 |           |
TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JANUARY 21, 2009
There was not much news made by President Barack Obama on his first full day in office. The news was that this was his first full day in office. All three newscasts kicked off with the Story of the Day as their White House correspondents summarizing his official calendar: arriving at the Oval Office, attending the National Prayer Service, promulgating executive orders, briefing staffers, telephoning world leaders, mulling policy options. The anchors at ABC and CBS returned to New York after their two days in Washington DC to cover the inauguration. NBC's Brian Williams stayed in the nation's capital one day longer.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JANUARY 21, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
FIRST DAY ON THE WEST WING There was not much news made by President Barack Obama on his first full day in office. The news was that this was his first full day in office. All three newscasts kicked off with the Story of the Day as their White House correspondents summarizing his official calendar: arriving at the Oval Office, attending the National Prayer Service, promulgating executive orders, briefing staffers, telephoning world leaders, mulling policy options. The anchors at ABC and CBS returned to New York after their two days in Washington DC to cover the inauguration. NBC's Brian Williams stayed in the nation's capital one day longer.
ABC's Jake Tapper noticed that the new President was "taken aback" when he walked into a room and everyone immediately stood up. CBS' Chip Reid called Obama's daily schedule "jam packed" as he "hit the ground running." White House aides predicted to him that "the frenetic pace will continue for the foreseeable future." NBC's Chuck Todd was not buying. He took the opposite approach noting that "actually today was just a typical day for a President of the United States" whose very job description is "multitasking." On ABC, This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos generalized that on Day One "symbolism is substance--all about showing he was keeping the promises of the campaign."
NBC's Todd reported that when Obama "took on the title of Leader of the Free World" he made phone calls to "all key players in the Israeli-Gaza conflict." This indeed would have been newsworthy, if true, because it would have meant he had initiated diplomacy with Hamas. CBS' Reid disabused us of that notion, listing Obama's interlocutors as the leaders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
CENTRAL BANKER WAS SELF-EMPLOYED All three newscasts filed from Capitol Hill on the grilling by the Senate Finance Committee for Timothy Geithner, the nominee for Secretary of the Treasury. "There is plenty of praise for Geithner's qualifications to run Treasury but his tax problem is another matter," observed NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. ABC's Jonathan Karl noted that "Republicans were not buying the innocent mistake explanation." CBS' Sharyl Attkisson (no link) went into most detail about what Geithner had done wrong--or failed to do right. She explained that the nominee worked for four years at the International Monetary Fund, where he was considered to be self-employed. An audit on the third and fourth year found that he failed to pay self-employment payroll taxes of $16,000. "The IRS waived the penalties." Yet Geithner failed to remedy his mistake retroactively for the first and second year, $26,000 more, until after he knew he was going to be nominated. "I would never put myself in a position where I was not intentionally--I was intentionally not--meeting my obligations as an American taxpayer," was Geithner's best excuse.
BIG BANKS SUCKED INTO SPIRAL CBS' Anthony Mason covered the deepening crisis that will face Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, should he get the job. "Economists say the Obama Administration needs to move quickly to get its massive stimulus package passed to stop the downward spiral." Mason did not mention the report by the Congressional Budget Office, however, that found that most of the infrastructure funding in the plan will remain unspent until 2010. NBC's Chuck Todd and ABC's Jonathan Karl did cover the CBO finding. Mason was more worried about the financial sector where "the country's biggest banks are still bleeding losses," driving down their stock prices. In the last year Citigroup has lost 85% of its value, Bank of America 82%. NBC anchor Brian Williams turned to CNBC's economist Steve Liesman, who explained that "problems in the financials created problems in the economy, which are now ricocheting back on the financials. We are deep in the middle of this spiral." He called outright nationalization of the biggest banks "a distinct possibility."
GAZA’S CITY OF TUNNELS Both CBS and NBC had correspondents along the border between Gaza and Egypt where Israel dropped 100 tons of explosives in a single mile-long section in an attempt to close cross-border tunnels. NBC's Richard Engel crawled down to show us the "extraordinarily claustrophobic" space 18 yards below ground where smugglers work. CBS' Allen Pizzey conceded that some of the tunnels were used by Hamas guerrillas to import weaponry but "most of the others belong to merchants" seeking to evade the Israeli economic blockade of the Gaza Strip. "At the end of each commercial tunnel is an Egyptian businessman who splits the profits from food to clothing, household goods and electronics." All along the border, burrowing workers were busy repairing their infrastructure. "It is unclear if the political reality has changed in Gaza and if Hamas is any weaker," pondered NBC's Engel.
