House. CBS filed its lead from the White House itself; ABC and NBC were both with the President-elect in the Second City.
"The Land of Lincoln has rarely had this much influence," mused NBC's Lee Cowan, as he noted that the two most powerful men in the White House will be from the Windy City. "The home of the President-elect is now also the home to the man who will be the gateway to the President." ABC's Jake Tapper reminded us that Chief of Staff Emanuel had been an operative in Bill Clinton's White House before he was elected the Congress. "Sharp tongued," was the way Tapper described him. CBS' Jim Axelrod called him an "aggressive, forceful and sharp-tongued Washington insider" with a "penchant for tough, straight--if a bit salty--talk." Axelrod described him as "very close" with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "comfortable as an enforcer."
CBS' Wyatt Andrews consulted his network's in-house political analyst Dee Dee Myers about Presidential transition history. She was Clinton's press secretary when her boss was slow off the mark. "She did not get that job until seven weeks after the election." Myers used the euphemism "rocky" for Clinton's indecision. By contrast the incumbent's transition was smooth despite the month-long Florida recount dispute before George Bush officially won the job. Andrews argued that a speedy and aggressive transition--like Ronald Reagan's--was essential and hinted that John McCain's relentless teasing of Obama during the campaign for "measuring the drapes" was out of line.
BUSH ALREADY FOLLOWS OBAMA ON PAKISTAN Most of the coverage of the challenges facing a President Barack Obama concerned the domestic economy. ABC was an exception as it sent Martha Raddatz, its White House correspondent during George Bush's second term, to Pakistan to survey a couple of foreign policy worries. When she went to Peshawar, she found the city "virtually surrounded" by Taliban guerrillas. She noted that Bush's Pentagon had already adopted Obama's policy of unilaterally launching attacks on al-Qaeda operatives inside sovereign Pakistani territory, "complicating an already fragile relationship with the Pakistani government and its people," as she put it. Next Raddatz looked at US-Iran relations under the next President. She predicted "a lot more diplomatic engagement…not a lot of saber-rattling."
FIRST DOSE OF SACCHARIN, OF MANY Barack Obama's promise to introduce a First Puppy to his White House inspired a light-hearted closer on ABC by John Berman (no link) speculating on whether a poodle or a terrier or a chihuahua or a pitbull--name it Lipstick--would fit the bill. CBS anchor Katie Couric also closed on with the prospect of the patter of children's feet in the Oval Office, waxing nostalgia about Camelot, the last time the First Family was so young. Couric offered free publicity to author Douglas Wead and his history All the Presidents' Children.
We should all brace ourselves for a deluge a saccharine First Family features between now and January 20th. It is inevitable that Malia and Sasha will become household words, this generation's Chelsea or Caroline or John Jr.
GREAT GRAPHICS The graphics department at The New York Times won kudos from both CBS' Jeff Greenfield (no link) and NBC political director Chuck Todd for its shades-of-blue-and-shades-of-red map of all the counties in the United States, comparing support for the two Presidential candidates in 2004 with 2008. The bluer the county, the greater the swing from John Kerry to Barack Obama; the redder the county, the greater the swing from George Bush to John McCain. The map showed a nationwide sea of blue interrupted by a broad dash of red stretching through Appalachia and the Ozarks to the southern plains--from West Virginia to Oklahoma--and a rim of counties along the coastal crescent of the Gulf of Mexico from the panhandle of Florida to the bayous of Louisiana. The lesson, Todd concluded, was that Obama's victory "was not just about one voting group; it was across the board." Greenfield called such national advances "long term trouble" for the Republican Party.
Todd judged that Obama's widespread support among young voters was responsible for his victories in North Carolina and Indiana; Greenfield gave it credit for Obama's wins in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.
WHAT IS AFRICA? The most prominent campaign post-mortem on the Republican side concerned Sarah Palin. Both ABC's Kate Snow and NBC's Kelly O'Donnell covered the smear campaign against John McCain's running mate. O'Donnell told us about unattributed rumors that Palin was ignorant of the fact that Africa is not a nation state but a continent and that her unauthorized shopping spree included $40,000 on clothes for her husband Todd. Snow noted that "anger about Tuesday's loss was manifesting itself in ugly ways. Aides anonymously threw knives at each other and questioned Palin's intelligence." Snow quoted the Governor of Alaska herself: "I will not comment on anybody's gossip--or allegations that are based on anonymous sources."
BORN AGAIN AT THE BALLOT BOX Both NBC and ABC filed features on the fallout of Tuesday's voting for conservative culture warriors. They drew opposite conclusions. For ABC's A Closer Look, Dan Harris focused on the fact that Christian conservatives mostly voted for the losing side in the Presidential contest, even though they constitute a "large and reliable voting bloc, nearly 25%." He cited the spiritual consolation for born-again conservatives: "Political power corrupts…losing power, if only temporarily, could ultimately be good for the movement's soul." Yet they take no solace from the fact that Barack Obama will be an "openly religious" President, Harris observed, because he "supports abortion rights and opposes a Constitutional ban on gay marriage." It was the success of the churches in helping to pass a ban on same-sex marriage that was Pete Williams' focus for NBC's In Depth. By a 52% vote, California approved Proposition 8, which will discontinue such unions. Williams called "the huge outpouring of support from Christian groups, raising millions to pay for an avalanche of TV ads" a major factor in the Proposition's passage--that and the "big turnout of black voters," 70% of whom supported the ban.
