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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
The Senate Banking Committee hosted the Story of the Day. All three newscasts led with its hearings into the Treasury Department's proposal for a $700bn fund to bail out the debt-laden financial industry. Secretary Henry Paulson made his pitch along with Chairman Benjamin Bernanke of the Federal Reserve Board. "I believe, if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, the unemployment rate will rise and more houses will be foreclosed upon," Bernanke testified. CBS, courtesy of Chantix, its single sponsor, enlarged its newshole (25 min v ABC 18, NBC 20), to make room for anchor Katie Couric's Campaign '08 series Presidential Questions. It featured Barack Obama's impersonation of Marlon Brando: "You disrespected me, you know. Now, you want a favor?"
TYNDALL PICKS FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2008: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
PAULSON MAKES HIS PITCH TO THE SENATE The Senate Banking Committee hosted the Story of the Day. All three newscasts led with its hearings into the Treasury Department's proposal for a $700bn fund to bail out the debt-laden financial industry. Secretary Henry Paulson made his pitch along with Chairman Benjamin Bernanke of the Federal Reserve Board. "I believe, if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, the unemployment rate will rise and more houses will be foreclosed upon," Bernanke testified. CBS, courtesy of Chantix, its single sponsor, enlarged its newshole (25 min v ABC 18, NBC 20), to make room for anchor Katie Couric's Campaign '08 series Presidential Questions. It featured Barack Obama's impersonation of Marlon Brando: "You disrespected me, you know. Now, you want a favor?"
ABC's Betsy Stark summarized the mood at the banking committee as "a tense five-hour affair" with many senators "skeptical if not downright outraged" by the $700bn request. NBC's Tom Costello found both Democrats and Republicans "reluctant to approve a blank check or give sweeping powers" to the Treasury. CBS' Bob Orr narrowed the protests to "fiscal conservatives in particular" who are "angry about being rushed to risk taxpayer money to clean up Wall Street's mess."
So reporters found the same set of four proposals to modify Paulson's plan that they found Monday. ABC's George Stephanopoulos ticked them off: regulatory oversight of the bailout fund; limits on lavish remuneration for bailed-out executives; relief for foreclosed homeowners; and federal stock ownership in rescued firms. "Democrats and Republicans alike agree that these conditions have to be met in some form for this bill to pass," Stephanopoulos declared. CBS' Orr reported that the lone objection to that list from the Bush Administration was the last, "an equity stake in the companies it helps."
BUT HOW WOULD THE BAILOUT WORK? "If it works the way it should, this is not an expenditure it is an investment." That was the wishful thinking by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that inspired the reporting of CBS' Anthony Mason. He quipped that calculating the cost of the "bad mortgage-backed securities now dragging down the banks" was like playing a game on his network's The Price is Right. "No one is buying them because no one is sure what they are worth." NBC's Tom Costello paraphrased the argument by Chairman Benjamin Bernanke against forcing the banks to sell the paper at rock-bottom fire-sale prices: "Paying more will help ease the credit crisis--but it could also mean a worse deal for taxpayers."
ABC's Dan Harris (embargoed link) consulted economists who agree with the need for a bailout. A freeze on lending has them "terrified," he reported, invoking the specter of "a collapse, a crash, maybe even another Great Depression." Already the credit crunch has crimped expansion plans by McDonalds franchises and automobile sales at Chrysler. Meanwhile Kevin Tibbles conducted a Main Street vox pop survey for NBC. "Angry and worried" was the mood.
WHAT WILL JOHN MCCAIN DO? ABC's Jake Tapper filed the following peculiar soundbite on the bailout from the campaign trail: "I hope that Democrats would recognize that this issue should not be in any way related to my vote." Thus Republican Presidential candidate John McCain seemed to imply that his position on the financial bailout was irrelevant to the deliberations on Capitol Hill. Tapper flat out contradicted the senator: "It is McCain who may hold the fate of the $700bn bailout proposal in his hands," he suggested. "If McCain does not support the bill it will likely die. Republicans do not want to vote for the bill if their Presidential nominee will be out on the campaign trail railing against it. Democratic leaders have told the White House that a deal without McCain on board means No Sale."
Tapper contributed the proposed alternate strategy from Newt Gingrich, the Republicans' one-time Congressional leader. "Vote against the bill," he recommended to McCain and his former GOP colleagues "and then they can all run in November as reformers against President Bush and Barack Obama."
CNBC's Carl Quintanilla first took the long view for NBC's Where They Stand series, contrasting the two candidates' platforms for the bear market in real estate. He ticked off their declared policies on FannieMae and FreddieMac and predatory lending and foreclosure prevention--before zeroing in on the current credit crisis. "The candidates' proposals may not address the short-term pain," he shrugged.