FROM KUWAIT TO KABUL President Barack Obama plans to draw down US troop deployments in Iraq in order to make it easier to send troop reinforcements to Afghanistan. CBS' Elizabeth Palmer was in Afghanistan to show us the final highway checkpoint on the outskirts of Kabul beyond which Taliban guerrillas operate freely and travel is unsafe. A deployment of 3,000 GIs from the Tenth Mountain Division is freshly arrived to try to secure those outskirts. ABC's Martha Raddatz (embargoed link) meanwhile had just returned from the port of Kuwait City, through which tons of military materiel will have to pass as troops depart from Iraq. "A huge logistics challenge," she called it, especially as the southward route through Iraq to Kuwait "is still an active war zone, a potential choke point that could mean major delays." Raddatz reported that Gen Ray Odierno has drawn up scenarios for the slowest and the quickest pullout--completed either by December 2011 or by June 2010.
FRESH AIR GIVES US FIVE EXTRA MONTHS It has been almost 30 years since the Clean Air Act imposed restrictions on the "very fine particles spewed from tailpipes and smokestacks" that bypass the natural filters of the human body and pollute our lungs and heart, Anne Thompson pointed out for NBC's In Depth report. In that time, the air has cleared and our health has improved. She quoted research from The New England Journal of Medicine that calculates that soot reduction has increased national life expectancy by five months.
PEANUTS All three newscasts assigned a correspondent to cover the giant food processing factory in Georgia run by the Peanut Corporation of America. It produces vats of peanut products used as ingredients by the food industry and for catering in institutions such as schools, nursing homes and hospitals. Some of the vats were contaminated with salmonella and so 125 separate products have been recalled that use processed peanuts: cookies, candies, crackers, cereals, ice creams, even pet food.
ABC's Lisa Stark was reassuring: "Store bought peanut butter is believed to be safe." NBC's Robert Bazell, too, avoided alarm: "The Girl Scouts of America posted a statement on their Website saying their well-known cookies are not affected." CBS' Priya David sent mixed messages. At first she repeated the advice that peanut butter "in regular jars appears safe" and then she contradicted herself: "For now consumers are advised to stay away from eating anything that contains peanuts." Good grief!
COUP FOR JCREW On the day after Inauguration Day, CBS' in-house politico Jeff Greenfield (no link) reflected on Barack Obama's call for radical change and pointed out the institutional obstacle of a Congress, "filled with people who have been there 35, 40 years with very strong investments in business as usual." So positions on issues like Social Security and healthcare and tax increases are ingrained. Greenfield speculated that the prospect of dealing with an uncooperative Congress was one reason why the President picked his Vice President, his Chief of Staff and many Cabinet members from that very body.
Other inaugural coverage was social not political. ABC's Kate Snow gushed over the "hip young couple at the helm" with glamour footage from Inaugural Balls, including the serenade by the sublime Beyonce. NBC's Savannah Guthrie noted the coup by JCrew in being selected as designer for the First Daughters. While their parents were out dancing "the White House staff organized a scavenger hunt for the two girls to teach them some of the history of their new home. It ended with a big surprise. The teen pop sensation, the Jonas Brothers, was there to greet them."
From Jerusalem, ABC's Jim Sciutto filed a compilation of salutes to the new President from children across the globe: "Yes we can"…"Yes we can"…"Yes we can."
ABC's Jake Tapper noticed that the new President was "taken aback" when he walked into a room and everyone immediately stood up. CBS' Chip Reid called Obama's daily schedule "jam packed" as he "hit the ground running." White House aides predicted to him that "the frenetic pace will continue for the foreseeable future." NBC's Chuck Todd was not buying. He took the opposite approach noting that "actually today was just a typical day for a President of the United States" whose very job description is "multitasking." On ABC, This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos generalized that on Day One "symbolism is substance--all about showing he was keeping the promises of the campaign."
NBC's Todd reported that when Obama "took on the title of Leader of the Free World" he made phone calls to "all key players in the Israeli-Gaza conflict." This indeed would have been newsworthy, if true, because it would have meant he had initiated diplomacy with Hamas. CBS' Reid disabused us of that notion, listing Obama's interlocutors as the leaders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
CENTRAL BANKER WAS SELF-EMPLOYED All three newscasts filed from Capitol Hill on the grilling by the Senate Finance Committee for Timothy Geithner, the nominee for Secretary of the Treasury. "There is plenty of praise for Geithner's qualifications to run Treasury but his tax problem is another matter," observed NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. ABC's Jonathan Karl noted that "Republicans were not buying the innocent mistake explanation." CBS' Sharyl Attkisson (no link) went into most detail about what Geithner had done wrong--or failed to do right. She explained that the nominee worked for four years at the International Monetary Fund, where he was considered to be self-employed. An audit on the third and fourth year found that he failed to pay self-employment payroll taxes of $16,000. "The IRS waived the penalties." Yet Geithner failed to remedy his mistake retroactively for the first and second year, $26,000 more, until after he knew he was going to be nominated. "I would never put myself in a position where I was not intentionally--I was intentionally not--meeting my obligations as an American taxpayer," was Geithner's best excuse.
