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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM DECEMBER 10, 2008
On the day after his arrest on corruption charges, things are not looking up for Rod Blagojevich, the Democratic Governor of Illinois. All three newscasts led with the fallout from the accusation of improper dealmaking as he prepared to appoint a senator to Barack Obama's seat. CBS and NBC both led their newscasts with the Story of the Day from Chicago. ABC covered Blagojevich from its investigative unit in New York City.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR DECEMBER 10, 2008: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
BLAGOJEVICH’S SENATE SHORTLIST INCLUDED JESSE JACKSON JR On the day after his arrest on corruption charges, things are not looking up for Rod Blagojevich, the Democratic Governor of Illinois. All three newscasts led with the fallout from the accusation of improper dealmaking as he prepared to appoint a senator to Barack Obama's seat. CBS and NBC both led their newscasts with the Story of the Day from Chicago. ABC covered Blagojevich from its investigative unit in New York City.
ABC's Brian Ross reported that unidentified "federal" sources told him that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald timed his arrest of Blagojevich because the governor was about to announce his appointment to fill the vacant Senate seat and the prosecutor wanted to stop it. Ross implied, but did not state, that the lucky politician was to have been Jesse Jackson Jr, the Chicago Congressman. "The day before he was arrested Gov Blagojevich met with Jackson and spoke glowingly of him even though the two had long been political adversaries." Ross identified the unnamed "Senate Candidate #5" in the FBI's complaint against Blagojevich as Jackson. In the complaint Blagojevich allegedly boasted that #5's emissaries had promised a $500,000 upfront fundraiser if he won the appointment.
"I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, to plead my case or to propose a deal about the US Senate seat. Period," was the soundbite from Rep Jackson that both NBC's Lee Cowan (no link) and CBS' Dean Reynolds quoted.
As for Blagojevich himself, President-elect Obama called on him to resign through a spokesman, as did the unanimous Democratic caucus in the US Senate. ABC's George Stephanopoulos (at the tail of the Jake Tapper videostream) described the governor as "just oblivious to these calls." NBC's Cowan went through the state's scenarios sans resignation: impeachment, "a lengthy process," or removal by the state supreme court or a special election for the Senate seat, "a costly option."
IN THE CHICAGO LOOP Do Rod Blagojevich's troubles taint Barack Obama? "There is not a close relationship," Chicago politicos told NBC's Savannah Guthrie, "never has been." Yet in her brief biographical sketch of Blagojevich, CBS anchor Katie Couric did name one backer that the two had in common "real estate developer Tony Rezko."
CBS' Dean Reynolds quoted senior Obama aide David Axelrod as saying that he knew that the two had talked about the appointment, before backtracking later, saying that "he had misspoken." ABC's Jake Tapper repeated official Republican demands that Obama "should disclose any names of anyone on his team talking to anybody on Blagojevich's team" although Tapper did not define the word "team" nor did he explain what was the problem with "talking." CBS' Reynolds found "no hint from the prosecutors of any wrongdoing by Obama. Indeed Blagojevich was heard on the tapes repeatedly disparaging and even cursing the President-elect for not playing politics his way." But how did the governor know that the President-elect was not "playing politics" if the two teams were not talking?
CHICAGO IS NOT CAMELOT The Rod Blagojevich scandal was juicy enough for CBS and ABC both to send a correspondent out on the Chicago streets to collect vox pop. "It is perfect fodder for the late night comics," mused CBS' Cynthia Bowers, who found that the prosecutor's charges of office-selling "shocked even the most cynical of citizens." ABC's Jim Avila (no link) made a similar observation: "The people of Illinois, who generally have a high tolerance for political hijinks, are still reeling." He quoted John Kass, Chicago Tribune columnist: "Despite the Barack Obama moment this city has been basking in, this is not Camelot. It is just Illinois."