NO MORE DINNER AT DAKOTA It was a frightful day of economic news. "Consumers have closed up their wallets in collective economic shock," was how Sandra Hughes put it on CBS, with stores being shuttered by Mervyn's, Linens 'n' Things and Circuit City. NBC's Chris Jansing called October's retail sales statistics "nothing short of disastrous, much worse than forecast." Executives from Detroit's Big Three automobile companies trooped up to Capitol Hill to plead for $25bn in federal loans to help make their healthcare payments. CNBC's Phil LeBeau told us that the firms are "facing a cash crunch with sales at a 25-year low." General Motors, for example, is "burning through more than $1bn a month." ABC's Betsy Stark (no link) checked the selloff on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 9.7% in two days, and warned that "tomorrow is likely to bring more bad news" as unemployment statistics for October are expected to record another 200,000 cut from payrolls.
Seth Doane, at CBS, has been running a depressing series for the last five months on economic hard times, dubbed The Other America. Doane's latest installment focused on the Dakota Restaurant in Elkhart Ind, which may be forced out of business because of the slowdown at the local RV plant. His video cameras were on hand as owner Glen Meert warned his workforce that they have 30 days to find a new job--in a town with an unemployment rate that is worse than 10%.
There is no problem with Doane's relentlessly downbeat focus--in these times his beat seems appropriate--but perhaps his series' title will soon need a tweak. How about The Actual America?
JUST TEN MUTATIONS The latest discovery in biotech attracted the attention of CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook and John McKenzie at ABC. Cancer researchers analyzed the 20,000 genes in the cells of a woman who died of leukemia. They compared those in her healthy skin cells with those in the tumor and found just ten mutations out of the 20,000. For example, one mutation works as a blocker to protect the tumor from chemotherapy. McKenzie suggested that once the mutations for specific cancers are isolated, a diagnostic blood test can be invented. Dr LaPook foresaw improvements in targeted therapies--personalized medicine that is aimed only at tumor cells not at healthy parts of the organism.
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.
"The Land of Lincoln has rarely had this much influence," mused NBC's Lee Cowan, as he noted that the two most powerful men in the White House will be from the Windy City. "The home of the President-elect is now also the home to the man who will be the gateway to the President." ABC's Jake Tapper reminded us that Chief of Staff Emanuel had been an operative in Bill Clinton's White House before he was elected the Congress. "Sharp tongued," was the way Tapper described him. CBS' Jim Axelrod called him an "aggressive, forceful and sharp-tongued Washington insider" with a "penchant for tough, straight--if a bit salty--talk." Axelrod described him as "very close" with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "comfortable as an enforcer."
CBS' Wyatt Andrews consulted his network's in-house political analyst Dee Dee Myers about Presidential transition history. She was Clinton's press secretary when her boss was slow off the mark. "She did not get that job until seven weeks after the election." Myers used the euphemism "rocky" for Clinton's indecision. By contrast the incumbent's transition was smooth despite the month-long Florida recount dispute before George Bush officially won the job. Andrews argued that a speedy and aggressive transition--like Ronald Reagan's--was essential and hinted that John McCain's relentless teasing of Obama during the campaign for "measuring the drapes" was out of line.
BUSH ALREADY FOLLOWS OBAMA ON PAKISTAN Most of the coverage of the challenges facing a President Barack Obama concerned the domestic economy. ABC was an exception as it sent Martha Raddatz, its White House correspondent during George Bush's second term, to Pakistan to survey a couple of foreign policy worries. When she went to Peshawar, she found the city "virtually surrounded" by Taliban guerrillas. She noted that Bush's Pentagon had already adopted Obama's policy of unilaterally launching attacks on al-Qaeda operatives inside sovereign Pakistani territory, "complicating an already fragile relationship with the Pakistani government and its people," as she put it. Next Raddatz looked at US-Iran relations under the next President. She predicted "a lot more diplomatic engagement…not a lot of saber-rattling."
FIRST DOSE OF SACCHARIN, OF MANY Barack Obama's promise to introduce a First Puppy to his White House inspired a light-hearted closer on ABC by John Berman (no link) speculating on whether a poodle or a terrier or a chihuahua or a pitbull--name it Lipstick--would fit the bill. CBS anchor Katie Couric also closed on with the prospect of the patter of children's feet in the Oval Office, waxing nostalgia about Camelot, the last time the First Family was so young. Couric offered free publicity to author Douglas Wead and his history All the Presidents' Children.