YET MORE CAMPAIGN STUFF Wait! That is not all. There were three more serious campaign-related features and another campaign news story. The news came from Savannah Guthrie on NBC, who was following Sarah Palin at the United Nations. The Republican Vice Presidential nominee continues to decline to Meet the Press, as the saying goes. Palin tried to stage photo-ops with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. "For Palin, whose public appearances have been carefully controled and orchestrated, those pictures almost did not happen," Guthrie told us. When Palin's aides forbade reporters from accompanying photographers, the photographers withheld their cameras. "The campaign relented, calling it a miscommunication."
As for those features. CBS' issues series Where They Stand had John Blackstone contrast the two candidates' cap-and-trade proposals to reduce global warming emissions of carbon dioxide over the next 40 years. Compared with the Bush Administration, "just recognizing climate change is a big change," Blackstone exclaimed. ABC sent David Wright to Maryland for its 50 States in 50 Days series with USA Today. The state "will get rid of its fancy new voting terminals" after November for fear of hackers fixing the count with "no piece of paper to double check." Presidential Questions on CBS saw anchor Katie Couric confront a pair of veritable George Washingtons in answer to her question about when it is appropriate for a President to tell a lie. Both John McCain and Barack Obama promised that they never would--and neither's nose grew any longer.
LAME DUCK MAKES NO WAVES George Bush made his final address as President of the United States to the General Assembly of the United Nations and received less coverage at the seat of world government than Sarah Palin did. Not a single White House correspondent was dispatched to cover Bush's speech for the networks' newscasts. Besides Palin, the General Assembly inspired a couple of other stories. The appearance by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran led David Martin, CBS' Pentagon correspondent, to update us on Teheran's extravagant publicity campaign in celebration of uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear facility. The silver-tubed machines may be making fuel for a nuclear power plant or for a nuclear weapon. Either way, "no other country has ever done anything like it, declare a national holiday in honor of nuclear technology."
President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia sat down with NBC anchor Brian Williams for an In Depth discussion of his nation's recent crushing wartime loss at the hands of Russia, its northern neighbor. Williams recounted Georgia's command and control effort: "You at one time were personally directing elements of the battle giving orders over a regular cellphone and deciding when to move a brigade?" he asked incredulously. "Certainly I gave orders to respond," answered Saakashvili. "You know, our main army brigade was in Iraq at the time. We never called it back because we did not expect this kind of sweep Russian invasion."
Saakashvili recalled a separate telephone conversation with Palin. He called her "very interactive," "very amicable," and "ferociously smart."
FILL-UP FRENZY IN DIXIE Hurricane Ike was undercovered last week when it hit because of the crisis in financial markets. Its aftermath continues to be undercovered. NBC had Ron Mott play a little catch-up with the consequences of the closure of oil refineries in the Houston area. It has created a shortage of gasoline across the southeast, with regional prices well above the national average. Nashville and Atlanta are hardest hit.
WE LOVE MARLON Marlon Brando, it turns out, is the favorite of both John McCain and Barack Obama. Anchor Katie Couric asked each candidate to name his favorite movie of all time for CBS' Presidential Questions series. Each picked a Brando title. McCain chose Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata. Obama chose The Godfather "I and II--III not so much" and threw in that impersonation.
What about Last Tango in Paris or Apocalypse Now?
ABC's Betsy Stark summarized the mood at the banking committee as "a tense five-hour affair" with many senators "skeptical if not downright outraged" by the $700bn request. NBC's Tom Costello found both Democrats and Republicans "reluctant to approve a blank check or give sweeping powers" to the Treasury. CBS' Bob Orr narrowed the protests to "fiscal conservatives in particular" who are "angry about being rushed to risk taxpayer money to clean up Wall Street's mess."
So reporters found the same set of four proposals to modify Paulson's plan that they found Monday. ABC's George Stephanopoulos ticked them off: regulatory oversight of the bailout fund; limits on lavish remuneration for bailed-out executives; relief for foreclosed homeowners; and federal stock ownership in rescued firms. "Democrats and Republicans alike agree that these conditions have to be met in some form for this bill to pass," Stephanopoulos declared. CBS' Orr reported that the lone objection to that list from the Bush Administration was the last, "an equity stake in the companies it helps."
BUT HOW WOULD THE BAILOUT WORK? "If it works the way it should, this is not an expenditure it is an investment." That was the wishful thinking by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that inspired the reporting of CBS' Anthony Mason. He quipped that calculating the cost of the "bad mortgage-backed securities now dragging down the banks" was like playing a game on his network's The Price is Right. "No one is buying them because no one is sure what they are worth." NBC's Tom Costello paraphrased the argument by Chairman Benjamin Bernanke against forcing the banks to sell the paper at rock-bottom fire-sale prices: "Paying more will help ease the credit crisis--but it could also mean a worse deal for taxpayers."