N IS FOR NEGRO The progress of Barack Obama's transition was monitored by an NBC News opinion poll: "Obama may have a very long honeymoon not the normal hundred days," political director Chuck Todd opined, as the President-elect registered high approval ratings and his predecessor record low ones. "The country gets that the problems are big and that everybody is in this together." NBC's Savannah Guthrie offered some name-mentioning about Obama's green team. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, is in line for Secretary of Energy. CBS' White House correspondent Jim Axelrod looked forward to the inauguration of a son of Africa. He visited the National Archives to check the accounting books for the workers who built the White House 200 years ago. They were identified by their first name and the initial "N" for negro. "The slave owners were paid for the services of their slaves just as they were paid for the services of their horses or their wagons," archivist Reginald Washington told him.
TWO CORVETTES AND A CADILLAC The House of Representatives was getting ready to approve a $14bn federal loan to Detroit's trio of automobile makers as the nightly news went on the air. However the news for the shrinking Big Three on Capitol Hill was not rosy. "There is a looming showdown over the bill in the Senate and the outcome is anything but certain," warned ABC's Jonathan Karl (no link). CBS filed a couple of reports. Bob Orr told us that Vice President Dick Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten both traveled to Capitol Hill to try to twist Republican arms "but we are told they did not have much luck." Anthony Mason visited Consumer Reports' car testing track in Connecticut to find out whether Detroit's products deserve to succeed. Despite recent gains in quality, the magazine still ranks only three Detroit models among the best 27 on the market—two Corvettes and a Cadillac. "Detroit desperately needs an overnight sensation. The industry, which must sell 15m autos a year to be profitable, is on pace to sell only 11m."
SPEND MILLIONS TO GET BILLIONS A House committee held hearings into the Treasury Department's TARP bailout of the financial industry now that almost half of its $700bn has been spent and ABC's Betsy Stark (embargoed link) took A Closer Look. "Many in Congress say Treasury has violated the intent of the program first by deciding not to use it to buy up toxic mortgages and then by choosing to rescue big banks over ordinary Americans," she concluded. "If Treasury officials were to return to Congress for the second half of that $700bn they would likely get a very chilly reception." Sharyl Attkisson turned the clock back to the political parties' nominating conventions this summer for her Follow the Money report on CBS. She used statistics from the Campaign Finance Institute to find $14m in political contributions by financial institutions that only weeks later received billions in federal bailout funds: FreddieMac, AIG and Citigroup were major donors.
CNBC's Trish Regan illustrated the illiquidity of the credit markets in a report on the price of T-bills for NBC. She called it "a sign that investors are growing increasingly desperate for security" that they are willing to lend money to the Treasury Department at a zero rate of interest, "the market equivalent of putting money under the mattress—you put $1 in; you get $1 back." CNBC is hardly a hotbed of Keynesians. Like her colleague Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Regan does not see cheap federal funds as enabling government pump priming. Instead she insisted that investors should switch their investments back to the corporate sector to end economic stagnation: "Companies need to be investing in people, in infrastructure, in new technology in order for the overall economy to grow."
PRISONS & LIBRARIES Both NBC and CBS continued feature series that put a face on the recession. Seth Doane returned to the Dakota Restaurant in Elkhart Ind for CBS' The Other America a month after first covering its impending closure. Just one of the Dakota workforce, its owner, has found a new job. Glenn Meert is moving to Ohio to run a correctional kitchen. "A recession-proof business," he called it. "There will always be jails." NBC's Hard Times series followed up on Monday's belt-tightening tips from Tom Costello and Tuesday's layoff lessons from Rehema Ellis with Chris Jansing on one institution whose business booms when times get tough, the public lending library. "It is not just books. There are kids' programs, free wi-fi, computers for job hunting and writing resumes--and lots of movies.
THE BIRTHPLACE OF ANARCHY The day's sole report to be filed from an overseas deadline was on NBC from Robert Moore of ITN, the network's British newsgathering partner. He contradicted the cliche about Greece being the birthplace of democracy as he covered student riots against police brutality and the resulting backlash against a vacuum of power from shopkeepers and some members of the middle class. "Anarchy in Athens of course is nothing new."
