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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM SEPTEMBER 09, 2008
What accounts for the post-convention bounce in the opinion polls? The Palin Effect. What accounts for the newfound enthusiasm for John McCain on the stump? The Palin Effect. What accounts for Barack Obama's apparent confusion? The Palin Effect. Why are undecided white women voters making up their minds? The Palin Effect. Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska and Republican Vice Presidential nominee, seemed ubiquitous on this heavy day of campaign coverage. The three newscasts combined to fill 59% of their newshole (33 min out of 56) with the Presidential election. ABC led with McCain on the stump in Pennsylvania; NBC and CBS with Obama in Virginia.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR SEPTEMBER 09, 2008: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
THE PALIN EFFECT What accounts for the post-convention bounce in the opinion polls? The Palin Effect. What accounts for the newfound enthusiasm for John McCain on the stump? The Palin Effect. What accounts for Barack Obama's apparent confusion? The Palin Effect. Why are undecided white women voters making up their minds? The Palin Effect. Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska and Republican Vice Presidential nominee, seemed ubiquitous on this heavy day of campaign coverage. The three newscasts combined to fill 59% of their newshole (33 min out of 56) with the Presidential election. ABC led with McCain on the stump in Pennsylvania; NBC and CBS with Obama in Virginia.
"Palin is generating all kinds of enthusiasm and all kinds of support on the stump and in the polls," declared ABC's Ron Claiborne. "Call it the Palin Effect." On NBC, Kelly O'Donnell showed us handwritten Palin signs waving at McCain rallies. His strategy is "to be seen with Palin often. Advisors call it Running as a partnership." As for the Democrat, "Sarah Plain has shaken up this race," stated Dean Reynolds on CBS. "For days Obama's campaign has tried to deal with what is seen as the Palin Puzzle." The candidate summed up the Alaskan's biography: "Mother! Governor! Mooseshooter! I mean it is cool." When Obama made a speech on education reform, ABC's Jake Tapper (at the tail of the Claiborne videostream) explained that it was an issue designed to appeal to women "who may have switched support to Sen McCain because of the so-called Palin Effect." The Obama campaign, judged NBC's Lee Cowan, "seems frustrated that for all the holes it sees in her resume she is still getting so much play." Must be the Palin Effect!
POLLING THE PALIN EFFECT NBC News published the national opinion poll it conducts with The Wall Street Journal. It found Barack Obama with a tiny lead in the popular vote over John McCain, 47%-46%. Political director Chuck Todd talked us through the numbers. Both candidates enjoyed a bounce in popularity as a result of their conventions. "Obama still has this enthusiasm advantage but it is not nearly the gap he once had." The reason was, you guessed it, "the Sarah Palin effect." Specifically she has firmed up support in "soft Republican targets" so Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri are no longer swing states.
ABC and CBS looked at demographics rather than states. Barbara Pinto zeroed in on white women for ABC's A Closer Look. "Palin has managed to capture the attention of so many people, especially women, but the question is Can she keep it?…Whether or not they decide to vote for Sarah Palin, a critical voting bloc is clearly excited she is in the race." CBS' Kelly Wallace generalized that "traditionally it is the top of the ticket that sways undecided voters. The emergence of Sarah Palin is challenging that assumption--for now."
DOES COURIC’S SERIES UNDERCUT MCCAIN? ABC anchor Charles Gibson raised the electoral analysis by Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager: "This election is not about issues but rather a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." His colleague George Stephanopoulos used ABC News opinion poll data to explain Davis' insight: "If you look at voters who care more about issues than personal qualities Obama has a 19% advantage; for those voters who care more about personal attributes, McCain has a 17% advantage." Stephanopoulos remarked on a similar contrast between Al Gore and George Bush in 2000.
So is CBS showing anti-McCain bias--or just straightforward journalistic judgment--by launching its series Where They Stand? Anchor Katie Couric announced her intention to devote "a large part of our broadcast between now and November 4th to telling you where the candidates stand on major issues from terrorism to health insurance, immigration to energy."
Couric's decision to focus on issues rather than personalities represents quite the switcheroo compared with earlier in the campaign. Her series of Primary Questions last winter was the leading exemplar of the school of Reality Gameshow Journalism, which values honesty and authenticity in a candidate over policies and programs. Back then Couric explained her personality preference in her approving profile of campaign consultant Drew Westen, author of The Political Brain.