ABC's Dan Harris (embargoed link) consulted economists who agree with the need for a bailout. A freeze on lending has them "terrified," he reported, invoking the specter of "a collapse, a crash, maybe even another Great Depression." Already the credit crunch has crimped expansion plans by McDonalds franchises and automobile sales at Chrysler. Meanwhile Kevin Tibbles conducted a Main Street vox pop survey for NBC. "Angry and worried" was the mood.
WHAT WILL JOHN MCCAIN DO? ABC's Jake Tapper filed the following peculiar soundbite on the bailout from the campaign trail: "I hope that Democrats would recognize that this issue should not be in any way related to my vote." Thus Republican Presidential candidate John McCain seemed to imply that his position on the financial bailout was irrelevant to the deliberations on Capitol Hill. Tapper flat out contradicted the senator: "It is McCain who may hold the fate of the $700bn bailout proposal in his hands," he suggested. "If McCain does not support the bill it will likely die. Republicans do not want to vote for the bill if their Presidential nominee will be out on the campaign trail railing against it. Democratic leaders have told the White House that a deal without McCain on board means No Sale."
Tapper contributed the proposed alternate strategy from Newt Gingrich, the Republicans' one-time Congressional leader. "Vote against the bill," he recommended to McCain and his former GOP colleagues "and then they can all run in November as reformers against President Bush and Barack Obama."
CNBC's Carl Quintanilla first took the long view for NBC's Where They Stand series, contrasting the two candidates' platforms for the bear market in real estate. He ticked off their declared policies on FannieMae and FreddieMac and predatory lending and foreclosure prevention--before zeroing in on the current credit crisis. "The candidates' proposals may not address the short-term pain," he shrugged.
YET MORE CAMPAIGN STUFF Wait! That is not all. There were three more serious campaign-related features and another campaign news story. The news came from Savannah Guthrie on NBC, who was following Sarah Palin at the United Nations. The Republican Vice Presidential nominee continues to decline to Meet the Press, as the saying goes. Palin tried to stage photo-ops with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. "For Palin, whose public appearances have been carefully controled and orchestrated, those pictures almost did not happen," Guthrie told us. When Palin's aides forbade reporters from accompanying photographers, the photographers withheld their cameras. "The campaign relented, calling it a miscommunication."
As for those features. CBS' issues series Where They Stand had John Blackstone contrast the two candidates' cap-and-trade proposals to reduce global warming emissions of carbon dioxide over the next 40 years. Compared with the Bush Administration, "just recognizing climate change is a big change," Blackstone exclaimed. ABC sent David Wright to Maryland for its 50 States in 50 Days series with USA Today. The state "will get rid of its fancy new voting terminals" after November for fear of hackers fixing the count with "no piece of paper to double check." Presidential Questions on CBS saw anchor Katie Couric confront a pair of veritable George Washingtons in answer to her question about when it is appropriate for a President to tell a lie. Both John McCain and Barack Obama promised that they never would--and neither's nose grew any longer.
LAME DUCK MAKES NO WAVES George Bush made his final address as President of the United States to the General Assembly of the United Nations and received less coverage at the seat of world government than Sarah Palin did. Not a single White House correspondent was dispatched to cover Bush's speech for the networks' newscasts. Besides Palin, the General Assembly inspired a couple of other stories. The appearance by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran led David Martin, CBS' Pentagon correspondent, to update us on Teheran's extravagant publicity campaign in celebration of uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear facility. The silver-tubed machines may be making fuel for a nuclear power plant or for a nuclear weapon. Either way, "no other country has ever done anything like it, declare a national holiday in honor of nuclear technology."
President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia sat down with NBC anchor Brian Williams for an In Depth discussion of his nation's recent crushing wartime loss at the hands of Russia, its northern neighbor. Williams recounted Georgia's command and control effort: "You at one time were personally directing elements of the battle giving orders over a regular cellphone and deciding when to move a brigade?" he asked incredulously. "Certainly I gave orders to respond," answered Saakashvili. "You know, our main army brigade was in Iraq at the time. We never called it back because we did not expect this kind of sweep Russian invasion."
Saakashvili recalled a separate telephone conversation with Palin. He called her "very interactive," "very amicable," and "ferociously smart."
FILL-UP FRENZY IN DIXIE Hurricane Ike was undercovered last week when it hit because of the crisis in financial markets. Its aftermath continues to be undercovered. NBC had Ron Mott play a little catch-up with the consequences of the closure of oil refineries in the Houston area. It has created a shortage of gasoline across the southeast, with regional prices well above the national average. Nashville and Atlanta are hardest hit.
WE LOVE MARLON Marlon Brando, it turns out, is the favorite of both John McCain and Barack Obama. Anchor Katie Couric asked each candidate to name his favorite movie of all time for CBS' Presidential Questions series. Each picked a Brando title. McCain chose Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata. Obama chose The Godfather "I and II--III not so much" and threw in that impersonation.
What about Last Tango in Paris or Apocalypse Now?