NOT JOE THE PLUMBER ABC's closer from Ned Potter was a crossover from a regular feature on the newscast's sibling daily online webcast. Each day ABC keeps track of search terms on google.com. Perennial top searches concern the weather and e-mail and love and social networking, so Potter singles out fast-rising searches instead. Winning 2008 with a bullet was Sarah Palin—except in Poland where the 30-year-old song Joe of the Swamp is all the rage.
ABC's Brian Ross reported that unidentified "federal" sources told him that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald timed his arrest of Blagojevich because the governor was about to announce his appointment to fill the vacant Senate seat and the prosecutor wanted to stop it. Ross implied, but did not state, that the lucky politician was to have been Jesse Jackson Jr, the Chicago Congressman. "The day before he was arrested Gov Blagojevich met with Jackson and spoke glowingly of him even though the two had long been political adversaries." Ross identified the unnamed "Senate Candidate #5" in the FBI's complaint against Blagojevich as Jackson. In the complaint Blagojevich allegedly boasted that #5's emissaries had promised a $500,000 upfront fundraiser if he won the appointment.
"I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, to plead my case or to propose a deal about the US Senate seat. Period," was the soundbite from Rep Jackson that both NBC's Lee Cowan (no link) and CBS' Dean Reynolds quoted.
As for Blagojevich himself, President-elect Obama called on him to resign through a spokesman, as did the unanimous Democratic caucus in the US Senate. ABC's George Stephanopoulos (at the tail of the Jake Tapper videostream) described the governor as "just oblivious to these calls." NBC's Cowan went through the state's scenarios sans resignation: impeachment, "a lengthy process," or removal by the state supreme court or a special election for the Senate seat, "a costly option."
IN THE CHICAGO LOOP Do Rod Blagojevich's troubles taint Barack Obama? "There is not a close relationship," Chicago politicos told NBC's Savannah Guthrie, "never has been." Yet in her brief biographical sketch of Blagojevich, CBS anchor Katie Couric did name one backer that the two had in common "real estate developer Tony Rezko."
CBS' Dean Reynolds quoted senior Obama aide David Axelrod as saying that he knew that the two had talked about the appointment, before backtracking later, saying that "he had misspoken." ABC's Jake Tapper repeated official Republican demands that Obama "should disclose any names of anyone on his team talking to anybody on Blagojevich's team" although Tapper did not define the word "team" nor did he explain what was the problem with "talking." CBS' Reynolds found "no hint from the prosecutors of any wrongdoing by Obama. Indeed Blagojevich was heard on the tapes repeatedly disparaging and even cursing the President-elect for not playing politics his way." But how did the governor know that the President-elect was not "playing politics" if the two teams were not talking?
CHICAGO IS NOT CAMELOT The Rod Blagojevich scandal was juicy enough for CBS and ABC both to send a correspondent out on the Chicago streets to collect vox pop. "It is perfect fodder for the late night comics," mused CBS' Cynthia Bowers, who found that the prosecutor's charges of office-selling "shocked even the most cynical of citizens." ABC's Jim Avila (no link) made a similar observation: "The people of Illinois, who generally have a high tolerance for political hijinks, are still reeling." He quoted John Kass, Chicago Tribune columnist: "Despite the Barack Obama moment this city has been basking in, this is not Camelot. It is just Illinois."
N IS FOR NEGRO The progress of Barack Obama's transition was monitored by an NBC News opinion poll: "Obama may have a very long honeymoon not the normal hundred days," political director Chuck Todd opined, as the President-elect registered high approval ratings and his predecessor record low ones. "The country gets that the problems are big and that everybody is in this together." NBC's Savannah Guthrie offered some name-mentioning about Obama's green team. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, is in line for Secretary of Energy. CBS' White House correspondent Jim Axelrod looked forward to the inauguration of a son of Africa. He visited the National Archives to check the accounting books for the workers who built the White House 200 years ago. They were identified by their first name and the initial "N" for negro. "The slave owners were paid for the services of their slaves just as they were paid for the services of their horses or their wagons," archivist Reginald Washington told him.