Anyway, business correspondent Anthony Mason was assigned to part one of CBS' Where Things Stand, a lengthy feature--almost seven minutes--to illustrate the varying impact of the income tax platforms of the two candidates on three Ohio households, each a married couple with three children. The combination of changes in marginal rates and credits and deductions would produce $2,200 of extra income for those earning an annual $32,000 under Barack Obama's plan, nothing extra under John McCain's. For an annual income of $64,000, Obama's would render $500 extra, McCain's $225.
What about an annual income of $213,000? Curiously Mason decided not to crunch the numbers. All he would tell us was that if that income happened to improve to more than $250,000, then at the margin it would enter a different tax bracket--from 28% to 36% under Obama, from 28% to 33% under McCain. Mason did not explain why he decided to be precise about the working poor and about middle class wage earners but vague about the upper middle class small business owner.
SPAN FROM KETCHIKAN Back to Sarah Palin, whose signature applause line goes: "I told Congress Thanks, but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere." CBS assigned Wyatt Andrews to perform a Reality Check on that claim while NBC gave the task to investigative correspondent Lisa Myers. Both gave the governor a thumbs down for her veracity. Myers stated that "she actually supported" the bridge while running for office and only turned against it after "Congress had already turned against the project." The $223m earmarked for the Span from Ketchikan was instead used on other highways. "The implication is that Gov Palin confronted a Congress recklessly wasting money. The record shows she wanted the bridge until the end--and kept the money," concluded Andrews.
SHADOWS AND TEA LEAVES The military parade in Pyongyang in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was newsworthy for its absentee. ABC's Jonathan Karl consulted his unidentified sources at the Pentagon about the reasons why Kim Jong Il might be a no-show. They speculated that the North Korean dictator could have suffered a stroke but "confess they really do not have a clue about what is going to happen next or even how serious his condition is." Karl shrugged: "We are looking at shadows and tea leaves."
SMALL PLANES AND YOUNG DRIVERS CBS and ABC aired transportation stories. ABC's Lisa Stark was in San Luis Obispo to illustrate how small town airports will suffer disproportionately when domestic airlines implement their 9% service cutback this fall. The California college town is now served by four commuter carriers; American Eagle and United Express both plan to leave. CBS' Cynthia Bowers covered the "heartbreaking number" of 5,000 teenage deaths in traffic accidents each year. In response, New Jersey has raised the minimum driving age to 17; Illinois has introduced graduated licenses, which require supervision and single passengers for rookie drivers.
LITTLE BANG The Hadron supercollider, the 17-mile-long tunnel built 300 feet below Geneva was the closing feature for both NBC and ABC. "Always like it when we finish with a story on physics," joked ABC anchor Charles Gibson. The experiment plans to smash atoms to create particles that replicate conditions just after the Big Bang. "We could discover a world of cosmic rays, dark matter and black holes right here on Earth," mused NBC's Keith Miller. After ABC's Nick Watt quoted Stephen Hawking's reassurance--"There is no danger that collisions will cause a rip in space time and destroy the universe"--he bid us farewell anyway: "Good night and good luck."
"Palin is generating all kinds of enthusiasm and all kinds of support on the stump and in the polls," declared ABC's Ron Claiborne. "Call it the Palin Effect." On NBC, Kelly O'Donnell showed us handwritten Palin signs waving at McCain rallies. His strategy is "to be seen with Palin often. Advisors call it Running as a partnership." As for the Democrat, "Sarah Plain has shaken up this race," stated Dean Reynolds on CBS. "For days Obama's campaign has tried to deal with what is seen as the Palin Puzzle." The candidate summed up the Alaskan's biography: "Mother! Governor! Mooseshooter! I mean it is cool." When Obama made a speech on education reform, ABC's Jake Tapper (at the tail of the Claiborne videostream) explained that it was an issue designed to appeal to women "who may have switched support to Sen McCain because of the so-called Palin Effect." The Obama campaign, judged NBC's Lee Cowan, "seems frustrated that for all the holes it sees in her resume she is still getting so much play." Must be the Palin Effect!
POLLING THE PALIN EFFECT NBC News published the national opinion poll it conducts with The Wall Street Journal. It found Barack Obama with a tiny lead in the popular vote over John McCain, 47%-46%. Political director Chuck Todd talked us through the numbers. Both candidates enjoyed a bounce in popularity as a result of their conventions. "Obama still has this enthusiasm advantage but it is not nearly the gap he once had." The reason was, you guessed it, "the Sarah Palin effect." Specifically she has firmed up support in "soft Republican targets" so Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri are no longer swing states.