We should all brace ourselves for a deluge a saccharine First Family features between now and January 20th. It is inevitable that Malia and Sasha will become household words, this generation's Chelsea or Caroline or John Jr.
GREAT GRAPHICS The graphics department at The New York Times won kudos from both CBS' Jeff Greenfield (no link) and NBC political director Chuck Todd for its shades-of-blue-and-shades-of-red map of all the counties in the United States, comparing support for the two Presidential candidates in 2004 with 2008. The bluer the county, the greater the swing from John Kerry to Barack Obama; the redder the county, the greater the swing from George Bush to John McCain. The map showed a nationwide sea of blue interrupted by a broad dash of red stretching through Appalachia and the Ozarks to the southern plains--from West Virginia to Oklahoma--and a rim of counties along the coastal crescent of the Gulf of Mexico from the panhandle of Florida to the bayous of Louisiana. The lesson, Todd concluded, was that Obama's victory "was not just about one voting group; it was across the board." Greenfield called such national advances "long term trouble" for the Republican Party.
Todd judged that Obama's widespread support among young voters was responsible for his victories in North Carolina and Indiana; Greenfield gave it credit for Obama's wins in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.
WHAT IS AFRICA? The most prominent campaign post-mortem on the Republican side concerned Sarah Palin. Both ABC's Kate Snow and NBC's Kelly O'Donnell covered the smear campaign against John McCain's running mate. O'Donnell told us about unattributed rumors that Palin was ignorant of the fact that Africa is not a nation state but a continent and that her unauthorized shopping spree included $40,000 on clothes for her husband Todd. Snow noted that "anger about Tuesday's loss was manifesting itself in ugly ways. Aides anonymously threw knives at each other and questioned Palin's intelligence." Snow quoted the Governor of Alaska herself: "I will not comment on anybody's gossip--or allegations that are based on anonymous sources."
BORN AGAIN AT THE BALLOT BOX Both NBC and ABC filed features on the fallout of Tuesday's voting for conservative culture warriors. They drew opposite conclusions. For ABC's A Closer Look, Dan Harris focused on the fact that Christian conservatives mostly voted for the losing side in the Presidential contest, even though they constitute a "large and reliable voting bloc, nearly 25%." He cited the spiritual consolation for born-again conservatives: "Political power corrupts…losing power, if only temporarily, could ultimately be good for the movement's soul." Yet they take no solace from the fact that Barack Obama will be an "openly religious" President, Harris observed, because he "supports abortion rights and opposes a Constitutional ban on gay marriage." It was the success of the churches in helping to pass a ban on same-sex marriage that was Pete Williams' focus for NBC's In Depth. By a 52% vote, California approved Proposition 8, which will discontinue such unions. Williams called "the huge outpouring of support from Christian groups, raising millions to pay for an avalanche of TV ads" a major factor in the Proposition's passage--that and the "big turnout of black voters," 70% of whom supported the ban.
NO MORE DINNER AT DAKOTA It was a frightful day of economic news. "Consumers have closed up their wallets in collective economic shock," was how Sandra Hughes put it on CBS, with stores being shuttered by Mervyn's, Linens 'n' Things and Circuit City. NBC's Chris Jansing called October's retail sales statistics "nothing short of disastrous, much worse than forecast." Executives from Detroit's Big Three automobile companies trooped up to Capitol Hill to plead for $25bn in federal loans to help make their healthcare payments. CNBC's Phil LeBeau told us that the firms are "facing a cash crunch with sales at a 25-year low." General Motors, for example, is "burning through more than $1bn a month." ABC's Betsy Stark (no link) checked the selloff on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 9.7% in two days, and warned that "tomorrow is likely to bring more bad news" as unemployment statistics for October are expected to record another 200,000 cut from payrolls.
Seth Doane, at CBS, has been running a depressing series for the last five months on economic hard times, dubbed The Other America. Doane's latest installment focused on the Dakota Restaurant in Elkhart Ind, which may be forced out of business because of the slowdown at the local RV plant. His video cameras were on hand as owner Glen Meert warned his workforce that they have 30 days to find a new job--in a town with an unemployment rate that is worse than 10%.
There is no problem with Doane's relentlessly downbeat focus--in these times his beat seems appropriate--but perhaps his series' title will soon need a tweak. How about The Actual America?
JUST TEN MUTATIONS The latest discovery in biotech attracted the attention of CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook and John McKenzie at ABC. Cancer researchers analyzed the 20,000 genes in the cells of a woman who died of leukemia. They compared those in her healthy skin cells with those in the tumor and found just ten mutations out of the 20,000. For example, one mutation works as a blocker to protect the tumor from chemotherapy. McKenzie suggested that once the mutations for specific cancers are isolated, a diagnostic blood test can be invented. Dr LaPook foresaw improvements in targeted therapies--personalized medicine that is aimed only at tumor cells not at healthy parts of the organism.
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.