TWO CORVETTES AND A CADILLAC The House of Representatives was getting ready to approve a $14bn federal loan to Detroit's trio of automobile makers as the nightly news went on the air. However the news for the shrinking Big Three on Capitol Hill was not rosy. "There is a looming showdown over the bill in the Senate and the outcome is anything but certain," warned ABC's Jonathan Karl (no link). CBS filed a couple of reports. Bob Orr told us that Vice President Dick Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten both traveled to Capitol Hill to try to twist Republican arms "but we are told they did not have much luck." Anthony Mason visited Consumer Reports' car testing track in Connecticut to find out whether Detroit's products deserve to succeed. Despite recent gains in quality, the magazine still ranks only three Detroit models among the best 27 on the market—two Corvettes and a Cadillac. "Detroit desperately needs an overnight sensation. The industry, which must sell 15m autos a year to be profitable, is on pace to sell only 11m."
SPEND MILLIONS TO GET BILLIONS A House committee held hearings into the Treasury Department's TARP bailout of the financial industry now that almost half of its $700bn has been spent and ABC's Betsy Stark (embargoed link) took A Closer Look. "Many in Congress say Treasury has violated the intent of the program first by deciding not to use it to buy up toxic mortgages and then by choosing to rescue big banks over ordinary Americans," she concluded. "If Treasury officials were to return to Congress for the second half of that $700bn they would likely get a very chilly reception." Sharyl Attkisson turned the clock back to the political parties' nominating conventions this summer for her Follow the Money report on CBS. She used statistics from the Campaign Finance Institute to find $14m in political contributions by financial institutions that only weeks later received billions in federal bailout funds: FreddieMac, AIG and Citigroup were major donors.
CNBC's Trish Regan illustrated the illiquidity of the credit markets in a report on the price of T-bills for NBC. She called it "a sign that investors are growing increasingly desperate for security" that they are willing to lend money to the Treasury Department at a zero rate of interest, "the market equivalent of putting money under the mattress—you put $1 in; you get $1 back." CNBC is hardly a hotbed of Keynesians. Like her colleague Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Regan does not see cheap federal funds as enabling government pump priming. Instead she insisted that investors should switch their investments back to the corporate sector to end economic stagnation: "Companies need to be investing in people, in infrastructure, in new technology in order for the overall economy to grow."
PRISONS & LIBRARIES Both NBC and CBS continued feature series that put a face on the recession. Seth Doane returned to the Dakota Restaurant in Elkhart Ind for CBS' The Other America a month after first covering its impending closure. Just one of the Dakota workforce, its owner, has found a new job. Glenn Meert is moving to Ohio to run a correctional kitchen. "A recession-proof business," he called it. "There will always be jails." NBC's Hard Times series followed up on Monday's belt-tightening tips from Tom Costello and Tuesday's layoff lessons from Rehema Ellis with Chris Jansing on one institution whose business booms when times get tough, the public lending library. "It is not just books. There are kids' programs, free wi-fi, computers for job hunting and writing resumes--and lots of movies.
THE BIRTHPLACE OF ANARCHY The day's sole report to be filed from an overseas deadline was on NBC from Robert Moore of ITN, the network's British newsgathering partner. He contradicted the cliche about Greece being the birthplace of democracy as he covered student riots against police brutality and the resulting backlash against a vacuum of power from shopkeepers and some members of the middle class. "Anarchy in Athens of course is nothing new."
NOT JOE THE PLUMBER ABC's closer from Ned Potter was a crossover from a regular feature on the newscast's sibling daily online webcast. Each day ABC keeps track of search terms on google.com. Perennial top searches concern the weather and e-mail and love and social networking, so Potter singles out fast-rising searches instead. Winning 2008 with a bullet was Sarah Palin—except in Poland where the 30-year-old song Joe of the Swamp is all the rage.