ABC and CBS looked at demographics rather than states. Barbara Pinto zeroed in on white women for ABC's A Closer Look. "Palin has managed to capture the attention of so many people, especially women, but the question is Can she keep it?…Whether or not they decide to vote for Sarah Palin, a critical voting bloc is clearly excited she is in the race." CBS' Kelly Wallace generalized that "traditionally it is the top of the ticket that sways undecided voters. The emergence of Sarah Palin is challenging that assumption--for now."
DOES COURIC’S SERIES UNDERCUT MCCAIN? ABC anchor Charles Gibson raised the electoral analysis by Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager: "This election is not about issues but rather a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." His colleague George Stephanopoulos used ABC News opinion poll data to explain Davis' insight: "If you look at voters who care more about issues than personal qualities Obama has a 19% advantage; for those voters who care more about personal attributes, McCain has a 17% advantage." Stephanopoulos remarked on a similar contrast between Al Gore and George Bush in 2000.
So is CBS showing anti-McCain bias--or just straightforward journalistic judgment--by launching its series Where They Stand? Anchor Katie Couric announced her intention to devote "a large part of our broadcast between now and November 4th to telling you where the candidates stand on major issues from terrorism to health insurance, immigration to energy."
Couric's decision to focus on issues rather than personalities represents quite the switcheroo compared with earlier in the campaign. Her series of Primary Questions last winter was the leading exemplar of the school of Reality Gameshow Journalism, which values honesty and authenticity in a candidate over policies and programs. Back then Couric explained her personality preference in her approving profile of campaign consultant Drew Westen, author of The Political Brain.
Anyway, business correspondent Anthony Mason was assigned to part one of CBS' Where Things Stand, a lengthy feature--almost seven minutes--to illustrate the varying impact of the income tax platforms of the two candidates on three Ohio households, each a married couple with three children. The combination of changes in marginal rates and credits and deductions would produce $2,200 of extra income for those earning an annual $32,000 under Barack Obama's plan, nothing extra under John McCain's. For an annual income of $64,000, Obama's would render $500 extra, McCain's $225.
What about an annual income of $213,000? Curiously Mason decided not to crunch the numbers. All he would tell us was that if that income happened to improve to more than $250,000, then at the margin it would enter a different tax bracket--from 28% to 36% under Obama, from 28% to 33% under McCain. Mason did not explain why he decided to be precise about the working poor and about middle class wage earners but vague about the upper middle class small business owner.
SPAN FROM KETCHIKAN Back to Sarah Palin, whose signature applause line goes: "I told Congress Thanks, but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere." CBS assigned Wyatt Andrews to perform a Reality Check on that claim while NBC gave the task to investigative correspondent Lisa Myers. Both gave the governor a thumbs down for her veracity. Myers stated that "she actually supported" the bridge while running for office and only turned against it after "Congress had already turned against the project." The $223m earmarked for the Span from Ketchikan was instead used on other highways. "The implication is that Gov Palin confronted a Congress recklessly wasting money. The record shows she wanted the bridge until the end--and kept the money," concluded Andrews.
SHADOWS AND TEA LEAVES The military parade in Pyongyang in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was newsworthy for its absentee. ABC's Jonathan Karl consulted his unidentified sources at the Pentagon about the reasons why Kim Jong Il might be a no-show. They speculated that the North Korean dictator could have suffered a stroke but "confess they really do not have a clue about what is going to happen next or even how serious his condition is." Karl shrugged: "We are looking at shadows and tea leaves."
SMALL PLANES AND YOUNG DRIVERS CBS and ABC aired transportation stories. ABC's Lisa Stark was in San Luis Obispo to illustrate how small town airports will suffer disproportionately when domestic airlines implement their 9% service cutback this fall. The California college town is now served by four commuter carriers; American Eagle and United Express both plan to leave. CBS' Cynthia Bowers covered the "heartbreaking number" of 5,000 teenage deaths in traffic accidents each year. In response, New Jersey has raised the minimum driving age to 17; Illinois has introduced graduated licenses, which require supervision and single passengers for rookie drivers.
LITTLE BANG The Hadron supercollider, the 17-mile-long tunnel built 300 feet below Geneva was the closing feature for both NBC and ABC. "Always like it when we finish with a story on physics," joked ABC anchor Charles Gibson. The experiment plans to smash atoms to create particles that replicate conditions just after the Big Bang. "We could discover a world of cosmic rays, dark matter and black holes right here on Earth," mused NBC's Keith Miller. After ABC's Nick Watt quoted Stephen Hawking's reassurance--"There is no danger that collisions will cause a rip in space time and destroy the universe"--he bid us farewell anyway: "Good night and good luck."