BIG BANKS SUCKED INTO SPIRAL CBS' Anthony Mason covered the deepening crisis that will face Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, should he get the job. "Economists say the Obama Administration needs to move quickly to get its massive stimulus package passed to stop the downward spiral." Mason did not mention the report by the Congressional Budget Office, however, that found that most of the infrastructure funding in the plan will remain unspent until 2010. NBC's Chuck Todd and ABC's Jonathan Karl did cover the CBO finding. Mason was more worried about the financial sector where "the country's biggest banks are still bleeding losses," driving down their stock prices. In the last year Citigroup has lost 85% of its value, Bank of America 82%. NBC anchor Brian Williams turned to CNBC's economist Steve Liesman, who explained that "problems in the financials created problems in the economy, which are now ricocheting back on the financials. We are deep in the middle of this spiral." He called outright nationalization of the biggest banks "a distinct possibility."
GAZA’S CITY OF TUNNELS Both CBS and NBC had correspondents along the border between Gaza and Egypt where Israel dropped 100 tons of explosives in a single mile-long section in an attempt to close cross-border tunnels. NBC's Richard Engel crawled down to show us the "extraordinarily claustrophobic" space 18 yards below ground where smugglers work. CBS' Allen Pizzey conceded that some of the tunnels were used by Hamas guerrillas to import weaponry but "most of the others belong to merchants" seeking to evade the Israeli economic blockade of the Gaza Strip. "At the end of each commercial tunnel is an Egyptian businessman who splits the profits from food to clothing, household goods and electronics." All along the border, burrowing workers were busy repairing their infrastructure. "It is unclear if the political reality has changed in Gaza and if Hamas is any weaker," pondered NBC's Engel.
FROM KUWAIT TO KABUL President Barack Obama plans to draw down US troop deployments in Iraq in order to make it easier to send troop reinforcements to Afghanistan. CBS' Elizabeth Palmer was in Afghanistan to show us the final highway checkpoint on the outskirts of Kabul beyond which Taliban guerrillas operate freely and travel is unsafe. A deployment of 3,000 GIs from the Tenth Mountain Division is freshly arrived to try to secure those outskirts. ABC's Martha Raddatz (embargoed link) meanwhile had just returned from the port of Kuwait City, through which tons of military materiel will have to pass as troops depart from Iraq. "A huge logistics challenge," she called it, especially as the southward route through Iraq to Kuwait "is still an active war zone, a potential choke point that could mean major delays." Raddatz reported that Gen Ray Odierno has drawn up scenarios for the slowest and the quickest pullout--completed either by December 2011 or by June 2010.
FRESH AIR GIVES US FIVE EXTRA MONTHS It has been almost 30 years since the Clean Air Act imposed restrictions on the "very fine particles spewed from tailpipes and smokestacks" that bypass the natural filters of the human body and pollute our lungs and heart, Anne Thompson pointed out for NBC's In Depth report. In that time, the air has cleared and our health has improved. She quoted research from The New England Journal of Medicine that calculates that soot reduction has increased national life expectancy by five months.
PEANUTS All three newscasts assigned a correspondent to cover the giant food processing factory in Georgia run by the Peanut Corporation of America. It produces vats of peanut products used as ingredients by the food industry and for catering in institutions such as schools, nursing homes and hospitals. Some of the vats were contaminated with salmonella and so 125 separate products have been recalled that use processed peanuts: cookies, candies, crackers, cereals, ice creams, even pet food.
ABC's Lisa Stark was reassuring: "Store bought peanut butter is believed to be safe." NBC's Robert Bazell, too, avoided alarm: "The Girl Scouts of America posted a statement on their Website saying their well-known cookies are not affected." CBS' Priya David sent mixed messages. At first she repeated the advice that peanut butter "in regular jars appears safe" and then she contradicted herself: "For now consumers are advised to stay away from eating anything that contains peanuts." Good grief!
COUP FOR JCREW On the day after Inauguration Day, CBS' in-house politico Jeff Greenfield (no link) reflected on Barack Obama's call for radical change and pointed out the institutional obstacle of a Congress, "filled with people who have been there 35, 40 years with very strong investments in business as usual." So positions on issues like Social Security and healthcare and tax increases are ingrained. Greenfield speculated that the prospect of dealing with an uncooperative Congress was one reason why the President picked his Vice President, his Chief of Staff and many Cabinet members from that very body.
Other inaugural coverage was social not political. ABC's Kate Snow gushed over the "hip young couple at the helm" with glamour footage from Inaugural Balls, including the serenade by the sublime Beyonce. NBC's Savannah Guthrie noted the coup by JCrew in being selected as designer for the First Daughters. While their parents were out dancing "the White House staff organized a scavenger hunt for the two girls to teach them some of the history of their new home. It ended with a big surprise. The teen pop sensation, the Jonas Brothers, was there to greet them."
From Jerusalem, ABC's Jim Sciutto filed a compilation of salutes to the new President from children across the globe: "Yes we can"…"Yes we can"…"Yes we can."
